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Transcribed by Norman Thompson, [email protected]

Transcript of a letter from James Thomson of Tryon River, to his brother David John Thomson at 29 College Green, Dublin, Ireland, dated November 23, 1833.

November 23, 1833.

Dear Brother,

I received yours of the 19th of April and was glad to find that you were all well, and doing well, and that you had got an addition to your family.

The crops this season seem to be scanty all over the country, but we have no reason to complain. My dear brother you wrote of a circumstance concerning a family Tomb in Campsie and you speak of it being in Angushire but I do not think there is a Campsie in Angushire. Campsie I think is somewhere off from Glasgow in the west of Scotland and my dear brother the circumstance is all a mystery to me entirely for I do not recollect of hearing any such thing. But I should be glad to find it traced out and you and the rest that is at home can very easily find it out by writing to the Minister of the Parish, or some that is nearest to have an investigation of the Parish books. I hope you will hunt it out amongst you as I have a longing desire to know from what family we are descended from on the father's side. But my dear Brother I can let you know of a circumstance, if you knew anything on that lead it will be considerable information unto you that I heard our mother say that our father came from Aberdeenshire and that he had a brother in the forty second Highland Watch in the American war.

Now I will give you an account of what I have done on that lead. I fell in with a person that knew our uncle David and he was sure that I was belonging to the family. I wrote to the Late Dr Mitchell of Kemnay on the subject and I received an answer from him that according to the statement that I had given him, with many of the circumstances he knew to be a fact. He had no doubt but that David Thomson of his Parish was my uncle and our Great Grand Father George Thomson lived at Fillermiur. I always neglected to inform you I bear a Lieutenants Commission in the Militia I received the newspapers you sent me and am very thankful for them you read them and if there is no postage on British papers when you are done with them I would take it as a favour if you would pack them up and send them out to me. If there were postage on them I would not send them for postage is very high in this country. I have not got clear of the effects of the cold that I caught last winter. I went over to Nova Scotia this summer to mineral springs that is there but received no benefit. But it is my duty to be resigned to the will of God in all things and that I may do it in sincerity and truth.

As to any other information concerning the agencies that I wrote to you concerning, I have no further information on the subject, save this, that as to the Earl Westmoreland and Viscount Melville I have taken notice since I came to the place pretty much how their Estates have been managed and I have been informed of the drafts that have been drawn on them and that all the benefit that their Estates desired from them was very little, and giving them great accounts of wonders being done but in reality it was for no benefit but to fill the agents pockets. If you do not wish to endeavour to get any of them for yourself you can give me all the interest you have in your power. The above and Thom sons from Belfast are in our vicinity the Earl of Selkirk and others lay farther off. I think it would be to their advantage and the advantage of their Estates if I were to get the management of them. But if any should turn up I trust in your favour.

Hoping that this may find you and your family and all our concerns in good health. As this leaves us in our ordinary state save as above stated Mrs Thomson and the family joins me in compliments to you, Mrs Thomson and the family and all our concerns. David John states that as soon as he can make it convenient he will take a trip across the Atlantic and see you God willing. And now brother that one and all of us may be enabled to glorify God on earth so that we may glorify him in the mountains of bliss May the blessing to Him be with us all and underneath us be the everlasting arms which is the humble prayer of your affectionate brother.

James Thomson