Sheffield Archives LD1567/1

Sheffield Archives LD1567/1

TRANSCRIPTION

London 24   1746

Dear Daughter

I recd yours and am sorry to hear your breast is so tender yet you must be very careful of taking cold your sister and the child are both pretty well but must be obliged to put it out to nurse for she finds it will be inconvenient to have it at home s desires you would enquire for a nurse that would come up and take it down I was thinking of Robt Gaskings wife she has fine children and was speaking of her and your sister could like of her very well if she can do with it and comes the next journey and keeps her milk your sister could like of it being so near me and desires you would speak to her and if she cannot get another and let us have an answer as soon as you can I believe I cannot leave her till she gets a nurse for the child for her nurse leaves her at the month's end and she cannot do with it herself so desires you would officiate for me till then.

I am glad to hear Charles is got better and that your grandmother is so well I know it will be inconvenient to be from home so long but don’t see how I can leave here I am glad to hear my little girl comes on so finely I almost long to see her your sister christened her child yesterday and called it Ann so I have two little granddaughters Ann Mr. Robt Cooper and Mrs Frost & I stood for it Mr Cooper will be down in a months time

Your brother and sister gives their respects to you and Mr Elliot and your grandmother and hopes you except the same from your loving and affectionate mother

D. Wright

COMMENTARY

Letter[i] dated : 24 - 1746

To : Catherine Elliott, Norfolk Street, Sheffield

From : Dorothy Wright, London 

While the only date on the letter is the 24^th 1746 the dates of baptisms of her first two grandchildren suggest the month to be May.

We now jump two years from the date of the previous letter in the collection. The Jacobite rebellion of 1745 then in the past, as was the Battle of Culloden of April 1746; events which seem to have passed Dorothy by!

Once again, she is writing from London whilst staying with her daughter Rebecca.[ii] Catherine[iii] “Kitty” was then living in Sheffield, something her mother had wanted for some time. Dorothy had also achieved the happy status of grandmother, with two grandchildren born within a few weeks in the spring of 1746.

Rebecca’s first child; Ann Cooper[iv], had been born 2 to 3 weeks before the date of this letter.  The parish register for St Dunstan in the West suggests a private baptism, stating; “baptised in Fleet Street” on 23^rd May 1746 helpfully giving the date of birth as 5^th May 1746.

Dorothy’s other granddaughter was Ann Elliott[v] the daughter of George Elliot[vi] and Catherine “Kitty”, baptised in Sheffield on 21 April 1746.  It is possible that Dorothy was in Sheffield for the first birth, then going straight to London for the birth of her second grandchild.

Dorothy wrote that the mother and child were “pretty well”. However, Rebecca wanted a wet nurse, who could also take the child back to the relatively healthy environment of Sheffield, where Dorothy could also keep an eye on it.

A mother sending her baby away might seem extraordinary to us today, but it was normal in the eighteenth century, for the nobility and gentry to relegate the job of nursing to the lower classes. The job of wet nurse was well paid and held in high esteem.[vii]

Mrs. Gaskings was Dorothy’s first choice, being the mother of healthy children. Catherine “Kitty” was therefore commissioned to urgently negotiate with Mrs. Gaskings, as the current nurse was leaving at the end of the month.

Little Ann Cooper was baptised the previous day to this letter, the 23^rd, and here we are fortunate enough to find out the names of the godparents, Dorothy as grandmother, then Ann’s uncle and aunt; Robert Cooper[viii], brother of Ann’s father, and her aunt, Mrs. Frost,[ix] who was David Cooper’s sister.

Charles was the ninth of Dorothy’s twelve children, being about twelve years old at the time. He went on to become a silversmith in London. We shall meet him again in later letters.