Letter from James Cooper, May 1838

Brighton Herald

Saturday, August 25, 1838

EMIGRATION

The following interesting letter has just been received from James Cooper, who emigrated to Upper Canada in 1836 in the Heber, having been sent out by the Petworth Emigration Committee.


Woodcut Farm, Lot 21, 4th Concession South, Adelaide

May 30th, 1838

Dear Father and Mother, Brothers and Sisters, Friends, and Relations all.

We received your kind letter of the 10th of April, 1837, in answer to ours and we have likewise since received the parcel with the seeds for which we are obliged; but we did not find your letter with the seed until we were going to sow this seed in the spring.

[Dear Mother, you seemed to feel a little hurt that you did not receive a letter from me individually. I thought there was no occasion for that, as we were all together, and are together now, and makes one letter do for us all, W Cooper.(1)]

We now come to state, that we are all well, thank the Lord, and hope this will also find you all in good health and spirits, enjoying prosperity.

We found it pretty hard to get through the last summer, having had much of our provisions to buy, especially flour, which was very scarce and dear, from six to eight dollars per 100 lbs.; but thank the Lord we are better provided this year, having had plenty of grain for seed, for flour, and to fat our hogs, besides which we growed last year 200 bushels of potatoes, and 400 bushels of turnips and Swedes.

We have got in this year 4 acres of fall wheat, and one acre of spring wheat, four acres of rye, five acres of barley, one acre of peas, four acres of oats, and three acres of land ready to sow buckwheat, one acre for Indian corn, and are now burning off three acres more for turnips and potatoes, and we have six acres of grassland. We now have 19 head of horned cattle, one yoke of oxen, one yoke of steers three years old, one yoke of bulls two years old; we work them all to plough, harrow &c; four milch cows, and four calves, one barren cow turned off to fat, one three-year old heifer we expect to calve June, one two-year old  heifer, one yearling heifer, and one yearling bull, 17 hogs and pigs, 11 hens and one cock, four cats and two dogs, one is part Newfoundland, a very good dog for cattle, hogs, or deer, the other is a bitch, a little touch of the terrier, very good for cattle or deer, but not very good for hogs. Our taxes for 1837 amounted to 4s. 3d. English which is 8s. 6d York, or 5s 3¼d in the currency of this country.

We think we did not tell you in our last, that we can make sugar, treacle or molasses, beer, cider, vinegar, and ink from the sap of the maple tree. We made more than 200lbs. of good sugar, twelve gallons of molasses, and about ten gallons of vinegar, last year. This year we made 374 lbs of sugar, 30 gallons of molasses, and 30 gallons of vinegar. This season was not so good as the last, or we should have made more having had more kettles.

We wrote a letter to send you on the 10th day of December last, at which time we were all quiet here; but before we put the letter in the post, the rebellion broke out, of which we suppose you have heard, so we would not send it until we saw how things went. All is quiet again now, and have been for some time. Our regiment of militia. the Middlesex Light Infantry, were called out to go to London to suppress the rebellion on the fourteenth day of December and William went with them; but I happened to be at the township at work at the time, so I escaped; as every man is a militia-man in this country, from the age of 16 to 60. He was away about two months. London is about 25 miles from us, and after being at London some time. the regiment was next called to the western frontier, to do duty at Amherstburg,  where a schooner was taken from the rebels, with three pieces of cannon, 4 or 500 stands of arms, money &c besides 21 men killed, wounded, and prisoners. Amherstburg is about 150 miles from London; and being rainy, and thawing all the time, it was dreadful travelling, and while he was there he saw George Gable,(2) his wife and family, who are all well; they have the same family as when they left England. She has add one more which died with the small-pox. They talked of coming here, if they can get any land to suit them, as they have none there, although they seem to be doing pretty well. He saw also Thomas Sharp(3) and David Sharp, Daniel Smith(4) and his family are there and Charles Sageman;  his father is about 20 miles off from him; they were then all well. They all left us at Toronto to go there, when we came up here.

We received Christopher’s letter about the Langleys, after we had wrote to you. The ship they sailed in arrived safe at Quebec four or five days before us, but we have not seen them or heard anything of them since. You wish to know about the widow Barns;(5) we saw her in Toronto when we came here, she was then living in the city, she and her family were well; two of her boys were apprenticed to a butcher. Budd, his wife,(6) and his family, John Pratt, William Boxall, his wife and family, George Varndell, daughter and son, Thomas Woods and his wife(7),  are all settled at Townplat [the Blandford town plot] in the county of Oxford. William Hewitt, Matthew Chalcraft, his wife and family are there also. Mrs. Budd and  John Pratt came up here to see us last Christmas twelvemonth and the neighbour of ours, Mr. Halsted,(8) called on them when on his way to Toronto, in the beginning of March last, and also on Mr. and Mrs. Carter at Toronto, and William Boxall, and they were all well.

Budd has got a town lot of five acres, most of which is cleared, with two houses on it. Henry Budd is apprenticed to a cabinet maker; he is a sturdy lad and getting very handy; he has about 3½ years to serve; he was bound for 5 years; he has 50 dollars the first year, to board himself and an increase 20 dollars every year. John Budd is bound to a blacksmith for 5 years and got 50 or 60 dollars the first year, besides his board, having learned some before, and to increase every year; but he forgets how much. James Budd and George Budd are both bound to a tailor, but he forgets on what terms; the other three children are at home. Budd had three of his fingers frostbitten, while thrashing this winter, which made them very bad, taking the nails and skin off; but they are getting better fast. Mrs. Budd made some excellent elder wine last year, and upwards of 200 lbs weight of sugar; we know not how much she made this year. Mr. and Mrs. Carter were well.

The weather has been much more favourable this winter, than any winter since 1832; the present crops look well, and the last season was much more productive than 1836. The present price of wheat is a dollar per bushel, Indian corn a dollar per bushel, peas a dollar buckwheat and rye about ¾ dollar, barley half a dollar, oats quarter of a dollar, potatoes quarter of a dollar per bushel.

You wish to know whether William came to meet us with his waggon; he had no waggon, neither did he know we were coming, until we got within about half a mile of his house. We had to pay our own expenses from Hamilton here, a distance of about 110 miles from here by land, and the carriage alone cost us near 27 dollars, besides eating and drinking. The line, or street as you would call it, that we live on is, getting pretty well settled. Mr. Halsted is coming to live on it this summer, having lately purchased 100 acres of land within a mile of us. He and his daughter are well, should any of his acquaintances at Cocking, Fittleworth or elsewhere inquire after them.

Give our love to Mr. and Mrs. Goatcher, and tell them we have not forgot the teapot, but it is wore out, and we hope she will not forget her promise to send us another good one when she can.

We do not go to fair- keeping now, but we have horse racing on Caradoc Plains about a mile and a half off from us, once a year, and a stock fair at Amiens, about 7 miles off, twice a year. We had pretty good luck last year with the deer, we killed 7, but have killed none this winter.

You wish to know who the father of Mary’s child is; it is Henry Stephens of Lodsworth; she is still living with the same people as she first hired with, and her child with her, only they are gone to live in another township about 40 miles from us. We have not heard from her since Christmas; she and her child was then well, she gets half a dollar per week.

The children also send their kind love to their grandfathers, grandmothers, uncles, aunts, cousins, and all inquiring friends. Caroline’s and Sarah’s love to Mrs. and the Misses Burgess, and wants to know if the little china dogs have learnt to bark yet. We hope you will excuse our not mentioning our friends by name, as that would unnecessarily fill the letter and lessen your information, for you may be assured we mean well to all of you, would wish you all to see it, and we all join in love and best respects to all of our relations and friends, and remain your ever dutiful and affectionate sons and daughters,

JAMES, WILLIAM & HARRIET COOPER.

Direct in future to us, Lot 21, 4th Concession, south of the Egremont Road, to be left at the Post Office, Katesville, Adelaide, London District, U.C.

P.S.  We hope you will send this letter, or a copy of it, to Harriet’s friends: don’t forget them or we should be obliged to send the next letters to them instead of you. Harriet has just got another daughter, her name is Charlotte, born May 9th 1838: she’s getting pretty well, and the child is well.

We have not said much to you about the war: it first broke out in Lower Canada, and the Governor of Upper Canada sent every soldier out of this province, to assist against the French Canadians; trusting Upper Canada entirely to its gallant militia; and they drove the rebels into the United States, before the regular troops returned from their successful exploits in Lower Canada. The soldiers reported their losses in Lower Canada to be about two men in a hundred at the 24th and 32nd regiments, so that the loss was trifling: they burned down three villages and killed a great many people. Since we have been home, except those who volunteered for 6 months, the regulars and some of the volunteers went to attack the rebels at Pele Island: the men went on the ice, advancing in three small columns, the smallest of which, about 90 in number, was fired on by the rebels, and 28 or 30 killed and wounded the first fire, the remainder charged and routed them, to the amount of 3 or 400, and they took to their sleighs, and made off as fast as they could, across the ice to the States, before the main body of our troops came up. Four were killed and about 15 made prisoners, of the rebels. Among the slain was their commander: the others fled quick. The killed on our side, were 5 regulars and 1 volunteer horseman who led on the troops as a guide, and one died of his wounds afterwards: they took three cannons small arms, provisions, &c.

To Mrs. James Cooper, Graffham, Sussex


  1. A brother of the writer, who emigrated to Upper Canada in 1832, in the Eveline, sent out by the Petworth Committee.
  2. Went out with James Cooper
  3. An army pensioner. He went out in 1832 in a ship sent by the Petworth Committee. This man returned to England, in the  autumn of the same year, where he remained till 1836. In that year his nephew, David Sharp, here mentioned, being about to emigrate with his wife and family, to join his father and some other relatives who had been sent in a former ship, by the Committee, Thomas Sharp,  on his own his petition, was permitted to accompany them.
  4. These people went out in 1836.
  5. She went out with her husband and family, in 1836, in a ship sent by the Committee. Her husband died soon after their arrival at Toronto, but she has been able to obtain a comfortable livelihood and to place out her children.
  6. Budd’s wife is siter to James Cooper’s wife: they went out with the Coopers.
  7. All these went out with the Coopers.
  8. Many of the readers of this letter, will recollect a respectable man, who used to travel about Sussex, with a dog cart, laden with a variety of articles for sale: he went out to Canada, with his daughter, at his own expense in 1833, but not in either of the ships sent by the Committee, and purchased a farm in Adelaide; from whence he wrote a very descriptive letter to a friend, which was published in 1834.