Enveloped Surprise

Hello all,

In our little collection of letters to the Cocker family the ninth letter in the series is the most surprising.

It is in an envelope with the penny red being hard to see under the barred numeral of 159 for Glasgow; only the left letter is visible, which is a C.

The postmarks are an orange-red circular GLASGOW MY 13 1847 with a letter A at the top and a letter F on the right of the circle, then a black MANCHESTER circle MY 14? 184? with code letter B at the bottom, and finally a blue BAKEWELL MY 14 1847.

Quote
Glasgow 13 May 1847


My Dear Sister,

Yesterday I sent Mr Eyre Five Pounds requesting him to credit our account with the same - I hope you will have sent a good order for Saturday - not forgetting the sugar as we talked about.

I have bought you a slap up satin dress the best manufactured and through a friend at wholesale price. I hope you will approve it - you have a sample -
tho' I don't know whether you will be able to judge from so small a piece -

it is likely that I cannot bring the summer shawl. My best love, I shall soon be hearing from you.

Yours affectionately
Josh Robt Cocker
Unquote

The sample is still in the letter. Perhaps this is why he used an envelope - to keep the sample in place.

I find it incredible that this piece of satin which is over 150 years old should still be in the envelope and still in



good condition.

Eunice and Ron

Marvelous stuff Ron,
thanks for sharing what is just wondeful postal history.
I can see the "swatch" through the envelope.

No back stamp? wax seal? monogram?
Are the Crockers traceable?

I presume coach from Bakewell (Beadica's well)
There may be Costume Historians very much interested in that
satin swatch.

Hi Rod,
Here is a scan of the back of the envelope.

There is a lot more information on our website and I think you have the URL which we cannot put in this forum.

We have about twenty letters of this family and they make really interesting reading. They were needle makers in Hathersage and someone else has taken the information from our letters and put them up on a website about Hathersage so we have not put them up on our own site. The two that were made into articles for Stamp News are on our site, as we present them differently with postal 'slant' not family or local history.


regards

Eunice and Ron.

Your discipline is admirable Ron,
How you separate postal history from the personal
I will never understand, I always managed to get seduced

I am still trying to match Eunice's Peninsular campaign letters
to Bryant's book on the Duke of Wellington, it does
chew up vast amounts of time though.

Your cover either shows a red ink blot, or perhaps a seal and monogram.
I'll check out the heathersage sight,
I wonder if it explains how they manage to get the "eye"
in the needle ?

1847:
the first US postage stamps issued
"Jane Eyre" is published
Jesse James was born
Thomas Edison was born

That Heathersage was interesting reading, albeit sad.
Life expectancy for a needle grinder was just 10 years.

Child employment:
Fifty years after arriving in Hathersage, Robert Cook had 100 employees including 20 children. One nine-year-old girl told the Children's Employment Commission of 1862 that she was at work shaping umbrella ribs from 6 am to 7 pm. One 11-year-old boy said that he sometimes worked a 15-hour day.

Hi Rod et al,

We have returned from languishing in tropical Townsville where we saw our niece married.
Everything went swimmingly and the weather was perfect for the outdoor ceremony in the golf club gardens. Lovely balmy weather all the time we were up there and we returned to frost here in Flinders View.

Eunice started her writing for Stamp News concentrating on the Postal markings as she thought it appropriate for a Stamp Magazine. However over the years the emphasis shifted with a lot of interest in the social content of the letters and in fact she has received a lot more feedback since she has included the actual letter contents.

She is no longer writing for S.N. (thereby hangs a tale) but wanted to complete her 20 years of writing for S.N. before ceasing. A shame really as she has really enjoyed the experience and all the research etc. and has a heap of letters she can still work on.

She will continue to write them up in html format anyway and we may have to 'juggle' the space on the web site to accommodate them.




<<How you separate postal history from the personal
I will never understand, I always managed to get seduced >>

We know the feeling well - we look for something in the cupboard and an hour later we are still looking at stuff that has no relevance to the item we are seeking but which has got us hooked all over again.

We will now have to get back 'normal' after our tropical sojourn and get some more 'postings' on the forums.


Cheers to all.
Ron and Eunice.

Welcome back Ron and Eunice,
I was hoping you had not left us.

I have receieved Eunice's letters re the peninsular war,
I'll try to match them up with Bryant's history
at a later date. (look forward to it)

I am currently working on a Vasco da Gama story and his route to India.

It is a shame Eunice will no longer be published, philately
needs her work for the future.
I would encourage her to seek other publications, the ASP
(australian stamp professionals) AFAIK were looking for
journalists, but you may not think that publication suits you.

Look forward to more of your work.

Hi again Rod,
Thanks for that Welcome back which was appreciated.
No, we hadn't left you and now that we have caught up with the backlog after
our Townsville trip we can get back to 'normal' if such a word can be
applied to us here, and I will be putting more postings on the community.




How many hours are there in your day - it must be more than 24 looking at
the number of postings you make to the community! All this other research
as well must keep your brain in overdrive.

What will you do with the Vasco da Gama story when you complete it?
Do you publish or is it for your own enjoyment?


Thanks for your kind comments on Eunice and her articles, but as you
suggest, ASP is not really our kind of publication though I did take the
first 20 magazines.

Regards.

Ron and Eunice.

I keep the majority of my stories just on hard disk Ron,
it's just a personal story that I find interest in.
It started as a personal interest on the world's maritime history,
after I read a book on the Phoenicians, and their discovery expansion
to a point just outside the pillars of Hercules (Gibraltar)
(there is argument they went as far west as the tin mines of
Dorset, and a little way down the west coast of Africa.)

Then I met with a replica of the Duyfken in Perth,
the first ship to really discover Australia, and I was just
amazed at how small these vehicles of discovery were,
they are tiny!

As you know the more you read about a subject the more you get swept up in the topic.

I see these men as brave in retrospect, but they were just doing what they did in those days.
On the trip back,da gama took 3 months to cross the Arabian sea
and he lost so many men, he did not have enough left to navigate
all the ships, and had to burn one, he arrived back in Lisbon
with 55 men from 170 and a journey of 2 years.

We owe a large debt of gratitude to Portugal for both the
voyages of discovery, and later at the Iberian Peninsular,
without whom, we may all be speaking French right now.
In fact at a later time, Australia was just a whisker, a blink away
from being claimed by France.
Tha vagaries of fate

World history is full of funny little quirks. I found myself somewhat unwillingly in Puerto Rico many years ago (and got stranded by Hurricane Hugo for my troubles). In the airport, I bought a history of the Caribbean written by a former Prime Minister of Trinidad & Tobago, and was surprised to learn that Canada had been traded to France for Guadeloupe & Martinique (with the apparent feeling that the French were getting the better of the bargain). A brief summary of the situation is found at this link.

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q...WOxu14FekoIQ

Ryan

Nice piece of chicanery Ryan,
I had to read it twice to get the gist.

Napoleon lost vast amounts of territory in his angst
against the English.
Disease of Yellow fever in Haiti cost him the Louisiana purchase
at something around 5c an acre.

Modern times have done away with "protectionism" hence we see so many states chasing independence, and so it should be,
although Kyrgyzstan's problem may be the exception.