Series 21 - George Beresford O'Reilly letters

39pp

Transcripts of letters 1-4 of the O'Reilly letters and associated notes were provided to Kerby A. Miller by Bruce D. Boling in 1973. Reproductions of the letters were provided to Miller by Trinity College Dublin Library (MS3472, items 205-249) in 1974.

Transcripts, abstracts, and photocopies of ten letters written by business clerk George Beresford O'Reilly in New York City between 1851 and 1853 to his father Myles John O’Reilly and sisters Susan and Bessy living in France, plus Bruce D. Boling's 1973 notes on the O'Reillys.
Regarding O’Reilly, Boling writes: ‘It would appear from his letters that George Beresford's job in New York was obtained through family friends; at least that is how I interpret his references to the Westons, who may be the American branch of the Irish family with whom the famous antiquarian Patrick Weston Joyce is connected. George Beresford's concern with physical fitness is not unique in his family… …according to family documents; in point of fact, he emigrated in 1849, at the age of 17.
Knowing a bit more of his background as a member of one of Ireland's most illustrious families, I can more easily understand his rather querulous and condescending attitude in his letters. He was educated to be a gentleman, and having, like many of his class, learned no specific practical skills for earning a living, he was doubtless ill prepared for the mundane routine and downright hardships of the business world, and the fact that he had to make his way in a strange land probably made things no easier for him. I wouldn't be surprised if he considered the whole thing rather infra dig. He seems, moreover, to have been rather short on talent (although he was an excellent draftsman, to judge from his drawings) and not possessed of any spark of originality which might have eased his advancement in life. To his credit, however, is his determination. Whether he succeeded in his attempts to make money in Australia I don't know; there is no reference to him in the family correspondence after 1857… …The only other reference to him I have come across is found in a letter from the British Vice-Consul in Bogota to Capt. S. C. Beresford-Mundey, grandson of Myles George, dated January 8, 1949. Here it is stated: “...whilst the marriage of Mr. George Beresford O'Reilly to Miss Henrietta Adams is recorded as having taken place on the 12th Jan. 1867, there are to be found no further references in any of the registers here. It is to be presumed therefore that the O'Reillys must have left this country shortly after the marriage.”’