Henry Hastings Hall to W S Hall, 14 August 1859
| Title: | Henry Hastings Hall to W S Hall, 14 August 1859 |
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| Identifier: | archives.org.au/Henry_Hastings_Hall_to_W_S_Hall,_14_August_1859 |
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| Related people: | Henry Hastings Hall · William Shakespeare Hall |
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| Keywords: | Transcriptions by Ian Berryman |
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File: H_H_Hall_1859_08_14.doc
Transcription
Woongong W A
Augst 14th 1859
My very dear brother
Your favors of 8th & 9th July duly to hand again afford me the unspeakable pleasure of holding a little converse with you. I have no line from Sarah nor have I any idea whether she & aunt yet know of our father’s death although they were written some time with your self.
The ploughing was very late this year but the season is very favorable I am busy pruning the vines. Ed Middleton gave me an hour’s instruction & came over the following week to see how I was getting on, he gave me great credit and said if I had been 10 years a ‘pruner’ I could not be doing them better — they are a difficult lot having been much neglected and the much-vaunted trellis has not yet been covered by them, but will this summer. M says we shall have 400 gallons of wine this season, they only made about 50 last year. We are going to clear 15 or 20 acres of land so next year there will be 60 under crop. I hope you get my letters regularly I have written by every mail since my arrival and shall continue to do so for the present and always send you papers. I fear Sarah will not be so comfortable as in Sandhurst. I am pleased with your thoughtful letter, but one thing is lacking you should always tell me what you are doing as until we are again together I shall always be anxious to know every particular. I think you are wise to remain until you know whether its to be ‘eggs or young ones’. I have had and still have some very unpleasant and humiliating business and if I could have procured a substitute I think I shd have preferred it, but I am determined to shew a bold front & I hope by next mail to be able to tell you I have arranged everything satisfactorily. You will hear by July mail I have administered to the Estate and intend coming in as the principal creditor for the benefit of my family. I have offered the Govt £77 the original debt & my offer has been accepted without interest of course I made it conditional that I should have granted in fee simple all the land previously allotted and subsequently confirmed by Mr Hutt. I have been offered £200 for Dedallah and £130 for the Fremantle town allotments. I do not think that ‘Judgment’ will ever be put in force and if it is I am liable only for what I realize from the Estate, over my own claim - I had drawn £40 three fourths of which I intended to remit you by this mail but Ander is so pressed for money I shall be compelled to lend him the greater part — or people might come down at once on him and smash him as they have poor Tom Peel who I advised to go through the insolvent court. He is completely ruined. Do you think he could get a billet as stock-rider? Kate Leake is married to a Mr Steere a brother of whom married a Miss Roe. If you eventually come up you had better bring one of the Stewarts with you as all your old sweethearts are married. Before taking out letters of administration I ascertained that I could only become liable to the amount of the effects and also that the deed of assignment I hold which with interest now amounts to more than £600 takes precedence of all other debts. I had one time thought of destroying that, but am very glad I did not as in any event I can secure that in the family. The law is, after paying debts, the personal property is to be equally divided amongst all the children male and female and the land belongs to me — but you will understand when the law is carried out I shall divide what is in my gift amongst my brothers, requiring only that they will lend me £200 to pay off the mortgage this I know you will all be willing to do. I had to find two sureties for £400 each & myself in £800 for the proper carrying out and settling the Estate rather a heavy bond. G Leake and Robt Brockman were the two. Had that memorandum of Will been valid, it would have made little difference, as neither Frank nor any one else could have kept things from the creditors except with my claim. I fear it will be an unpleasant and unprofitable business dividing the Chatels but everything will be ‘appraised’ & if you have not exactly what you wished for you will have the value. Your objections about Frank’s claim are regular floorers. I am sorry to say business demands my presence in Town oftener than I like but when the Estate is closed I shall seldom have occasion to leave home. I agree with you in every thing except about F having a greater share. If our late father was so imbecile or doating as to be desirous of rendering paramount to every consideration of justice or solicitude for his other children — the interests of his youngest son — I see no cogent reason why I should pander to such weak or unworthy designs — but I will give my late father credit for believing that had his health been sufficient for the task, on my arrival, he would have made some alteration in his Will — for I cannot conceive how a man could reasonably hope to leave at peace with all the world and yet leave behind him a deed which if it did not cause litigation might embitter his memory as long as a scion of his race remained! Had you been the favored one I think the general verdict would have been, ‘It served him right’!
If I sell eventually I know the place will realize more if I am here a twelve month. We have just had brick partitions in the house and the bedroom floors boarded and intend a shingled roof and ceiled in the summer & new farm buildings for the place looks very tumble down just now. Remember me to Taylor. I shall write to him & Fanny this mail and direct to Ararat. Two vessels from England have just arrived and four more under weigh. Frank is going to get married at the beginning of summer. Theodosia has another little girl (8) whom she has named after me and the marquis’s sister! ‘Flora Hastings’. I am going to take up 10,000 acres on the Blackwood so if you feel more inclined for a squat when you come up it will be at your service — or as they are much in demand I can sell it to advantage.
Its a good thing I left the Diggings as I was considered an old man there — but here I am reckoned a young one and there are lots of gals about 20 sticking up to me. By the last sentence you’ll think I’m so easily clewed up and your right — remember me to Farrer and his wife if you see them and sometimes give me a little news about how people I know are getting on. I shall sell the cattle now very shortly and the grants will follow & so soon as I have money in hand I shall remit you but remember should you see any good chance write as I can always remit you by return mail — I generally receive and answer letters from the Eastern Colonies by the same week. Now my dear brother God bless you.
Your ever affect
H H Hall
