John Nowlan, Sr., Newtownbarry, County Wexford, to his son, Patrick Nowlan, Weymouth, Digbey Co., Nova Scotia, 20 December 1841
Description
John is answering Patrick's letter of 29 October 1841. He reports that his son, John, Jr., is a merchant's clerk in Arklow, County Wicklow, and that his other son, James, has been unemployed and living at home since the flour mills, where he had been clerking, went bankrupt and burned down. His daughters, Mary and Catherine (who is a deaf mute), also live at home; and a third daughter had married David O'Keefe of 2 City Road, London, and died recently, leaving four children. Letter reports that Ireland is in a "wretched" condition, and describes the ongoing economic depression, political strife between Tories and Liberals, and large-scale evictions of tenants by Tory landlords, three of whom have recently been assassinated in Cork and Kilkenny.