Digital Archive
William Quin, Crew townland, Glenavy parish, County Antrim, to Richard Dillon, Peru Village, Clinton County, New York, 8 March 1840
Luaigh an doiciméad seo Amharcóir IIIF
Bailiúchán Quin Letter
Title William Quin, Crew townland, Glenavy parish, County Antrim, to Richard Dillon, Peru Village, Clinton County, New York, 8 March 1840
Description The William Quin letter, of 8 March 1840, to his former neighbor, Richard Dillon, in upstate New York, provides an excellent description of the calamitous, combined effects on east Ulster rural and village society of the economic depression that followed the Napoleonic Wars and the capitalization and radical restructuring of Irish textile (especially linen) manufacturing, which devastated cottage industries and sharply reduced wages and piece-rates for both male weavers and female spinners. Those developments caused great increases in emigration by farmers' children and cottierweavers from rural Ulster to urban centers of factory production in Ulster (especially Belfast), in Britain (e.g., Manchester, Glasgow), as well as to the United States and British North America. In addition to the loss of incomes from domestic industry, the collapse of farm prices and incomes, plus increased taxation, and the consequent threat of eviction for non-payment of rent, also encouraged emigration by formerly comfortable farmers, who, if they could still finance emigration costs by selling tenant-right, sought to re-establish themselves on farms in the American west or in Upper Canada (later Ontario). Thus, the Quin letter describes not only the immediate and structural causes of early 19th century Ulster emigration, but it also describes available emigration strategies, including the author's own requests for information and advice about his prospects overseas. Finally, the Quin letter details another function of transatlantic correspondence: to provide those overseas with data about the lives and, perhaps especially, the deaths of old friends and neighbors in the emigrants' former town lands and parishes. The author's and recipient's religion is uncertain. Their surnames suggest Roman Catholic, and Glenavy parish's 1831-34 population was almost half-Catholic. However, the total absence of political commentary in Quin's letter suggests Protestant, since Irish Catholics commonly linked descriptions of economic calamities with references to British, or at least to landlord, oppression.
Date 08/03/1840
Date Issued 27/03/2023
Cineál Acmhainne Text
Archival Record Id p155/6/5
Publisher University of Galway
Extent 8pp
Topic Quin Letter
Geographic Crew (townland),Antrim (county),Ireland,Peru (town),Clinton (county),New York (state),United States
Temporal Nineteenth century,Eighteen forties
Genre Transcript,Reproduction
Note Title, description and transcript text by Professor Kerby Miller.
Creator / Author Name William Quin