Diary of John Harrozucr 91 Your directions for me is to Jn° Harrower at the seat of Coll Will"' Daingerfield Esql' of Belvidera near Fredericksburgh Rappahannock River Virginia, and then inclose it in a letter to Mess" Anderson and Horse - burgh Merch? in Glasgow and desire them to foreward the same under Cover to M' John Glassel Mer! in Fredericksb? their Correspondent who will pay all charges for my acco' .—Pray my Dearest let me know what my D' Boys and Girle are doing. I hope Jock ' and George are still at school and I begg of you to strain every nerve to keep them at it untill I am able to assist you, for he who has got education will always gain Bread and to spare, and that in a genteel way in some place or other of the World. I supose Betts is at home with yourself, but pray keep her tight to her seam and stockin and any other Housold affairs that her years are capable of and do not bring her up to Idleness or play or going about from house to house which is the first inlet in any of the sex to laziness and vice. Send me an Acco! of their Ages from the Bible which ye may do verry short by saying Jo : Born day Nov. 1762 Geo : Born &':" I yet hope please God, if I am spared, some time to make you a Virginian Lady among the woods of America which is by far more pleas- ent than the roaring of the raging seas round abo't Zetland, And yet to make you eat more wheat Bread in your old age than what you have done in your Youth. But this I must do by carefullness, industry and a Close Application to Business, which ye may take notice of in this letter I am doing Sunday as well as Saturday nor will I slip an honest method nor an hour whereby I can gain a penny for yours and my own advantage. There grows here plenty of extream fine Cotton which after being pict clean and readdy for the cards is sold at a shilling the pound ; and I have at this time a great high Girl Carline as Black as the . . . spinning some for me for which I must pay her three shillings the pound for spin- ning it for she must do it on nights or on Sunday for any thing I know notwithstanding she's the Millers wife on the next plantation. But Im determined to have a webb of Cotton Cloath According to my own mind, of which I hope you and my infants shall yet wear apart ; I cou'd write to you for a week for it gives me pleaser while I am writting to you, But as room fails me I must conclude with offering my good wishes to your Brothr, W. and M? Vance,^ M! and M" Forbes ' and W. Ferguson * if deserving at your hand with my Comp'.' to all who asks for me. And my 'In 1810 a J. Harrower, Caledonia Lodge of Masons, Edinburgh, affiliated at Lodge Morton, Lerwick, and he was appointed Proxy Master of the latter in 1 815. This may have been our Harrower' s son. ^ James Vance seems to have been one of the most prominent and most esteemed men in Lerwick. He was land-waiter and postmaster for the government, and the kirk ses- sions records show him as precentor, and afterward as session clerk, kirk treasurer and elder. He was warmly interested in the promotion of education and other good works. His wife was Barbara Craigie, sister of Mrs. Harrower, and of Captain James Craigie. 3 See note 2, on p. 84, supra. ♦William Ferguson was married to Ann Ross, sister of Margaret Ross, wife of James Craigie. He was supervisor of excise at Lerwick, and was a native of Thurso in Caithness.
