XM/5120/73.
LETTER: Hugh Jones, Wilkes County, Georgia to his brother. Has received a letter from him dated 21 September 1789, Caernarfon. He is saddened by the death of his brothers Henry and William. Henry died on board a ship he once belonged to. William died on the Coast of Guinea. Talks of his younger brother’s education and their parents lowly station. He hopes the other brothers will provide for them. Talks of his wife, children and land. Asks his brother to join him in America. It will be 14 years on 22 June [1790] since he left Wales and 12 years since he left. He neglected to send a letter to his father from Waterford in Ireland and neglected writing to the recipient from Newfoundland. He neglected writing too from Kingston, Jamaica. He refers to some tiisdirected letters for him which he failed to retrieve. Mentions shipmate, Thomas Crew, who was on board the Earl of Chester, the ship in which H.J. was taken. Also two shoemakers William Boil of Scotland and Michal Ritter of Savannah. If the recipient wrote the letter himself and is able to do book-keeping he could get a job in any trading town in this country. Perhaps his brother fears the inhabitants are no better than savages. He assures him they are not. They sometimes have to go to war with the Indians but they are at peace with them at present. He wishes that they would all come to his country. They would live happier here than in Wales; they would get land of their own and posterity. H.J. hopes to secure land-for his children. His eldest child’s name is Nancy after her Welsh grandmother; the next is Polly after two of his sisters and his grandmother. The third is named Harry after his brother. The youngest is Jane after his wife’s mother.
Cyngor Gwynedd