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Julia Fields, New York City, to her friend, Mrs. Corrigan, Kilskeer parish County Meath, 11 November 1844
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Collection Fields and Flood Letters
Title Julia Fields, New York City, to her friend, Mrs. Corrigan, Kilskeer parish County Meath, 11 November 1844
Description An unusual letter--and especially interesting because Julia Fields (nee Clark) is separated from her husband, Christopher Fields, whom she left in Ireland, because his family was somehow unjust to her. She asks Mrs. Corrigan for word of him and still hopes they will be reunited. She travelled first to Liverpool, where she took the packet ship to New York City. Her passage was short (six weeks) and uneventful; she arrived on 10 June 1844; but she was distressed by the chaos that poor emigrants, who arrived without friends, experienced on arrival at the New York docks. Fortunately, she soon met her brother, James Clark, and his wife, who were teachers in the Ward 11 public school. She lived with them until she got "respectable employment" as a tutor or governess in the family of Thomas Addis Emmet, son of the 1798 exile of the same name and nephew of the 1803 martyr, Robert Emmet. She earned $8 per month, plus room and board. She warned of the great difficulties that poor Irish immigrants encountered, if they had no friends to assist and advise them; otherwise, life in the US was like "a second apprenticeship."
Date 11/11/1844
Date Issued 27/03/2023
Resource Type Text
Archival Record Id p155/23/3
Publisher University of Galway
Extent 8pp
Topic Fields and Flood Letters
Geographic New York City,New York (state),United States,Kilskeer (civil parish),Meath (county),Ireland
Temporal Nineteenth century,Eighteen forties
Genre Transcript,Reproduction
Note Title, description and transcript text by Professor Kerby Miller.
Creator / Author Name Julia Fields