Can You Help? 1

Here us a letter from Georgiana to her mother which has been transcribed but as you can see it is very difficult to guess every word. The untranscribed words are marked in the typed transcription below with a number and xxxxx. Please number each of your guesses and send them back to us in the comments section.

If you click on the photo of the handwriting you should be able to enlarge the picture.You may be able to zoom in to see the words better although if you zoom too far they will become hazy. This is an experiment, so fingers crossed!

The problem with inserting the transcription into this blog entry is that the text alignment keeping getting messed up. Despite many hours of trying to fix this the post may not keep the alignment. I apologise in advance if this happens.

Crosswriting Horizontal

Cape Town, Cape of Good Hope Janr.12 1830

My dearest Mother
We arrived here this morning after a most favourable
voyage from Port Praga both as to wind and weather and I have
not suffered nearly so much as before 1xxxxxxx at that Port.
Molloy also has been wonderfully well throughout.The animals
have stood it better and this past week we have had three
lambs two of which I hope will survive, one died yesterday.
We have not 2xxxxx and since I wrote before. Cape Town is
prettily situated with immense Rocks behind it & a
singular shaped mountain called Table Mount.
It is now their summer and I have just been feasting
on Grapes a large 3xxxxx for a shilling and some Pears which
are tasteless not so highly flavoured as British fruit and a
beautiful Craw fish for four pence which Staples seized upon
and had instantly boiled for me. Molloy has now gone in search of
a domicile for himself and me as the expense of taking
our servants on shore would be heavy. Some mountains to
the left right reminds me of those at the head
of Gair Loch but these you do not know. We thought much of
you all on 4xxxxxxx New Years Day last and consoled ourselves
with thinking you would all think much of us and drink our
health, it was very unlike Xmas from its being oppressively hot.
I think you will just be seeing our Letters from Porto Praga at this (time)

Crosswriting Vertical

Proteas such as they have at Holbrook are used for fuel and whole 5xxxxx of them. Lady Lowry
kindly stopped and brought all the beautiful plants to me. They think nothing of driving
10 & 14 horses at a time in their wagons which resemble the covered 6xxxxxxxx of
England. And innumerable fruit of the most luxurious kind perfectly
7xxxxxx. Grapes, Mulberries, Peaches Figs, Loquats a Chinese fruit covered the
Breakfast Table and everything is so beautifully clean. I am infinitely better than
I am on Board, as then every day I am sick but doubtless there are reasons for it and
all may be comfortably arranged by May. Mrs. Dawson is to be confined in
March and I have been so ill & felt the idea so repugnant,
of working before any one. I have not put in a single 8 xxxxxx for myself altho’ some
Ladies on board have offered their patterns. If you send the things I
ordered I shall be thankful to receive them but if you have not sent them I shall
not regret it as Molloy will not be out of pocket, he does not know I have ordered
them. The accounts of Swan River are varied according to the idea of the
persons who give them some reports favourable others not, we think passage will (be)

Little Miracles

"A re-enactment image - not the real dress!"

We always wondered if there were any letters from Georgiana out there in the world that were not in our collection that we have sourced in Australia and the UK . One has just found its way to us via a collector who purchased the letter at an auction. The letter is from Georgiana to her friend Elizabeth.

Before I continue, I must tell you about the wonderful Patrick Richardson Bunbury, a descendent of Georgiana and John Molloy, who has been our quiet and dedicated transcriber. Over the years Patrick has typed up some of the most difficult letters and diaries and so he was the first person we told when we were contacted by the collector in the UK who has the newly discovered letter.

This discovery which the collector notified us about also highlights the importance of having a website and blog. We really value people around the world who share our interest contacting us.

Back to the new discovery - while we are undertaking the necessary release forms to get permission to publish the entire letter, we can tell you that it contains information that we always wanted to know. i.e. Where did she get married and what did she wear?

The wedding of Georgiana Kennedy and John Molloy was a pivotal moment in both their lives. Georgiana had prayed in search of an answer to her future. For some time she had felt extremely content staying as a guest at the Dunlop family home. She had left her own home in Carlisle because she was unhappy with her family and some of their wayward ways. When her closest friend Helen Dunlop married the Reverend Story and moved from Keppoch House to the Rosneath Manse, Georgiana felt she may be overstaying her welcome and even considered becoming a governess in India.

About this time, Governor Stirling wrote to John Molloy from the Swan Colony in Western Australia inviting him to participate in colonizing a vast land in Western Australia. He also suggested it would be wise for Molloy to bring a wife with him. John Molloy and Georgiana were not particularly well known to each other but he knew of her family and had probably had heard of her virtues. (We have a draft of John’s proposal where he signed off using his own nickname which Bernice has finally deduced to mean “Nose of the Crow”). At short notice and with the encouragement of her elders Georgiana accepted John’s offer, knowing full well it meant leaving her home, country, family and friends.

In the two books about Georgiana previously published, it was assumed she was married at Rosneath Church because the marriage was conducted by the Rev. Story. Our research of the documents could never verify this. With the help of Mike Rumble, it transpired that the ceremony was extremely likely to have taken place at Keppoch House. In Georgiana’s diary she mentions collecting the wedding flowers from the garden at Keppoch House and “putting them in their rooms”. She made no mention of any travel on that day - something she usually would note in her diary. Additionally, it was not unusual to use the formal rooms in a big house for a wedding and one the Dunlop daughters is on record of having been married at there.

The letter Georgiana wrote to her dear friend Elizabeth, talks precisely about the wedding taking place at Keppoch House which is final confirmation! But even more enchanting for us is that she describes her wedding dress, which means we can more closely approximate the dress for any filming or representation.

Bernice travels to the London for her education consultancy work quite frequently and she happened to be leaving a week after we got the news. She managed to fit a visit into the collector (to photograph the letter) and also travelled up to Cumbria (despite the extreme weather and floods) to follow up on a lead from the letter and in the hope of discovering more. Bernice, our researcher, undertakes this on a voluntary basis, as we are not currently funded for this project. At the Cumbria records office she made some headway to only be frustrated with a lack of time. When time allows she hopes to continue at the very next opportunity because while we have many of Georgiana’s letters to her family, it is very likely she wrote frequently to close friends.