$$H26 Part of the Margaret Graham Browne Catalogue$$H
ANNIE BROWNE'S LETTERS
1873 - 1878
Annie Browne wrote these letters to her
brother Audley when he was in America in
the 1870s.
They give a vivid picture of Annie and
her Mother Ellen (nee Holmes) and their
life in Rathneeny. They describe how her
brother William and his Family coped with
the aftermath of their Father's death and
how they struggled to keep the farm going
until Audley's return. Annie gave her
young life to the farm and was in her late
twenties when her father died in 1873.
She appears to have been a clever and
resourceful woman with a real knowledge of
Farming in all its forms. Audley kept all
the letters he received from Annie, his
mother and his brothers William and Robert.
There are no letters for 1875, as a lot of
letters and documents were damp and I was
unable to save them. It is probable that
there were others. In those days of slow
post and the fact that Audley moved around
a lot in America and Canada, there were
probably only four or five letters anyway
each year. He also kept all kinds of
business letters and documents. Because
he was such a meticulous person, we are
privileged to get a small glimpse into the
lives of our forebears, of whom we knew
nothing before the letters turned up in
"Granda Browne's Trunk" in Stella Morrow
(nee Browne's) shed. The first letter
from Annie is written on black bordered
writing paper, their father Audley had
died in February of that year. His will
was made a few days before he died and was
drawn up by Adam McClay and witnessed by
Adam McClay and John Holmes, nephew of
Audley's wife Ellen Holmes. He left the
farm to Audley, his son, who was in America.
William, his eldest son, was left £20.00.
He was living at home with his wife (Mary
Anne Farrell) and daughter Ellen, and Mary
Anne gave birth to a son Joseph shortly
afterwards. He left Ellen £10.00. Annie
received £30.00, and Robert, who was in
Canada or America at that time, received
£40.00. Those were quite large sums of
money in those days. He left a heifer
to his wife and so much fodder, etc.,
for it. Audley was to pay all these sums
and look after his mother until her death.
The problem seemed to be that Audley didn't
want to come home from America and Annie's
letters are mostly about that fact. William
was carrying on as best he could, he bought
a farm, probably in Trummon as he lived
there for some time and some of the children
were born there. He put down crops in both
farms and kept things going. It must have
been a talking point in the neighbourhood,
going by John Holmes' letter to Audley.
Annie left home some time in the later part
of the century. I have no idea what happened
to her. Maybe she went to Mary Jane, her
sister in Michigan. Mary Jane went to
Peterborough in Canada, presumably to her
Aunt Prudence (Browne) Lipsett and married
William Johnston out there in 1863. Robert
spent some time with Mary Jane; he travelled
all over America working at various jobs -
from the railroads to buying a store in New
York. He disappeared from the records after
that. Maybe his descendants are still there.
I think he was involved with Archie McClay
in the store. I will print out the letters
and they will give us a better idea of how
things were in the lives of our family
living in the 19th century.
(* The owner of these documents has informed us that this
townland is spelt "Rathneeny" and that the older spellings of it
are "Roniney" or "Raneny". In the "Index To The Townlands and
Towns, Parishes and Baronies of Ireland" the spelling is
"Raneany")
