ABSTRACT
The Sharp Family letters conclude in this volume, with a letter of 1869 from Cefn Maur, Denbighshire, Wales. It is written by one John Davies Platt to his cousin, revealing that he is out of steady work, finding it ‘hard to geat a living’. He is not very literate, and a puddler – which explains why he was not steadily employed at this late date, when puddlers were being displaced by the new blast furnaces. He notes that his neighbours are leaving for Australia, Canada and America, and he dearly wants to join his cousin: ‘I shuld wish in my hart I could come to America … Evrey time that wee ar tolking about owar famaley in America I am longin to come to America.’ Accordingly, he asks for help to pay the voyage to New York.
