Letter
Dublin Core
Title
1794.08.20 – Elizabeth Porter Phelps to Elizabeth W. Phelps (Huntington), Aug. 20, 1794
Description
Elizabeth Porter Phelps writes to her daughter, Elizabeth “Betty” Huntington. Betty has left for Boston and is planning to go to New York, but Elizabeth is not completely lonely. She writes affectionately about Mitte, adopted as an infant in December 1791, and writes a few lines in the voice of the child. Elizabeth also wonders whether to send a letter to her adoptive daughter Thankful Richmond, describes a visit to her brother with Mitte, and asks Betty to tell her brother, Moses Charles, to send a letter of gratitude to the Parsons and the Springs.
Creator
Elizabeth Porter Phelps
Source
Porter-Phelps-Huntington Family Papers (Box 5 Folder 3)
University of Massachusetts Special Collections and University Archives
Date
1794-08-20
Rights
public domain
Type
Correspondence
Transcription
Miss Elizabeth W Phelps
Newbury Port
Hadley– August 20, 1794 Wednesday afternoon
My dear daughter,
how glad I was to receive your letter is better felt than expressed. I will go & get it & read it once more. — well, it seems to me by the run of your letter you don’t like Boston very well. — we dined at General Porters on Sunday last, how glad I am to saw you all — to hear directly from you really did me good — for tis certainly a little lonesome to lose you all at one stroke but we hope a kind providence will preserve you safe & return you to us well in due time — I thank you child for your kind remembrance of me & care for my comfort — we get along as well as we can expect — & now I have got to the little girl — I take pretty good care of her, & she is a pretty good girl. — she is writing with me now, she asked me ant I putin letter to besse mama — will she come home now
I asked her one moment ago what I should tell miss Betty. — She got down out of her chair & came looked me right in the face with an earnestness which almost surprised me — & said these words of her own accord without any telling — tell besse I keep or wear dat pette ting in my bosom nex my heart — when I tied it about her neck on monday morning I told her that when I wrote a letter to miss betty I would tell her so & she had not forgot. — Oh you wish to know where she sleeps, I make her a little bed by ours every night & sometimes she will lie in it all night & others she will be up & down a number of times [just] as she happens to feel — but on the whole she makes not much trouble in the night — Adieu my daughter for this time
[…] monday 1 oclock
now I resume my pen — & I can tell you I think a great deal about you, how much I depend on letters tonight from you — but I fear you won’t write — however if Porter does we shall hear from you. I shall not close this untill I see what news we have from you — Mr Nehemiah Gaylords wife was buried the sunday before last. I have written to Thankful but I rather think I shall never send it for as she chuses not to gratify me with a letter. but as a mother why should I write to her as my daughter — give my love to her & tell her I wish her well & thank her for her dutiful remembrance. Once more I have you but I must tell you we all want you as soon as it is best for you to come — Monday Eve your father is got back & no letters the stage is not expected till Tuesday — goodnight
Wednesday morning 6 oclock —
last night your welcome letters came — what a good girl you are — thank you thank you a thousand times — tis a cordial to my heart to hear good news from my children & inded I dont feel quite so vex’d with thankful as I did — I will write her another letter for the other is burnt. — your father is gone to marlborough (you know for what) — which makes it rather more lonesome here just now but I hope he will get home this night — when we came to go to bed last night I could not pacify mitte without her little bed. & she went to bed in it & lay till toward morning – she is extremely fond of it, & goes to bed in it every night. indeed I think she is a great deal of company for me — I love dearly to hear her talk — yesterday it raind a little — she was standing at the door looking out very serious — then turning to me — I [is] paid twil ain on besse un tain al un porter – I told her I thought there was more danger of its raining on her — she is a much better girl than when you was all here no body to flee to now – but expects to do as I bid her — the greatest [difficulty] seems to be she is so fond of me I cant leave her at all – I carried her to brothers & since to Mr. Gaylords she behaved tolerably well — she went thro’ the room a number of times when we were drinking tea but said nothing about tea — when we had [over] some little girl [Frank] which came to see betty, mitte walk’d about look’d very grave — your father took her & asked her if she was ready to go home (it being then evening) when the de little girl done & I dink tea den I is ready to go home – well says Mrs Hopkins I think she is a very good girl – what a long [scrall] I have written about this little […] — I want your letter to read now before I begin to answer it & it is in my bed room & I fear I shall wake mitte if I go after it — but I must try it for mother is not out & no great to do — well I have got back but not without the little girl knowing it for the moment I opened the door – my ma’ma I tot u was bingen cande here — so I shall have her company the rest of the day. —
my child was you two days going from Boston to New Y (as general Porter advised you) or did’ent you set out till Wednesday I understood by your letters you expected to set go Wednesday. — then you are kindly treated which I certainly rejoice at. —
will it not be best my daughter for you to tarry as long as it seems proper, the expence of going is very great, now there is no great incur’d, & if there is any advantage you can reap by so much cost had you not better stay. — not indeed to be burdensome – but that, Porter & you must judge –
I think by Porters writing your father is not to come for you till we hear when you wish to come – does Porter see your letters or do you see his? tell me. — I read Betsy tho – this when I was at Pomfret with Major Williams & Mrs Gaylord, I believe you have heard me mention that journey, I fancy I was not far from Thankfuls age — but surely I must not write to you all day – for Thankful has a claim now. — .11. o clock I want to send a proper remem= Mr & Mrs Parsons & Mr & Mrs Spring which I must beg your brother to put proper expressions of my most grateful acknowledgements present ‘em to them in the best manner he can, for he cant exceed my feelings of gratitude I am certain. my sincere love [to] him & i am rejoiced he appears to feel so well – shall not fail to cherish those inclinations which I perceive rising in a fathers breast to grant him a handsome supply of money
your grandmother wishes you all well for soul & body but makes one observation on hearing the letters read which I never attended to — porter says in his letter my sisters, but I think betty says porter. [there] is for you [from] the old lady — she knows not that I mentioned it to you. — this letter & thankfuls I am very [sensible] need to be coppied [off] – but if you & she will excuse it pick out the sense of it I will be oblidged to you both.
fare-well my dear daughter & as you love me behave your self as always in the fear of God & may both of you be return’d to [your] friend in due time prays your affectionate mother Elizabeth Phelps
Thursday […] .1. o clock
PS your father got home last night – his finger is much better. — it seems to me I should like to send a letter to Mrs Porter & Mrs Spring when you [come away] if I could compose one to express my thanks properly
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