Possibly a Letter from Emily Hall to Jane Billups
Included in the Gratton family files collected by Wilfred Harrison (1905 - 1992), of Tenby, Pembrokeshire, a descendant of James Gratton, was the following letter, probably from Emily Hall to Jane Billups. Following the letter is a transcription and some notes regarding the people mentioned.
Transcription
My dear Niece, This your dear mother history. I thought you and John would like it.
Agness Gratton 4 daughter of James and Ann Gratton, born April 4th 1845 and was married Oct -- 1869. She came to America in 1873 and brought John Henry with her. Jennie was born June 15, 1874 and James William August 11, 1876, Tom September 1878, and dear mother passed away March 13, 1880 and entered Episcopal Church or the Church of England Cemetery Lewistown, Mifflin County, PA.
Do you know when James William died or where?
Notes
This looks to me like a letter that Emily (Gratton) Hall intended to send to her sister Agnes (Gratton) Billups' daughter Jane, or Jennie, some time after Agnes' death. Agnes and her husband Henry "Harry" Billups kept in touch with Emily after they moved to Pennsylvania, and their letters included the exact birth dates of their three children born in America. See Harry and Agnes (Gratton) Billups, Letters on this site. Of course it could have been one of Jennie's other aunts--perhaps Harry and Agnes had written other people besides Emily--but I'm guessing it was Emily since the letter was found with her papers.
It must have been written after April 27, 1882, since that is when James William Billups died.
The letter raises a few questions:
1) How did the writer know James had died?
2) Did Harry continue to write his in-laws in England after his wife died? How else would anyone in England know about James' death? If Harry was still writing as late as 1882, why aren't those letters with the other 35 in Emily's collection? Or did he write someone else, maybe the Boswells?
3) Does it tell us that Jennie and John were still together? If so, were they still with their father, Harry? Tom had been with his paternal aunt Naomi (Billups) Jackson in Pittsburgh since at least the date of the 1880 census.
4) But the biggest question to me is: Why was the letter never sent? Had the family in England lost touch with Harry? Had he, perhaps, written to tell them he was moving and then never wrote to tell them where?