James Nowlan, Newtownbarry, County Wexford, to his brother, Patrick Nowlan, Weymouth, Digbey Co., Nova Scotia, 31 March 1842
Description
James reported that their brother John, Jr., was earning £30 per year as a clerk in Arklow, but he neglected their poor father. James was still unemployed since the burning of the flour mills. Apparently, Patrick had written his father, John Nowlan, Sr., for money, but James explained that his father was a tenant of Lord Farnham, whose bad treatment had reduced the family to poverty. John, Sr., had been a schoolmaster for the past 16-18 years, but his income from it had diminished in recent years (perhaps since the creation of the new National Schools?). James reports that he and his family had taken the Temperance pledge from Fr. Theobald Mathew, but the success of the latter's crusade against drink had driven the local publicans to bankruptcy and emigration. James expressed despair for Ireland and a fervent desire to emigrate, if Patrick will send him advice and "encouragement." He urged Patrick to write more often, and told of their father's great joy at receiving his letters. James concluded by hoping that Patrick was attending to Catholic worship and the state of his soul, not realizing, apparently, that his brother had long since converted to the Baptist church.