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Letter from Gilbert Burns to Jean Burns, 15 January 1820

Key details

Archive number
NTS/02/25/BRN/03/04/22
Alt. number
3.6433
Date
15 January 1820
On display
No
Creator
Burns, Gilbert (Author)
Recipient
Burns, Jean Armour

Explore correspondence between the creator and recipient

Description

Letter from Gilbert Burns to Jean Burns, dated Grant's Braes, 15 January 1820.

Announcing the death of his Mother who "expired yesterday a little before three O'clock afternoon without a struggle or a groan. Her funeral will be put off till near the end of next week in order to give time for getting an iron frame made to defend against the nightly robbers of the grave." Also enclosing an instruction for an intimation written in the letter to be torn off and sent to Mr MacDiarmid of the Dumfries Newspaper. Addressed to Mrs Burns Dumfries. Haddington January fifteen 1820. Postmark Haddington. Stamped JAN 16 1820

Gilbert Burns opens the first page of this letter with his not unusual complaint at not having heard from his Sister-in-law for some length of time but also acknowledges that he has not been in contact with her either. He announces the death of his mother, who has been in bed for several months and had passed away "without a struggle or a groan" the previous day 14th January 1820.

He then says that the funeral will have to be held back until they can get an iron frame built around the burial plot to protect it from the nightly grave-robbers prevalent at the time. The balance of the page is taken up describing the current illness of his wife and a gruesome blood-letting treatment to deal with it.

Page two is devoted to the inclusion of an obituary notice which Gilbert Burns has written on the death of his Mother. This he asks his sister in law Jean to cut out and send to the Dumfries newspaper in the person of a Mr MacDiarmid.

The torn remnant of the page can be seen and so we can conclude that his request was fulfilled although the content of the notice can no longer be deduced.
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Archive information

Hierarchy

  1. Letters, documents and ephemera regarding the family of Robert Burns ( )
  2. Letters and Documents relating to Gilbert Burns ( )
  3. Letter from Gilbert Burns to Jean Burns, 15 January 1820

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