ABSTRACT
On 29 December 1833, Frances James was anxious about the whereabouts of her husband. She wrote from her home in Wharf Street, Leicester, to the parish officers of Uttoxeter in Staffordshire:
inform me if my husband Philip James has come to his parish, as he left me on the 18th of this month for to come to you for assistance he well knowing the situation he left me with only three half pence & four children and myself to be supported I have had a lying in & buried two children within six months I have been obliged to pledge and sell almost everything we had or we must have starved for want I feel greatly distrest at not hearing from him I beg sir you will write immediately . . . if I dont have a answer this next week I shall be obligated to fall on this parish & leave my goods for the rent due which is two pounds & no prospect of paying it . . . I consider he has not used me as a husband or he would have wrote before this time let his situation be what ever it would.1
