Prisoner's Letter: Awaiting Departure for New Life

Awaiting Departure: 'Expecting to go away every day?' 20 April…
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Awaiting Departure: 'Expecting to go away every day?' 20 April 1833 mss letter from Robert Erskine at 'Newgate Northside' [Prison] to his correspondent in Clerkenwell. Evidently well educated, Erskine is writing to ask for the return of his Savings Bank Book, his 30 shillings and 'all the Clothes and Books of mine' as he is 'expecting to go away every day....You say that you will keep the things for me 'till I return to the shores of Hated England, But as I do not mean ever to come back to England I do not see the utility of such proceedings.....they will be very useful to me as I have got a Situation as Surgeon's 2nd Mate by the kindness of Lord Melbourne whom I petitioned......I have been very unwell for this fortnight. For my part I think it is the Gaol distemper....for nearly everyone of the Prisoners has got something the matter with him.' Erskine had been sentenced to 7 years transportation at the Middlesex Session of Peace in March 1833; he departed for Van Diemen's Land in May 1833 aboard the Stakesby, along with 215 other male convicts, arriving in September 1833. Nb: The folded letter bears postal markings including the rare oval '4.Even.4 / Ap.22 / 1833' time marking in red.

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