Letter from John E. Carlisle to his Mother
Islington, Liverpool
Aug. 8 '90
Dear Mother:
Your letter with the few lines from Bennie was the last that I received. I was glad to learn that you were all well. I have just returned this morning from Nottingham. I was there nearly a week and had quite an interesting time. After getting trace of fathers folks I was quite busy. Uncle Peter is alive and also his wife. He has three children home, two grown daughters and a son. His daughters work in the lace factory and appear to be very nice girls, and the boy is 16 years of age and quite bright. There are three daughters married and one son. One daughter has gone to America with her husband. Uncle Peter is out of work at present. He is a shoemaker by trade. His circumstances might be much worse, while they could have been better. He was exceedingly pleased to see me and so were the family. He has a mug that you gave the oldest girl when you left and he has some frames that you made for some little pictures. He has lived at No 6 Leicester St. St Annsville road for 24 years. He showed me the way father used to go to the brick yard when a boy and also the factory where he learned his trade. Uncle George has been dead ten years. He has two sons living and married. One is a baker and another is a fish-monger. I saw the baker but I don't think much of him. There is a daughter at home with her mother. She is about 23, delicate in health and engaged to be married. I should think she would get married before long. I don't know what to think of the mother - she seems to be a kind soul. I found Rebecca, fathers own sister and the oldest of the family living. She was living in an upper room in a row of buildings in a crowded part of the city. She is the one that married Mr. Wardly. Her circumstances are very poor. I suppose the cause, chiefly of her own acts. She has some children somewhere and two grand-children with her. The mother of the children is her daughter and she is dead. The father has gone off somewhere and the children are left with the grandmother. The latter receives a small allowance from some source weekly and the children go to school. They were out for a vacation and I did not see them. I learned from the old lady that fathers father came from London and his fathers name was John Carlisle and that he was a well to do miller. That grandfather - that is my fathers father - was in the Army and left it after being wounded and before he was properly discharged. He therefore settled in Nottingham and did not afterwards make himself known in London because he was too proud, and felt that by leaving the Army in that manner that his folks would not be very proud of him. He had a brother Peter or Thomas who was a lawyer. Thus you see if this is true father's fathers name was John and His fathers name was John. When I go to London sometime in the future I shall try and find out something from the records.
By the way I went to the Parish again and found from them that father was christened Nov. 22, 1826. He is therefore sixty four years of age. Rebecca said to me before I learned this that father was, she thought, sixty five, so she was not far off. Rebecca will be 67 next January and of course father will be 65 the following Nov. Father's mother was married to a man named Smith and he died and she then married father's father. Hence I don't know her maiden name. There are two daughters of the 2nd wife alive - Maria and Sarah. The first is a hard worker and was very unfortunate in her marriage. The latter has a nice family. I have their pictures. They were pleased to see me and I had to take tea with them. Another daughter Rachel married a Mr. Russell and had children. She died about two years ago. Peter said he would have one of the girls write soon and give you particulars. I have quite a number of names of the different children, deaths, etc. and may send a list some time of those alive and dead etc. I saw grandfathers will at Aunt Sarah Thorntons and he signed his name John Carlile, but in the records of the Parish fathers name is spelled Carlisle. I think the proper way to spell the name is with the s. Another trip to London will be quite interesting to me as I hope to get more information. Uncle Peter showed me about some, and I had tea with them yesterday. He has a garden patch on Hunger Hills, so also have two of his married daughters. They are quite nice gardens and of course nothing must do but that I must have some flowers. I brought a nice bouquet to Liverpool - chiefly roses. I am surprised that some of the family get along as well as they do considering the times, because they are very dull. The factories are not very busy and of course there is not so much work. The more I see of the towns, and the more I learn of the situation of the people the more thoughtful am I that my lot has been with the people of Zion. With all the learning of many people, the age of this government there is nothing here that compares with the pure principles of the Everlasting Gospel. Men who have had the faith to repent and embrace the Gospel in the past have lain a foundation upon which their children can build with grand prospects. I wish father would have some more pictures printed of himself and send me a 1/2 doz. at least. Pay for them out of my money as I have promised some of them and it will be a kindly act to send them. I am in hopes that some good may be done with some of the family as I was quite favorably impressed with them. Well this letter is long enough for this time. Tell father he can be baptized now for his father, John Carlisle and his grand-father John Carlisle and thus open the door that may be the beginning of a great work. God bless You all (father mother brothers and sisters).
Yours and Ever John E. Carlisle