Webster, Daniel (1782-1852) to James William Paige
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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC01946.13 Author/Creator: Webster, Daniel (1782-1852) Place Written: New York, New York Type: Autograph letter signed Date: 5 December 1829 Pagination: 3 p. : docket ; 24.2 x 19.8 cm. Order a Copy
Appears to be planning for his 12 December 1829 marriage to Caroline LeRoy. States that if Paige cannot attend the Saturday date, "a postponement will take place till Monday following." States that Paige should arrange passage on the ship, the "Ch: Livingstone," scheduled to leave Providence, Rhode Island, Thursday 10 December. Promises not to fix the wedding date until Paige arrives, and instructs him to come prepared to stay one week. Discusses whether or not he should take his daughter Julia Webster to Washington, D.C. after the occasion. States that Julia would be better off with Mrs. Searle, her schoolteacher in Boston, than in Washington.
Julia remained in Boston with her mother Grace's cousin, Eliza Buckminster Lee, following Grace's January 1828 death.
5 December 1829, New York
10 A.M.
Dear William:
I wrote you last night, saying that I wished you to be here, on Saturday the 12th at 12 o'clock - that if I should not hear from you, that you can be here, by that time, a postponement will take place till Monday following. That letter I sent to the P.O. supposing it would go by land & this I write for the Steam Boat. Nothing will be said here, as to time, till I hear from you, which I shall at least do by Friday 11 o'clock, & that will be in ?, though I should like to hear earlier - the Ch: Livingstone, you will see, is advertised to leave Providence, Maine say Dec. 10. I have thought you might ? get ready to leave by that conveyance. If not, & you have a prosperous voyage, you will be here on Friday morning & matters & things will then take place on Saturday. If you should have bad weather, or the boat should not come, then you might take the stage coach & reach this City on Sunday. Probably we shall not fix, definitively, on Saturday, or this day, till Friday morning, when we see you here. I hope things will work so kindly as to bring you here, at that time, without inconvenience. Our own passage up was rapid & agreeable - I hope you will come prepared to stay a week.
I expect C/ will be a good deal urgent to take Julia to Washington. She desires it much, & think it will look wrong to send her back & leave her to the care of others, but I think she will be much better off as Miss Searls, than as ? for the present - she is gone to ? today at Mrs. W.
I miss two ? - ask Ms. White to see if they were not omitted from my trunk - one black velvet - ? new spotted one - they may have gone to W. - but I think not.
I forget a pattern of the cloth for curtains - please throw it in your trunk.
Yours truly
D. Webster
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