The writer of the letter given below, Mary, widow of Moses, and mother of Stephen F. Austin, had a remarkable life and was descended from remarkable people. She was born January 1, 1768, at Sharpsborough Upper Forge (one of the iron mines of her grandfather Sharp) in the mountains of New Jersey; married (September 28, 1785, in Christ Church, Philadelphia—where her grandmother and great-grandmother had been married before her) Moses Austin, of Durham, Connecticut, and went with him to Richmond, Virginia, thence to the lead mines in the wilderness of Wythe county, and finally, in 1798, to Missouri, where she lived until her death—January 8, 1824—with the exception of about eighteen months spent among her relatives in the East while her daughter was in school in New York. The letters she wrote her husband during this time are most interesting.
The father of Mary Austin, Abia Brown, was a prominent man in his community, being justice of the peace of Sussex county (an office at that time—1772—corresponding in dignity with justice of the supreme court now); member of the council of safety during the war; deputy from Sussex in attendance at the Provincial Congress at Trenton (October, 1775); and deputy in attendance at the Provincial Congress at New Brunswick (January-March, 1776). He died in 1785 when only forty-two. His wife, Margaret, was the daughter of Mary Coleman and Joseph Sharp; thus uniting in her veins the blood of those two prime movers of the Quaker migration to America, Anthony Sharp and Robert Turner, both prosperous English merchants of Dublin, Ireland, and, next to William Penn, the richest and most prominent men who helped to found the colonies of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Of them Judge Clement says, in his History of the Settlement of Newton (New Jersey), “Anthony Sharp and Robert Turner, both Quakers, and both men of fortune, were the guides in this, and not only gave their advice as to the details of the movement, but also covered the doubtful points by contributions of their means.” They both suffered persecution and imprisonment in England and Ireland for conscience's sake; and great pecuniary loss through unjust fines and through destruction of property by mobs.
Anthony Sharp never came to America, but sent out, first, his nephew Thomas Sharp (in 1681) to look after his large landed interests in East and West Jersey and be his personal representative in the Council of Proprietors; and (in 1701) his eldest son Isaac (just come of age), who, besides being member of the Council of Proprietors, served as judge of Salem court (1709-17), surrogate of Salem county (1712), and member of the Assembly (1709-21). Isaac Sharp's son Joseph married (February 12, 1743) Mary Coleman, great-granddaughter of Robert Turner, the man who, next to William Penn, put most brain, effort and money into the foundation of Pennsylvania.
Robert Turner arrived at Philadelphia on the Lion of Liverpool, October 14, 1683, with his two motherless daughters, Martha and Mary, and seventeen indentured servants; filled almost every office of importance in the colony; and gave to its upbuilding the best that was in him to the time of his death, in 1700. An intimate friend and counselor of William Penn in the over-sea planning of the colony, Robert Turner was ever his dependence and often his personal representative in Pennsylvania; for William Penn spent but four years in America—two from 1682 to 1684 and two more from 1699 to 1701—and so his representatives had their hands full. In Pennsylvania Robert Turner held the offices of provincial judge, deputy governor, commissioner of property, member of governor's council, receiver general for properties, and register general; and in New Jersey, although a non-resident, he was one of the twenty-four proprietors to whom the Duke of York released East Jersey, and was a member of both the assembly and governor's council of West Jersey and justice of Burlington county—which meant member of the quarter sessions, special, common pleas, and general courts, court of errors, and—at a later date—the supreme court.
The first brick house in Philadelphia was built by Robert Turner as a model for others; and, when its place was demanded by trade conditions of this day, in the spring of 1906, it and his second house, built in 1685, withstood all onslaughts of pick and sledge, and yielded only to dynamite. The brick and mortar had become one unyielding mass. A description of his second house is given in a letter written by Turner to William Penn in 1685, which was formerly in the possession of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. Fortunately a copy of the letter exists, and also a picture of the houses, in Watson's Annals. 80
Laura Bryan Parker.
Herculaneum July the 28 1821. Dear Couzen
I wrote you a long letter in the month of December last, as near as I can recollect, giving you a detaild account of my dear Husband's misfortunes in consequence of the failure of the St. Louis bank together with a number of heavy losses he had sustaind by being security and unfortunate shipments he had made. Finding his business in a very embarrast situation and the times very hard he gave up all his property to men he thought would do him justice and let no one suffer, and went to the province of Texas in Spain to see if he could do anything to advantage in that country. His encouragement from the government surpast his most sanguine expectations and after an absence of ten months he returned home, but finding his confidence had been abused and he deceived by those in whose hands he had placed his property, he arranged his affairs in haste and intended starting to Texas in May, accompanyd by a number of respectable men, who had embarked with him in this great enterprise—but oh my friend marck the uncertainty of everything in this vale of tears—a few days previous to his departure he was attacked with a violent Inflammation of the Lungs and was so severe as to baffel the power of medicine and the skill of the best Physicians in this Country and terminated his life on the 10 of June.
My distress and trouble has been greater than my pen can describe. I endeavor to bear this afflicting dispensation of providence with that resignation we owe to the will of heaven and blessed with the dear pledges of affection left behind. I shall for their sake exert myself to bear this inroad upon my happiness with the fortitude necessary to sustain it. God still tempers the wind to the shorn lamb—it tis the cup of affliction that chastens, and brightens the pearls scattered before us here and sometimes prepares us for that hereafter, where the weary are at rest and the wicked cease from troubling.
I am sorry to inform you my family is reduced from a state of affluence to a state of poverty and I cannot in Justice to myself and children give up what is due from T. R...... and C. A...... At the time they requested me to give up my share of the back rents my dear Husband was in affluence and I never expected to want a dollar. I am now dependent upon my son in law, my son S. F. Austin is in Texas waiting the arrival of his father and it will be long before he can know the great loss he has met with, my son James B. A. went to Lexington three years ago to finish his education and such has been my distressed situation and the great difficulty of getting money, it was not in my power to make him a during the long absence of his Father. It was on his account I requested you to collect my share of the rent and sent it on in post notes or the U. S. paper—receiving no answer to my letter I concluded it never reached you and his father intended sending him money from New Orleins and I have no recourse left but getting the money from T. R...... It tis painful to my feelings to demand it as I once gave him reason to think I had given it up. Be assured my good friend nothing but necessity has induced me to trouble you again with this business—it will add to the numerous obligations I am already under to you and my much esteemd friend Mrs. Sharp. Present my affectionate regards to her—I know her friendly heart will simpathize with me in my sorrows. Tell her it would give me much pleasure to hear from her and all old friends.
Pardon the incorrectness of this hasty scrall the mail is closing and I must put an end to this ill wrote letter. I left my Daughter well a few days ago. She has three fine sons 81—were she here she would join me in best wishes for your health &Happiness. I am your sincere friend
M. Austin. 82
81. William Joel, Moses Austin, and Guy M. Bryan.
82. On the back of the letter are the following address and endorsements:
“Herculaneum25
July 27
MailEdward Sharp Esquire
Camden
State of New Jersey
Received Aug. 25th, 1821.”
How to cite:
"A LETTER FROM MARY [MRS. MOSES] AUSTIN ", Volume 010, Number 4, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, Page 343 - 346. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v010/n4/article_5.html
[Accessed Tue Dec 2 17:47:40 CST 2008]
