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Description: | Burns had decided to emigrate to Jamaica to escape the pressure he was under from the father of Jean Armour whom he had made pregnant. Although they had agreed to marry, her parents had deflected her from this course and were pursuing Burns for a financial settlement.
This is one of two preserved letters relating to the provision of a man to fill the post of assistant overseer on the sugar plantation of Charles Douglas in Jamaica who writes to his brother Dr Patrick Douglas in Cummnock to arrange the recruitment. It is a post which Burns agreed to fill and met with Douglas in Ayr in August to arrange details.
In the second page Douglas continues to explain what he wants done regarding Mr Bell and then requests his brother send him a gold seal with the family crest on it. At the end of the page he writes 'The young fellow I want is one who can write & read so as to be able to answer a letter I might write to him while abroad.' He suggests a wage of '10 or 12 pound a year or less'. | License: | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0 | Publisher: | Burns Monument Trust | Temporal: | 1786-01-01 - 1786-12-31 | Source: | Burns Scotland | Identifier: | Letter of Charles Douglas to Patrick Dou | Go to resource |
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