May 12, 1863

I have had the most extraordinary letter. I really do not know what to make of it. It came in the post today, a fancy thick embossed envelope with the Shrigley Hall coat of arms on it.

May 11, 1863
Shrigley Hall,
Pott Shrigley,
Cheshire

Miss Margaret Forbes
7 George Street
Altrincham, Cheshire

Dear Miss Forbes,

In a recent discussion with my housekeeper, Mrs. Herman, she mentioned that she had heard via the postmaster at Poynton-Worth that someone was writing a book about my deceased mother. After much prodding, your name was produced, and she admitted giving you the name of an elderly publican as a source of information for your book.

Surely, Miss Forbes, the correct procedure would have been for you to contact me directly, rather than depend on tittle tattle from servants and peasants. If you in truth are writing a book about my mother, I would be the one with the most reliable information. I can only assume that you were too humble to approach me directly.

Therefore, I am going to take the matter in my own hands, and invite you here for tea on Sunday, the 24th at about 3 p.m. I would expect you can get a train from Altrincham to Poynton, and if we know the time of your arrival, we can see that there is a carriage to meet you and bring you here. We would, of course, take you to the station for your return journey.

Please bring with you any information that you have already gleaned about my mother, so I can ascertain as to whether it is accurate. I only hope that you are not intending to stir up yet again the story of her abduction, as she surely after all this time, should be allowed to rest in peace. My father, who was her husband, died eight years ago.

Please inform me of your intentions in this regard.

Yours faithfully,

Mrs. Ellen Jane Legh Lowther

I showed the letter to Mr. Balshaw and he agreed that it would be useful for me to have this contact. I might find out more about her mother, which could only add to my book.

And he says I need not be intimidated by her manner. Her mother’s life is a matter of public record, and there is no reason why one cannot write about it without the daughter’s permission. However, he suggests that I downplay the real objective of my book, in order not to antagonise her.

And so in less than a fortnight, I will be hopefully able to make my book more accurate and meaningful.

Here is Edward’s next letter to my Pa.

“December 10th, 1829
Newgate Prison

My dear Daniel,

You will be interested to know that my ideas about colonization are causing quite a stir. As I told you before, I wrote a series of letters about systematic colonization which was published in the London Morning Chronicle. The letters aroused such interest they were republished in book form edited by Robert Gouger.

In the letters I pretend that I am a surgeon gone out to Australia in an emigrant vessel.

Here is an extract from it. (I am talking about the useage of women who arrive in Australia.)

'The emigrants whom we took out as well as those in two other ships, which have arrived since, were immediately on their arrival engaged; - housemaids at about £17 and cooks about £20 a year. Married people get from £25 to £40 a year, with rations and a log cabin to live in. It does seem that in an emergency of this kind, nature with a voice more potent than that of political economy, dictates the course we should pursue. If as appears to be the case, we have broken the order which is said to be the first law of Heaven, our punishment great as it is, does not exceed our fault.

'We have sent to Australia the strong hands which should have been the protection and support of the starving needle-women; and we have denied the emigrant on a foreign soil his natural helpmate, with no other result but that of creating a plague-spot in the centre of society at home. This emigration movement is one on which we have greatly prided ourselves, and by which we have all to some extent profited; it has been extensively promoted by the state, and stimulated by private enterprise.

'If then, it has been so imperfectly and partially worked out, the extent of our previous negligence should be considered as the measure of our responsibility to repair the evil. Mr. Herbert’s plan of a society to promote the emigration of respectable females to Australia is an attempt to pay this dept, and hence its claim on public support. It has a just demand on private benevolence, and on the state conscience. It is one of those few schemes of wholesale alms-giving which are unattended with any danger, and which, while they give great temporary relief, may be also expected to produce a certain degree of more permanent good.'

I won’t go on with it, but perhaps you can get a flavour of what I am trying to convey.

I wish you and your family the best Christmas. Hopefully, it will be the last I spend in captivity.

Yours,

Edward Gibbon"