Over the past few months, we’ve post­ed let­ters from Robert and Vir­ginia Camp­bel­l’s ini­tial courtship:

Jan­u­ary 1, 1837 — William Sub­lette tells Hugh Camp­bell what he thinks of the “coquette” Robert has fall­en for

Octo­ber 8, 1838 — Robert Camp­bell pro­fess­es his undy­ing love for Vir­ginia Jane Kyle

Jan­u­ary 14, 1838 — Lucy Ann Kyle refused Robert Camp­bel­l’s request to mar­ry 16 year old Virginia 

Decem­ber 18, 1840 — Lucy Ann Kyle con­sents to have Robert mar­ry Virginia

Feb­ru­ary 14, 1840 — Robert writes to his fiance of her soon being his “man­ag­er”

Today we post a let­ter from Vir­gini­a’s aunt and uncle Jim and Ann Win­ston to Lucy Ann Kyle, talk­ing about their sur­prise at Vir­gini­a’s intent to mar­ry.  They remind Lucy that Vir­ginia promised (and they have proof in black and white) to come vis­it them before she mar­ried.  Seems these two were a lit­tle behind on the news of their niece!

Robert and Vir­ginia were mar­ried Feb­ru­ary 25, 1841 — 169 years ago next Thurs­day.  Hap­py anniver­sary from Camp­bell House Museum!

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[Front Cov­er]
Richmond
Feb
18
Mrs. Lucy A Kyle
Raleigh
NC

Rich­mond Feb­ru­ary 18, 1841

Dear Sis­ter,
I received your very inter­est­ing let­ter and was very much  sur­prised to hear of Vir­gini­a’s sud­den deter­mi­na­tion and all feel very much dis­ap­point­ed in not hav­ing more of her com­pa­ny and her Uncle says he can’t con­sent to her mar­riage until she ful­fills  all her engage­ments, indeed I have kept up my spir­its with the   antic­i­pa­tion of her spend­ing some time with us and sup­ply­ing the   place of Ann and know not how we shall be able to get over it   unless they will come by and pay us a bridal vis­it which I hope   they will cer­tain­ly do.  Cor­nelia had a real cry about it last night.

I hope you will excuse our not going on to the wed­ding as the   road is a long one and bad for trav­el­ing.  Give my love to cousin  Vir­ginia and say to her I can’t con­sent for Cor­nelia to be   brides­maid, that I was very much opposed to her being brides­maid   for Ann but Ann would have her way, that she is not old enough,   that I can’t think of turn­ing her out yet, that I Had as well   take her from school at once as to send her that far to a wed­ding and for her to be brides­maid too.  Moth­er sends love to V. and   says she has shown her first love is the best and is very   anx­ious to go on and Jean­na also very anxious,

[Pg. Break] we are all anx­ious to see you all but that is not   prac­ti­ca­ble there­fore I hope you will all come here to see us.   Give my respects to Mr. Camel [Camp­bell] and say we would be very much pleased to see him here, that he must cer­tain­ly bring   Vir­ginia through Rich­mond and come direct­ly to our house and stay with us at least a week or longer if they can make it   con­ve­nient, and thee must come with them.

I can very eas­i­ly imag­ine [spelled imma­g­in] thy feel­ings at this  time  altho they may be will­ing and anx­ious yet I know thee is in the great­est dis­tress at part­ing with a love­ly Daugh­ter and  com­pan­ion in your lone­ly hours. Give my love to Amelia.,  I tru­ly sym­pa­thize with her in her dis­tress­es. I hope she will bear with Chris­t­ian for­ti­tude the dif­fer­ent changes of this change­able  world, it is tru­ly unfor­tu­nate but I hope it will be for the best wing up and being a new, love to all
Ann R. Winston.

P.S.
Dear Sister
I endorse the above.  Tell, cousin Vir­ginia, she promised  us (& I have it in Black & White) to vis­it us before she got  mar­ried & I require the full per­for­mance of her “bond.”

We were thun­der­struck, with aston­ish­ment, to find that she was in Raleigh — our disappointment

[Pg. Break, top of front cov­er] is uncom­fort­able.  We have been  for some time in dai­ly antic­i­pa­tion of her in our house.

Please remem­ber us most affec­tion­ate­ly to Bro. Simp­son and sis­ter Amelia.  My heart bleeds for these & for their lit­tle ones.  My  relations

[Sec­tion Break, bot­tom front cov­er] may (after May 1820) and no  doubt often have thought us, cold, self­ish, & unkind.  But not so sir, my wife (the best in the round world) knew for many years  the depths of my woe’s.

I had a work before us, that, did not allow me, to, loi­ter, in  this way & con­se­quent­ly, I had to look first &

[Pg. Break, top inside cov­er] exclu­sive­ly, to the wel­fare of my  wife and chil­dren.  I deter­mined to appro­pri­ate my undi­vid­ed time & I knew I had not a moment to spare, first to them.  They had  no oth­er define device, and now it is no bet­ter — my cares and  thee demand on my time, & exer­tions, and unable.  I have grown  chil­dren to aid instead of infants, added to lit­tle helpless

[Sec­tion Break, bot­tom inside cov­er] grand­chil­dren.  But for this of course, my fam­i­ly would have fall­en into irre­triev­able  dis­grace.  Very few seen have had to con­tend, with, the odds I  have.  Look at Doct C’s sit­u­a­tion under a course, dif­fer­ing  rad­i­cal­ly from mine.  I do not can­not  boast for I am not out of  the woods.

Affy my sis­ter, Jim Winston