State of New York

Letter to H R J Swaffield, Ampthill, from Mark Facer, Lyons Wayne Co, N. America, written 25th June 1871.  Born in Lidlington in 1820, Mark Facer was an agricultural labourer, who in the 1861 census had been residing at How End with his wife and seven children. Mark does not seem enamoured of America:

'Friend Sir I now write to you to let you know I am quite well and all my people thank god...I dont like it so well as England not yet I may do another year when I get more used to it, perhaps. I have everything to buy this year and things is very dear here. My Son Bill is planting some ground on shares and I help him...when I go to work for anybody else I have a dollar a day and my board...people work a great deal on shares here and help one another...their ploughs are not above half so heavy they are wooden ploughs...please tell Whitemore never to leave there to come to this country I have wished many a time I never had...'

Why is this letter at Bedfordshire & Luton Archives?

This is part of the extensive correspondence in the Swaffield of Ampthill Collection.