LIVINGSTONE
WRITES HIS CHILDREN:
"WE WANT TO SEE YOU ALL EVERY DAY SO LONG AS WE REMAIN IN ENGLAND
SO THAT YOU MAY NOT FORGET TO LOVE US...
WHEN WE GO AWAY TO AFRICA IN THE SERVICE OF OUR DEAR SAVIOUR"
DAVID LIVINGSTONE. Autograph Letter Signed
to his daughter Agnes, London, 7 January 1857. 4 pp., 7" x 4½".
A very scarce family letter from David Livingstone, the Scottish missionary
and explorer who had just completed his first journey through Africa,
a fifteen-year epic during which he traveled north from South Africa
well into the interior, then to the west coast, and then back across
the continent to the east coast. While in Africa, in January 1845, Livingstone
had wed Mary Moffat, the daughter of another Scottish missionary, and
she had traveled with him until April 1852 when her health and the needs
of their four children led him to send his family to England. Livingstone
would not see them again until December 1856, when he returned to England
himself, just a month before he penned this letter.
Livingstone writes here to his second child, nine-year-old Agnes, but
his message is clearly meant for all four of his children. "My
Dear Agnes We are still in the house of our good friend Dr. Bennett
in London but will get a house of our own in a day or two. And then
we hope to send for you all for a short time for it is only a short
time we can remain in England," Livingstone explains. "We
do not wish you to refrain from learning but wish you to go to some
good school and schoolmaster during each day and come home every evening
to be with Mama & me. We want to see you all every day so long as
we remain in England so that you may not forget to love us. You will
not go to the school from which Robert came as he did not like it but
some one you will all like. And then when we go away to Africa in the
service of our dear saviour he will take care of you and if you love
him and hate what he hates [he] will be ever with you even unto death.
May He bless you all."
He closes with love to her and her brothers, Robert, Thomas, and William
Oswell (nicknamed Zouga), promises to write them the next day, and signs,
"Good bye Dears all...David Livingstone."
As noted in the Encyclopedia Britannica, "so impassioned
was [Livingstone’s] commitment to Africa that his duties as husband
and father were relegated to second place." He was with his family
for a little more than a year during this visit to England. Then, in
March 1858, he left again for Africa, and he essentially spent all but
one of the fifteen remaining years of his life apart from his family,
exploring that continent. His wife died in 1862, and his eldest son
died in 1864 while fighting for the Union in the American Civil War.
His daughter Agnes lived until 1912; she married in 1875 and had four
children, three of whom survived to adulthood.
The
letter is toned from prior framing and has expert repairs to some small
fold breaks. The last page also has some soiling. The piece is in good
condition overall, darkly-penned and clearly readable.
A very unusual and revealing letter. $7500.00
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