TRANSCRIPTION

Sheffield Park    June 23, 1744

Dear Daughter

I received yours with pleasure to hear you got safe to London. Likewise to hear your sister is well and all friends. Also I hope you'll enjoy a deal of pleasure while you stay with your sister. I am much better, I thank God. But have not got my strength as yet. I have bathed in the river five times and it agrees with me very well. You ritt no word your Uncle Wright[3] would take me to Scarborough but I fear it was only a flourish of his for I have heard nothing of it since. Dolley has been very bad of her ear. She has not been at school since you went and now it is likely to gather and break under her ear. Mr. Hussey has given her physic twice. I have lost my good old neighbour Widow Lumax. She is dead. I was agreeably surprised with strangers last Thursday to dine with me first came Mr. Hennell then came Mrs. Smith of Staples Inn. She is to come either today or tomorrow to stay with me. While sent for I had Mrs. Smith of Sheffield that day. She desires her respects to you and your sister. I had Mrs. Cooper's company while your father was abroad. I desire you would buy me a Knot and Brost. Knot for her and a bit of lace for my new shoes. Please to give my respects to Mr. Elliott. When you write and tell him that Sheffield is dull without him.

This is all at present. Wishing you all the pleasure you can have and a good journey down when you come. All from your affectionate and loving mother.

D. Wright

P.S. over for sister

COMMENTARY

Letter[i] dated : 23rd June 1744

To : Catherine Elliot, London

From : Dorothy Wright, Sheffield Park 

We know from this letter that Dorothy is back home from her trip to London and Catherine[ii] “Kitty” is visiting her sister Rebecca[iii] in London. Members of the Wright family in Sheffield were not well that June! Dorothy does not disclose her health problem, but river bathing helped. Dorothy[iv] “Dolly” must have had an ear infection of some kind. Mr. Hussey being the physician.

It would be so much more helpful for future generations of family historians if Dorothy had included the first names of both Mr. Hennell and Mrs. Cooper!

In the previous letter Dorothy mentions Robert Cooper[v], David’s brother, and his wife, who was Mary Hennell[vi]. Her first cousin was David Hennell[vii], 1712-1785, the famous silversmith. He was free of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmith and elected to livery in 1763. He had premises at Gutter Lane and later at Foster Lane, retiring from business to become Deputy Warden of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths in 1773. He gave evidence on the marking procedure at the Assay Office to the Parliamentary Committee. Several of his children and grandchildren went on to be silversmiths, but they were either too young or not yet born at the date of this letter.

So, it is possible that Dorothy is referring to this David Hennell when she says Mr. Hennell. They could have met in London during her visit there. As a silversmith it is probable that he had business interests in Sheffield, the centre for cutlery and fine silverware; maybe even with The Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire[viii]. This Company had been established in 1624 by a Parliamentary Act of Incorporation to better regulate the metal work industry in Sheffield. So it is possible that David Hennell was in Sheffield on business, paid a courtesy call to Dorothy and stayed for dinner.

There is another possibility – David took on as an apprentice his half-brother, William Hennell[ix], in 1737. However, apart from his marriage and his death, he falls out of sight after 1737.

Mrs. Cooper is far more problematic as Cooper is a common surname. There are a few possibilities.

David Cooper, Rebecca’s husband, certainly had a half-uncle and various half cousins in Derby which is not that far from Sheffield. His half -uncle was Samuel Cooper[x], 1670-1745/46, who had been mayor of Derby in 1725, 1735, and 1744. He was the Alderman who, being too lame too run away, was forced to proclaim the Prince during the Jacobite uprising in 1745, when both Both the Mayor and Town Crier had already fled before the arrival of the Jacobite army. One of the bondsmen and signatures on David Cooper’s marriage bond of 26 October 1743 was a “Samuel Cooper of Sheffield”. It is possible that these two Samuel Coopers were one and the same. We know from the baptism’s records of some of Samuel (of Derby) Cooper’s children that his wife was Sarah. She, however, is a mystery and seems to have not left a trace of her existence. She may still have been alive in 1744 and visiting Sheffield.

There is another possibility – Constance[xi], the wife of Samuel Cooper[xii] Junior, they had married in Derby in 1727. He died in 1731 leaving her pregnant with their fourth child. She seems to have remained at the Talbot Inn in Derby with her father in-law to whom the inn belonged. She too gets a mention in the newspapers in reports about Bonnie Prince Charlie in Derby. The Derby Mercury on Friday 13^th December 1745 reports the following :-

"Their Artillery standing near a Barn Yard belonging to Mrs. Cooper at the Talbot, where was a great Quantity of good Hay, they entirely destroy'd it; which Loss, with others they sustain'd by them, amounted to nearly Fifty Pounds"[xiii]

We can speculate as to which Mrs Cooper this was, but we cannot know definitively. Just as we do not know who Mrs Smith of Staples inn or the Mrs. Smith of Sheffield were; or, indeed, if they were related. However, this list of names tells us that Dorothy had a good social life.

As ever Dorothy is concerned about clothes! She seems to have been a dedicated shopper. A “knot” was an old term to do with spinning and dressmaking. It is not known what she meant by the term “brost” but probably also connected with the making of fabric or lace and dressmaking.

She is expecting Catherine “Kitty” to come to Sheffield shortly. She was either moving permanently or just paying a family visit.

Finally while at the end of page it says “PS over to sister” she may have meant that Catherine “Kitty” should share the letter with Rebecca. There is certainly nothing written on the reverse, nor is there another sheet of paper.