tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36020101544234010162024-03-12T19:52:05.808-07:00Letters from SanquharTranscribing a collection of nineteenth-century lettersPenny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.comBlogger84125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3602010154423401016.post-36641557618792941252023-07-02T08:16:00.002-07:002023-07-02T08:16:20.594-07:00Happy 180th, Marion Brown? I think today is Marion Brown's 180th birthday; my first post here says she was born July 2, 1843. Iain Hutchison's 2002 article says 1844, and I forget why we don't use the same birthdate, but he's probably right. So maybe it's really her 179th birthday. Nonetheless, I will try to mark the occasion somehow. (Not with swine curds.) Maybe I should transcribe another letter here, thoughPenny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3602010154423401016.post-36134404020972268192021-09-28T17:20:00.003-07:002023-05-21T18:33:07.863-07:00Townfoot, 5 December 1883: "the reason I have been so long in writing"Well hello again! I've had a few inquiries about when this blog is going to get going again, so here we are.... with scarlet fever in Tam Scott's family, and Marion unable to walk or stand, and Aunt increasingly frail. TownfootSanquhar5th Dec. 1883Dear UncleYou may well think me long in writing this time but I am not run away yet I am still lying in bed and not much hope of being ablePenny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3602010154423401016.post-90899899282008831792018-07-02T20:50:00.003-07:002018-07-02T20:50:49.593-07:00Happy 175th to Marion Brown!July 2. 2018, is the 175th birthday of Marion Brown. So happy birthday to her! And maybe that's a sign that I should resume posting at this blog. I've been rather taken over by writing women's biographies at Wikipedia. Which isn't completely unrelated work, but there are still so many Marion letters left to share!Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3602010154423401016.post-64832433302570562602016-05-22T07:19:00.003-07:002016-05-22T07:20:19.960-07:00New exhibit, Sanquhar Gloves
Was looking for something completely different when I came across a detailed and beautiful new online exhibit at the Library Company of Philadelphia, by their Center for Knit and Crochet, on Sanquhar Gloves. If you're one of Marion Brown's knitting fans, it's definitely worth a visit. (Image: photograph of hands wearing Sanquhar Gloves in various states of progress, with the title "Sanquhar Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3602010154423401016.post-7674647757616726962015-11-10T13:36:00.001-08:002015-11-10T13:36:15.993-08:00Townfoot, 17 May 1883A long newsy letter about health, mainly, and the wearying wait for letters from America. In two places Marion is writing Aunt Agnes's messages for her.
Townfoot
Sanquhar
17th May 1883
My Dear Friends
It is now a long time since I wrote to you or got a letter from you. Aunt has been talking about you all so often this some time past that she told me just to write to you and say that she Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3602010154423401016.post-5106729602050600552015-08-16T14:14:00.000-07:002015-08-16T14:14:44.405-07:00Townfoot, 17 January 1883 Marion Brown, "helpless as ever," and four years into a phase of not being able to walk, reports on the winter weather in Sanquhar.* She's also very grateful for a gift from America, and concerned about Aunt's ever declining health. (Spoiler alert: Aunt Agnes will live almost another twenty years from when this letter was written.) Mention of the men in the family knitting socks Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3602010154423401016.post-86431505543640335832015-02-11T09:38:00.003-08:002015-02-11T09:41:38.174-08:00Sanquhar knitting in the newsI've mentioned (a few times, no doubt) that Marion Brown was a knitter. A Sanquhar knitter! How do we know? She said so:
"I was begun to knit a pair of black and white stockings to Marion to let her see some of our Sanquhar patterns." (letter dated 20 September 1869)
Anyway, it's good to see Sanquhar knitters in the news. Thanks to Melissa for this link. A' Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3602010154423401016.post-9176733854199925352015-02-09T10:03:00.001-08:002015-02-09T10:03:15.270-08:00Townfoot, 31 May 1882A quick letter of thanks for a much-welcomed gift of money from America. Marion Brown's religious resignation and Aunt's love of mail from abroad (and hope for a visit) are repeated here; but there's a bit of optimism, as the weather has been warm and the crops look good. (But Marion Bryden and the boys didn't ever make that "trip across the sea.")
Townfoot
Sanquhar
31st May 1882
Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3602010154423401016.post-58183622901184260272014-11-22T22:17:00.001-08:002014-11-22T22:17:15.706-08:00Another note about cheeseWhen I started this blog, I had no idea that the mentions of cheese and knitting would get so most attention from readers. Last week, someone I knew in college thirty(!) years ago contacted me; he'd come across Marion Brown's letters here, and he has first-hand knowledge of swine cheese. Here's his story:
When I was around ten to twelve years old my sister and I were living with a Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3602010154423401016.post-60735484672683396202014-09-02T20:42:00.000-07:002014-09-02T20:43:35.049-07:00Townfoot, 16 January 1882A six-page letter in pencil, from the winter of 1882. No mention of weather or crops or neighbors--Marion's confined to bed, in pain. Her "stupid fits" kept her from writing; but she expresses the same religious resignation as ever. Aunt is "failed" but still asking for news from America; she cannot promise swine curds to any visitors nowadays, but would still enjoy a visit.&Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3602010154423401016.post-24761694306250819412014-04-12T11:06:00.000-07:002014-04-12T11:07:56.571-07:00Townfoot, 5 September 1881It's been almost a year since the last surviving letter. This letter is perhaps one of the most straightforward portraits of Marion's life as a disabled single woman: she expresses religious resignation, she is dependent on her cousin and must face his wife's spite in silence, she sees a city doctor who offers her a medication, but she's worried it won't be easy to continue, because Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3602010154423401016.post-2149769245511709172014-02-13T18:00:00.000-08:002014-02-13T19:33:35.676-08:00Townfoot, 5 November 1880
This letter seems to be addressed to a different "uncle" in Pennsylvania--not to John Glencross, but to his brother.
Another pencilled letter, and a two-writer letter again--the first half is harder to read, by Tam Scott, mostly reporting on market prices and bad weather and his Irish horse. I can't promise I've got all the words right in that section--his handwriting isn't Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3602010154423401016.post-65343932311169781292013-11-13T20:52:00.000-08:002013-11-13T20:52:02.502-08:00Townfoot, 11 October 1880This letter is in pencil, so it's harder to read than most of Marion Brown's letters. Maybe she lost track of her ink and pen in the move from Castle Mains? It also features a child's scribbles, perhaps made long after Marion's pencil left the page. It's a newsy letter: Aunt is working as a cheesemaker at Auchengruith, at the George White farm, while the usual family Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3602010154423401016.post-40135825785408311832013-09-16T08:08:00.001-07:002013-09-16T08:09:02.152-07:00Castle Mains, 15 March 1880This is a long, disjointed, torn and damaged letter that contains big news. Marion Brown, Aunt Agnes, Tam and his little family are moving, from Castle Mains to the Townfoot of Sanquhar. Their landlord needs their place; the new house will be closer to town, and Aunt isn't too happy about that. Meanwhile, Marion isn't able to walk right now, and Tam is out of work again.
This Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3602010154423401016.post-11483394610153284982013-05-15T10:34:00.000-07:002013-05-15T10:34:10.174-07:00Castle Mains, 25 October 1879The crisis is averted-- John Glencross has sent money to Sanquhar, and nobody is talking about emigrating anymore. Tam Scott insists that trade has picked up in Sanquhar and surroundings, with mine work and furnace work available to laborers. Prices on staples have also increased, but Tam is confident that he can keep up now. There's a long description of a drainage project Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3602010154423401016.post-45545550460250783092013-03-19T18:42:00.000-07:002013-03-19T18:48:47.915-07:00Castle Mains, 8 September 1879And now, the immediate aftermath of Tam's letter (see previous post). It seems Aunt and Marion Brown believe Tam has asked for all the Sanquhar family's passage to America (he has not, in the letter that reached America); and they are a panic that this is not what they want at all. They need money; that much agrees with Tam's letter. But they'd rather stay in Sanquhar and pay their Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3602010154423401016.post-50376240271916613422013-01-18T09:44:00.000-08:002013-01-18T09:46:41.475-08:00Castle Mains, 4 September 1879Another letter by Tam Scott, age 25. The spelling, capitalization, and punctuation are all far less standard than Marion Brown's, so we know this is his own writing, and the topic seems to be something Marion Brown might not have known about: Tam is asking his uncle in America, John Glencross, for his own passage to America. His plan is to leave the rest of the household (his Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3602010154423401016.post-14657190188692691692012-12-19T19:52:00.000-08:002013-01-11T09:53:23.632-08:00Castle Mains, 4 July 1879Back to Marion now, but she's still quite unwell (see last letter). Gravel (probably kidney stones), blood "almost water," and "other complaints" are the troubles now, and she's been confined to bed for months. She says she's been ill for fifteen years--which carries her illness back to 1864, when she was 21--but there are other references to her being ill in childhood as well, so Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3602010154423401016.post-81249797867531055362012-11-15T10:16:00.000-08:002012-11-15T10:18:22.889-08:00Would Marion Brown have an Etsy shop?I have a google alert set up for mentions of Sanquhar history. It's not very active--usually just mentions of the post office. But today, the link it brought me was to an Etsy story, about Sanquhar knit gloves. It even mentions the author's father growing up on a dairy farm near Sanquhar. Now I'm picturing Marion Brown with an Etsy shop, selling her knitting, just toPenny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3602010154423401016.post-14177318532808483392012-10-24T20:41:00.001-07:002012-10-24T20:41:47.850-07:00Castle Mains, 4 June 1879This is not a letter by Marion Brown. She is referred to as "May" in this letter, and has apparently "had a very bad turn." So her cousin, Tam Scott, is writing instead. Tam's handwriting is fairly legible for a man's hand, but his spelling, capitalization, grammar, and punctuation are less standard than Marion's, and quite a few words are hard to work out. Nonetheless, Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3602010154423401016.post-57621936778541184352012-09-10T13:32:00.000-07:002012-09-10T13:32:01.050-07:00Castle Mains, 24 February 1879 A month has passed; still no work for Tam, Marion's ill in bed with "gravel" (kidney or gall stones--from the mention of back pain, probably the former), and the snow keeps coming. In the US, James Bryden has broken his collar bone, but uncle John Glencross has sent some money to the Sanquhar household to help during this hard season. (The younger son of James and Marion Bryden Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3602010154423401016.post-77184356146296531202012-07-02T15:48:00.000-07:002012-07-07T07:06:18.886-07:00Castle Mains, 23 January 1879It's been almost a year since the last surviving letter from Sanquhar, but this one comes with big news: Tam Scott will marry without any ceremony whatsoever--no ceremony, no party, no family gathering. I've always thought they didn't even do that; irregular marriages "by cohabitation with repute" were legal in Scotland until 2006. But Irene Macleod got in touch to Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3602010154423401016.post-50535549760567355922012-05-01T12:36:00.000-07:002012-05-01T12:36:54.166-07:00Castle Mains, 11 February 1878A new year and a new return address for Marion Brown, Aunt and Tam Scott: Castle Mains by Sanquhar. This is the only surviving 1878 letter, but it's a long chatty one that shows how precarious the health of all three Sanquhar family members has been--Tam Scott with his ongoing lung issues, Aunt with her bad chest cold, and Marion unable to walk, barely able to speak. Perhaps in Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3602010154423401016.post-19162219553848553292012-04-19T09:35:00.003-07:002012-04-19T09:42:22.322-07:00Women in the dairy industry, Sanquhar 2012Regular readers of the Letters from Sanquhar blog will know that "Aunt," Agnes Glencross Scott (1817-1902), was a cheesemaker near Sanquhar, apparently a woman of some skill in that field. So I was interested to see that a young woman from Sanquhar named Grace Smith was recently the first woman to win the Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers’ Dairy Crest Student of the Year Award. I'm Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3602010154423401016.post-85872799730373249822012-04-02T20:34:00.005-07:002012-04-02T21:19:14.068-07:00Tower Cottages, 5 November 1877This is one of my favorite letters by Marion Brown. Why? Well, it's quite detailed about her physical health (or lack of health, speech, and mobility) in the first section; and it mentions bigger events (hard times in America), which is rare for Marion Brown; but mainly, I love this letter because she mentions sending a photo.... and we have that photo (left). Seated is Marion Brown, with her Penny L. Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00102296070193780691noreply@blogger.com0