Digital Archive
John B. Phillips, "Winnsborough, Fair Field District", South Carolina, to his brother, James Phillips, Lisburn, County Antrim, 12 March 1819
Cite this document IIIF Viewer
Collection Phillips Letter
Title John B. Phillips, "Winnsborough, Fair Field District", South Carolina, to his brother, James Phillips, Lisburn, County Antrim, 12 March 1819
Description John B. Philips writes to his brother James after a "good passage being onely [sic] six weeks" from leaving Ireland. He describes the port town [Charleston] as the largest in South Carolina and "pretty well built" with an Exchange store, Armoury, Poor House, and churches (two each for Episcopalians, Congregationalists / Independents, Methodists and one each for Scotch Presbyterians, Baptists, German Lutherans, French Protestants) plus a Roman Catholic chapel, Quaker meeting house and Jewish Synagogue. After spending time with "an extensive merchant" who intended visiting Ireland, Philips was offered a post of school-master for $300 a year, by a country gentleman, in a settlement 160 miles above Charleston. He relates that both of them then travelled there by camping in the woods for four to five nights. However, the school was "engaged" so on arrival, Phillips took up employment working in carpentry with a son of Capt. James Phillips who owned a large plantation. He details how they are building "a Methodist preaching house of timber" for $700 and the good pay for tradesmen and schoolmasters. Phillips concludes with a description of the crops, cheap price of land and that he "lives as well as a man could wish".
Date 12/03/1819
Date Issued 27/03/2023
Resource Type Text
Archival Record Id p155/3/5/1, p155/3/5/2
Publisher University of Galway
Extent 9pp
Topic Phillips Letter
Geographic Winnsboro,Fairfield (county),South Carolina,United States,Lisburn,Antrim (county),Ireland
Temporal Nineteenth century,Eighteen tens
Genre Transcript,Reproduction
Note Title and transcript by Professor Kerby Miller. Letter description by University of Galway.
Creator / Author Name John B. Phillips