Series 5 - William Quin letter

127pp

The William Quin letter is catalogued as T3718 in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI), Belfast. Permission to publish was granted to Kerby A. Miller by depositor and owner of the original manuscript, Charles A. Dillon in 1990.

Materials related to a letter written in 1840 by William Quin of Crew townland, Glenavy parish, County Antrim, to his friend and former neighbour, Richard Dillon in Peru village, Clinton County, New York. Included are typed transcripts and a photocopy of the original letter, Kerby A. Miller's research notes and materials, and extensive correspondence with archivists in Clinton County. Per Miller: 'Letter provides an excellent, detailed description of the severe social consequences of economic depression in both agricultural and industry, and of the increasing capitalization and factory-concentration of the Ulster linen industry, which devastated cottage manufacturing for both male weavers and female spinners. The crises have created great pressures and incentives to emigrate, either to the US or Upper Canada, but the collapse of both land prices and linen-based incomes made emigration by entire families, instead of by young, single individuals, increasingly difficult.'