Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1842-1845 (Creation)
Level of description
Collection
Extent and medium
5 letters
Context area
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Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Deposited on indefinite loan by Mrs N. Hewitt 1972 :Quaker Collection, sent from Friends' Library, London to E. Robey 1957
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Collection consists of five letters from a Quaker, John H. Fisher, in Hobart to his brothers, Reuben A Fisher and Thomas W.Fisher in Cork, Ireland.
John Fisher asked for news of his family, mentioning particularly his sisters May, Susanna and Margaret, Uncle John, cousins and friends and the other apprentices and he inquired if brother Thomas was still apprenticed to Henry Morris. His past misfortune was his own fault and he did not expect friend Thomas Harvey to forgive him (F.1/2) and he wanted to know if the Friends Society had disowned him and how people he owed money to felt (F.1/4). He had not been much to the Friends Meeting House in Hobart -- it was very different from home (F.1/3). Fisher had been in Port Philip and went into the bush but had an accident crossing the Goulburn River when a bullock dray ran over his legs and broke his thigh. In Hobart Isaac got him a job as overseer to David Lord but he was the only free person employed. Now he was working with Isaac who was teaching him hat making (1843 F.1 /2) but in 1845 he wrote that hats could be imported more cheaply and Isaac was fell mongering - getting up wool for the English market (F.1/4). There was a depression in Hobart but his life was comfortable. Hobart had 4 insurance offices, 4 churches (2 English, 2 Scotch), a Catholic chapel, 4 dissenting houses and a Friends Meeting House. In his last letter, dated 11 November 1845, John Fisher says he is thinking of
trying for Californian gold. One letter was later endorsed with a letter from A. Fisher to Thomas dated 31 . 12 . 1894 from Dymond City, N.C., enclosing the letters from their brother John and commenting on A.F.'s good life in the U.S.A., news of his children and his
farm on which he still led an active life although both he and Thomas had "passed the three score and ten"
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This material is made available for personal research and study purposes under the University of Tasmania Standard Copyright Licence. For any further use permission should be obtained from the copyright owners. For assistance please contact Special.Collections@utas.edu.au
When reusing this material, please cite the reference number and provide the following acknowledgement:
“Courtesy of the UTAS Library Special & Rare Collections”
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Dates of creation revision deletion
HE Jan 2018