200 Year Old Welsh Love Letter
A STARTLING sheet of ornate love poetry written by a Welsh emigrant more than 200 years ago has been uncovered at an American museum.
The parchment, covered in fine calligraphic script and detailing Hugh Pugh's doomed love for Mary Fisher, hung on a family's wall for generations.
Pugh's document is now at the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts, a laboratory in Philadelphia, where it is being cleaned, repaired and restored.
It offers a unique insight into the rites of courtship in the American colonies where thousands of young Welsh workers headed in the 18th and 19th centuries - in this case St Clair, a tiny village in Bedford County, Pennsylvania.
It also tells a moving story about a young schoolteacher's love and the 20-year-old woman who ultimately spurned him.
And while academics today bemoan the damaging effect that email and text messaging is having on teenagers' communication skills, it seems that there were similar trends back in 1801. Instead of writing out some words in full, Pugh has replaced them with abbreviations like "CU" in a startling precursor to today's teen text-speak.
"It's quite unique," said Ingrid Bogel, the centre's executive director. "It's different from anything I've seen."
According to the museum, this work belongs to a subset of folk art called True Lover's Knots, whose hallmarks include minute handwriting, fancy scrollwork, and messages of love arrayed around a labyrinth. A reader can begin anywhere and, turning the piece, experience a continuous flow of tender thoughts.
After completing his love note Pugh folded it up, sealed it with a dab of wax, and most likely delivered it personally to Mary's home.
But it was more than a love letter - Pugh was asking her to marry him as he wrote, "My ravished Soul doth ever long to see, The Marriage Knot so firmly ty'd between thee and me."
Meg Schultz is the proud owner. Mary was her great-great-great-grandmother, and the letter was passed down through the maternal side of Ms Schultz's family. At one point, it was almost discarded and burned.
"It was hanging in a bedroom hallway in the house where I grew up," said Ms Schultz, 47, an art director. "I used to stare at it for hours. I was fascinated by it."
It so intrigued her that she became a genealogical sleuth and family historian - and through her, the fate of Hugh Pugh and Mary Fisher became known.
"Mary spurned Hugh's proposal," said Ms Schultz. "Four years later, the day before Valentine's Day 1805, she married Benjamin Bowen, another Welsh-American.
"In the space of 17 years, she bore him 10 children, the seventh of whom she also named Mary, and who was my great-great-grandmother."
Bowen was a farmer whose family originally hailed from Pentoc, Carmarthenshire, and this factor may have influenced Mary's decision. "Back then it was all about land and cows," said Ms Schultz.
Pugh may well have expected rejection as he wrote of Mary's "double heart" in the poetry. But those who hoped for a happy ending can take heart from the fact that Mary did at least save the poetry.
"I always assumed Mary rejected Hugh because she didn't 'dig' him," Ms Schultz said.
"But why would she save Hugh's proposal and give it to her granddaughter? You don't save love letters from someone you don't care about."
Two years ago a similar item created in the same year was auctioned by Freeman's for more than $363,000 (around £200,000).
But Ms Schultz is more interested in the history ingrained in the piece. "I'm lucky enough to be able to rescue it from obscurity."
