Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

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I received your letter of the 3rd instant; and not doubting but that the entry of your uncle’s death having taken place, as represented in The Yorkshire Gazette, would be communicated to you by your relatives at White House as correct, and that you would have an early invitation to attend his funeral today, the 6th, at St John’s, I thought it unnecessary to trouble you with an earlier answer, in the hope of seeing you after the interment of the corpse. As however the Funeral has taken place today, and you have not called here after the interment, I begin to apprehend that, for some cause or other, you may not have been asked to attend. If this liberty of attending your Uncle’s funeral have not been granted you by your brothers and sisters to see your father’s brother laid in his grave, it is a proof of an unfeeling heart and of an uncharitable disposition. Though it may perhaps have entered their minds that your steady and upright conduct might induce your uncle to leave you a legacy, which would reduce theirs; yet, though you do not stand in need of such a legacy, it shows in them an avaricious and overbearing disposition. Your chief wish, I feel assured, has been to pay due respect to the memory of the deceased, your father’s brother, by wishing to see him laid in his grave, and if you have been denied this privilege by your brothers’ and sisters’ neglect or want of prudence in giving you an opportunity to do it, they have shown no marks to you of brotherly or sisterly feelings.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations:

• ER: East Riding
• GM: Greater Manchester
• NR: North Riding
• NY: North Yorkshire
• SY: South Yorkshire
• WR: West Riding
• WY: West Yorkshire

Comment

Comment

William Allison introduces this letter to his father thus:

My father, the late John Pick Allison, was the son, by a second marriage, of William Allison of Foxbury, in the north of Yorkshire, who was born so long ago as 1766. I never saw my grandfather, but he must have been a courageous man, for he was fifty-two when he married my grandmother, who was a maiden lady of forty-three. She was a Miss Pick, of the family whose name is familiar in connection with early turf records. My father was the only child of this marriage, but there was a considerable family by the first marriage of my grandfather. These, as the manner is, regarded the second marriage unfavourably, and my father and his mother had a bad time of it when the old man died.

It would be needless to dilate on this point, but I have come across a letter written to my father by the Rev. Mr Heslop, of Forcett, near Richmond, on 6th December 1853, in reference to the death of his uncle, Henry Allison, of Foxgrove, and this not only illuminates the position, but is of considerable general interest as a sample of old-time correspondence.

That Mr Heslop was an old man at the time of the letter is obvious from the handwriting and from the constant employment of capitals for all the nouns that he uses. His thoughts and style are almost of the eighteenth century, but he was clearly a staunch champion of my father.

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Original

I received your letter of the 3rd instant; and not doubting but that the entry of your uncle’s death having taken place, as represented in The Yorkshire Gazette, would be communicated to you by your relatives at White House as correct, and that you would have an early invitation to attend his funeral today, the 6th, at St John’s, I thought it unnecessary to trouble you with an earlier answer, in the hope of seeing you after the interment of the corpse. As however the Funeral has taken place today, and you have not called here after the interment, I begin to apprehend that, for some cause or other, you may not have been asked to attend. If this liberty of attending your Uncle’s funeral have not been granted you by your brothers and sisters to see your father’s brother laid in his grave, it is a proof of an unfeeling heart and of an uncharitable disposition. Though it may perhaps have entered their minds that your steady and upright conduct might induce your uncle to leave you a legacy, which would reduce theirs; yet, though you do not stand in need of such a legacy, it shows in them an avaricious and overbearing disposition. Your chief wish, I feel assured, has been to pay due respect to the memory of the deceased, your father’s brother, by wishing to see him laid in his grave, and if you have been denied this privilege by your brothers’ and sisters’ neglect or want of prudence in giving you an opportunity to do it, they have shown no marks to you of brotherly or sisterly feelings.

282 words.

Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Allison, William (1851-1925) (12), Yorkshire-born sporting journalist ·
• Etiquette (1) ·
• Forcett (1) ·
• Funeral (25) ·
• Inheritance (3) ·
• Legacy (1) ·
• Richmondshire (5) ·
• Will and testament (11) ·

All tags.

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