Eliza Henry Preston Carrington to Sally Buchanan Campbell Preston, March 1837

[Eliza Henry Preston Carrington at Halifax Courthouse, Virginia, to Sarah "Sally" Buchanan Campbell Preston at Abingdon, Virginia, containing also John Preston Johnston at Greensboro, North Carolina, to Eliza Henry Preston Carrington at Halifax Courthouse, Virginia, March 15, 1837. Box 26, Folder 9, Robert Morton Hughes Papers, Special Collections and University Archives, Patricia W. and J. Douglas Perry Library, Old Dominion University Libraries, Norfolk, VA 23529. This is my rough transcription. Extra paragraph breaks added for easier reading.]

Dear Cousin

For your last letter & what was therein contained (a five dollar note) I am very much obliged to you. I am glad that you are still in the notion of coming here to the examination; but I am wary that you have to come so far to see me disgraced. Every thing goes on here as usual; I have commenced the study of Algebra with which (although very hard) I am very much pleased. I can say without fear of contradiction that we have the best mathematical professor (Mr. Grettor of Richmond Va.) almost in the state. Mr. Wilson is beloved by the whole school; he also is a first-rate linguist.

I wish when you come you would bring with you a few pounds of first rate smoking tobacco for Mr. Wilson (who is a great smoker) which I know would please him very much.  He is a real Irishman, & a better man never lived, he is a very small man not much higher than I am a real Nullifier & very eccentric.

I really believe that I desire as much if not more good from attending the society as from going to school, for I have to speak & write composition & be criticized, but our business is private it is against the laws to disclose any thing that transpires in the society.

I would advise you if you come to stop at Mrs. Mosing’s tavern which is the only decent one in town. My respects to Mr. Gree & the rest of the boys.

                                          Your affectionate

                                                  Cousin

                                           John P. Johnston

My dear Mama

I have just got this letter from Preston and thought I would send it to you that you might see from himself how he is situated and shew it to his uncle. He writes regularly to me once a fortnight, which is what I require of him.

I had one of my bad headaches yesterday and suffered greatly all night. I am not well yet but can’t keep out of the garden [in] this charming weather, there are already a good many flowers blooming, and the air is perfumed by the violets. To our surprize yesterday when we looked out in the morning the ground was covered with snow, but a few hours of the powerful sun dissolved it and we were again enjoying warmth and work in the garden.

Yesterday evening I was lying down when I was disturbed by a bustle at my window, looking out I saw the long ladder which generally stays at the back of the house brought round to the front and all the men about of when fortunately there were a number collected around it, I wen[t] out and saw a light blaze on the roof of the house; however a few buckets of water put it out, and all was quiet in the course of a few minutes, for both the alarm and escape I am truly, thankful.

Tell Nana I wish she would come here and help me to persuade my old man to take us on to the general Assembly, where I hope we would meet Sophy. He has a scheme for Nana which I think he would take the trip to effect and tell her not like summer ones, but a real first rate pious man, an author of some celebrity, & widower with but two grown up sons, and with all very rich, a New Yorker with town & country house. I can answer for his manners which are those of a real gentleman. I beg her to come for I want to go dreadfully.

[$5 in 1837 = about $120 in early 2017.

Eliza Henry Preston Carrington (1796-1877), forty years old here, was married to Edward Codrington Carrington (1790-1855), "my old man."

John Preston Johnston (1824-1847), quite precocious at thirteen years old.

Mr. Grettor of Richmond = not sure who this is.

Mr. Wilson the "real Irishman" = not sure who this is.

Mama = Sarah "Sally" Buchanan Campbell Preston (1778-1846)

His uncle = Beverly Randolph Johnston (1803-1876)

Sophy = presumably Eliza's sister Ann Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge (1803-1844).

Nana = possibly Eliza's sister Susanna Smith Preston McDowell (1800-1847).] 


[Many thanks to Sue Davis, William Myers, Mary Davy and Sally Young for their ongoing research collaboration.]