Letter on Christian charity and almsgiving (page 1 of 4) — Charleston, Oct 9, 1851, Samuel G. Barker to his daughter Susan Barker FitzSimons
Book 1, Page 57 ·1851
Transcription
A handwritten letter on a folded sheet, in brown ink and cursive. A small pencilled compiler annotation in a different (later) hand sits just under the salutation, identifying writer and recipient.
[Pencilled compiler annotation, two lines]: From Samuel G. Barker to his daughter Susan Barker F.S.
Charleston Oct 9[th] 1851.
My Dear Child
You have heard of my safe arrival at home — where I find all as well as usual. Theos had conducted our business remarkably well during our absence & as soon as I could throw off the dissipation of mind resulting from my late life I released him from my prison house & sent him to his task again — I hoped Ellen would have arrived on Monday last instead of Ellen we had her letter promising to be here on Saturday. It seems probable that her Saturday will be converted into Monday.
It is surprising how much more sensation & how little thought has been crowded into two months. I don’t recollect a single interchange of thought with you except the mention of alms giving as the basis of Christian character — as I am more likely to have out, what I have to say, in constructive than in actual conversation with you, I will tell you my thought. God has placed us in the world surrounded with relations, our relation involves duties and a perfect life exhausts these relations. The first & highest relation of creature to the Creator involves adoration & from the imperfectness of our finite [being?] his can never be exhausted any more than
AI Notes
Page 1 of the 4-page philosophical letter on Christian charity and almsgiving that continues through pages 058–060. The pencilled compiler annotation just under the salutation reads ‘From Samuel G. Barker to his daughter Susan Barker F.S.’ (F.S. = FitzSimons), confirming on the leaf itself the attribution established by the signature on p060: writer is Samuel Gaillard Barker (1799–1863), recipient is his daughter Susan Milliken Barker FitzSimons (1827–1900). Dateline ‘Charleston Oct 9th 1851’ is clear. The writer reports his safe return home; that his manservant Theos managed business well in his absence; that he expected another daughter Ellen to arrive Monday but received only her letter promising Saturday; and then pivots into the meditation on Christian duty and almsgiving that becomes the body of the letter. The page is anchored definitively into the 1848–1863 Sam’l Barker letter cluster.
The writer, Samuel Gaillard Barker (1799–1863), was a Charleston merchant and the compiler’s paternal great-grandfather; the recipient, his daughter Susan Milliken Barker (1827–1900), would later marry Dr. Christopher FitzSimons (3rd) and become the compiler’s paternal grandmother. The letter is the earliest of five surviving Barker-family writings in the album and the centerpiece of an 1848–1863 correspondence cluster.
Letter continues on next page.