[Letter from Elizabeth Upshur Teackle to her husband Littleton D. Teackle, November 17, 1807]

Mentioned in this letter

Business, Economy, and Travel: Travel - Carriage and Coaches; Travel - Watercraft - Ships
Education, Religion, Literacy, and Culture: Philosophy
Home, Health, and Social Life: Health - Pregnancy
People: Bowdoin, Peter, 1761-1825; Eyre, Grace Dumcombe Taylor, 1780-1809; Quinby, Elizabeth Ann Upshur Teackle, 1801-1875; Taylor, Robert Barraud, 1774-1834; Teackle, Littleton Dennis, 1777-1848; Winder, Comfort I. Gore, 1785-1814; Winder, John, 1746-1822
Places: United Kingdom - Caribbean; United States - District of Columbia - Washington D.C.; United States - Virginia - Northampton County

About this letter

Description: Letter from Elizabeth Upshur Teackle to her husband, Littleton D. Teackle, detailing delays in her journey home. She stopped at Dr. Winder's due to a lame horse, and is slowly making her way home. She's heard that a schooner matching the description of one of their boats, the Princess Anne, was seen in the Wicomico river, returning from the West Indies. She says she recently wrote him by Robert Barraud Taylor, who was to post it in the Western Shore mail. She says Grace D. Taylor Eyre just had a boy who is doing well, and that Comfort Winder is also pregnant.
Creator: Teackle, Elizabeth Uphsur
Creation Date: November 17, 1807
Subjects: Teackle, Littleton Dennis, 1777-1848; Teackle, Elizabeth Upshur, 1783-1837; Quinby, Elizabeth Ann Upshur Teackle, 1801-1875; Taylor, Robert Barraud, 1774-1834.
Item Type: letter
Identifier: MSS 2338, 2338-a, 2338-b Box 1
Publication Information: Papers of the Quinby, Teackle, and Upshur families, 1759-1968, Accession #2338, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.
Institution: Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
Collection: Voices of the Eastern Shore
Place Names: United States - Maryland - Somerset County - Princess Anne; United States - Virginia - Northampton County

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Northampton 17^th Nov, 1807

My dear Mr Teackle,

You will no doubt be surprised to see my date still from this place. The fact is our horse is yet lame, or rather has been so untill yesterday when I rode as far as Doctor Winder’s. I hope from this trial I may be able by the 19th Ins^t to set out homeward. When by making easy stages, I hope he will perform the journey with out material injury to himself.

The last post brought me a letter from you which to my infinite surprise mentions your never having receiv’d one letter from me during your absence. I cannot bear that you shou’d think me so negligent, even for a moment, although I know you must in time be undeceiv’d, as you will doubtless receive at least half a dozen letters from me by the

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time you arrive at home, as has sometimes been the case with regard to yours written to me, which I had waited for, and so anxiously, and in vain expected from one post to another.

I have indeed been so kindly receiv’d and entertain’d by my friends here that I shou’d have been ungrateful not to have shewn my thanks in the satisfaction of my looks and manners. Had you been here too, our enjoyment wou’d have been perfect. Indeed, we have often wished for you. However, it has been a source of comfort to reflect that you have always shewn yourself to be enough of a Philosopher to separate with a judicious mind the good from the bad in the things of this world, enjoying with gratitude the former which serve to mitigate the chagrin you wou’d otherwise feel in the stings of the latter.

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It has ever been my ambition to act up to the excellent system you have so kindly laid down to me in this simple uncomplicated position, viz. “Look ever to the bright side of the picture.” The truth is, (if we had but enough of gratitude to acknowledge it) the light is infinitely stronger than the shade in the grand picture of the world. I am at the same time conscious that this doctrine will be cavilled at by the dissatisfied, the ungrateful snarlers, amongst Heaven’s creatures.

Yesterday Mr. Bowdoin mention’d that a Mr. James Johnson told him that he had seen a schooner homeward bound from the W. Indies bearing the description of our P. Anne in the great Wicomico. The crew and captain also answered the description, although they wou’d not tell him anything about