SD1304. Robert McDonagh to Edward Moulton-Barrett (father)
Published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 14, 369 (in part).
Falmouth Jamaica
Decr 21st 1846
Dear Sir
I received your letter of the 16th nov and must say I never was more surprised in my life than on reading its contents I consider my self excessively ill used, when you offered your wharf for lease I was not named among the parties to have a chance of renting it and as you would no doubt have dispenced with me without any regard to my self or services could you have obtained the rent you asked so now you wish me to remain until you get the rent you put upon the premises this is not the treatment I expected at your hands. With regard to the charges in your letter which you say has shaken your confidence in me I shall take the liberty of some explanation first with regard to the letter you enclosed me some 4 years ago for Mrs Hewan this lady was as I then wrote you in Hanover my clerk was lying dangerously ill and I had two American Cargoes landing at the wharf so that it was impossible for me to leave the wharf even for an hour and as Mrs Hewan was to be home in a few days I had no other alternative than to leave the wharf to take care of itself or wait her return and if her refusal to comply with your request has put you to inconvenience no person could regret it more than I did[.]
As to not looking after your lands here I deny it and whenever I found any person trespassing I always informed your attorney with regard to encroachments on your property & am aware of none unless you allude to the Jewish burying ground being built on part of two lots of land instead of one and when I inform you the walls enclosing same were built just two years before I was born you will at once see it could not have been done under my eye besides you will permit me to say I do not consider it was any part of my duty while you had an attorney I may say within a few miles of the spot–
With regard to my being a merchant I have only to say whoever informed you they either meant to deceive you or perhaps their object was to injure me in your estimation I deny it in toto the very circumstance of the large increase of merchants wharfage of late I would mention as a complete refutation and if I was guilty of making use of your time for my own benefit I would indeed be unworthy of your confidence but I can plainly see some malicious person has been poisoning your ear for some time past, under all these circumstances and the degradation I have felt in serving under your present representative whom you placed in the room of a gentleman I have come to the conclusion that to serve you any longer as Wharfinger would be inconsistant with anything like respect for myself I have therefore informed Mr Roberts of my determination to leave the Wharf as soon as he can get a person to take charge of it and so my thankless task is done[.]
I cannot however conclude this my last letter to you without thanking you for your once kind treatment of me which I cannot forget and for which I assure you I am grateful regretting only that your ear has ben abused by persons interested only for themselves and I remain Dear Sir
Your faithl & obt Servt
Robt McDonagh
E M Barrett Esquire
Docket: Mr McDonagh / Recd Jany 25th 1847.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Eton College Library.
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