by Leigh, Damaris
Very Good. Oblong sheet (40 x 25 cm.) containing a three-page letter which was folded several times to form itself into ite own protective envelope. One small hole near the now-absent red seal. Damaris, an indifferent speller and a non-punctuator, appears to have moved to Caledonia, New York from Roanoke (or Big Lick, as the area was also known), Virginia. The letter is generally readable once you adjust to her spelling. She writes of her new house: "you wish to now whether we was in our new hourse we move in it abote tow weeks after brother Lee left and it had nether dors nor winders in it tell September but the wether was so wome the fust summer that we done very well..." She hopes to get a loom ["lome"] so that she can weave ["wive"]. She writes of Hester (a sister?) whom she believes to be secretly engaged to Mr. Russell ("a man of good property and a good Christian I hope which is better than all He prefest religion at the same meet as Hester did Hester has had a great menny boughs [beaus?] and to of them Methodist prichers." Toward the end she tells Lucy, "... I think I like this country better than I do Virginia the pepel is so much more on an equility than they is there...."
(Inventory #: 90145)