For publication in the Hone Correspondence section of the William Hone BioText, http://honearchive.org. The letter is published under a Creative Commons license, details of which are accessible from the BioText homepage.
Transcribed from a high quality digital image of the original in the Hone Collection, Adelphi University, Series 1A, Bx 1, f. 3.
Misfortune and ill report usually go together, and you cannot therefore, I imagine,
be ignorant, that I am, at least, in deep trouble.ignorant uninformed, and desire to remain
so, but of this I do with the
my present situation I do not expect the world to alter its usual course, but I do
hope there may be a few, who, if they cannot afford me their open countenance, will in
some degree continue their private favor, and I am mistaken if I may not regard
But, to come to my present purpose, it is fitting I should at once tell you, that
since I have come under the extreme power of the law, by the enforcement of just
claims upon me which I am unable to discharge, my second daughter Fanny has been
married to Mr. Thomas Hemsley of King Street Tower hill. He is son to a daughter of
old Mrs. Seaton of Chatham, through an old friendship with whom I became acquainted
with his late father. This young man is neither bookish, nor political, nor fanatical
— but he is one of the most strait-forward fellows in the world, and if he
cannot make his way in it by plain dealing, he will not get through it at all. By
business he is an optician & mathematical instrument maker, & there assisted aided by another of his brothers has discharged every penny of
the his parents debts, and so restricted his own means, that they are
insufficient. He is nothing but an honest man, with an honest girl for his wife, and
being my son in law, I feel, on my daughter's account, a painful anxiety for her would gave him
advice, which, if he had followed, would have broken my poor girl's heart. Tom's
answer was a call upon me to walk out of the perlieus of a prison, and give him
Fanny's hand at Aldgate Church.
This "Thomas Hemsley" is a candidate for the office of Deputy Sea-Coal
the Common Councilmen with intreating that you will confer a kindness on me, in the midst of my
mishaps, by aiding him to the utmost of your influence with such of the Coal Committee
as you can bring it to bear upon. This solicitation to you is all the assistance I can
give him, and, to be brief, would I would desire each word a mouth, &
each letter a tongue, to eloquently express my
If Mrs. Fox will be pleased to accept my kind remembrances & you will convey
them to her I shall be gratified. I have been separated from my family nearly six
weeks during which time they were homeless. We have got together again with the last
ten days in a little house by ourselves. Hoping that your health (which I have heard
of frequently &