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14 Mar 64 Arthur Trimulgherry Julius ______________________________________________________________________________________________
Trimulgherry *
14th Oct/64
My dear Julie
Many thanks for your kind letter of 25th ult. which I received a few days ago. I have been so horribly busy that I have not been able to answer it before.
You ask me to give you full particulars of my state, which I can do with very little trouble indeed, as I owe to very few – but to those few I owe large sums.
I owe to [illegible] a Parsee shopkeeper here Rs. (600) six hundred, * being for articles such as cloth, stationery and liquor purchased from him since I have been in this station, as I have never paid him anything but Rs150 since I have been in the station. I owe in Jaulna * to a Parsee Shopkeeper and a Parsee House Owner Rs (450) four hundred and fifty, being for articles purchased and House Rent; it was Rs 600 but I paid off Rs 150 the other day.
I owe to our Regimental Sowar* Rs (1,000) one thousand which amount I have borrowed from him at different times, and six hundred of which I have promised to pay him in three months which becomes due about a fortnight or three weeks hence.
I hope that you will be able to assist me in this as otherwise I fear that I shall be getting into a mess. I can see my folly now, which is that I have always lived in advance of my income & I am afraid beyond my means, but there again, I should never have been in this mess had it not been for our dear Father’s death, as I have not drawn my allowance for about six months, and also I omitted to mention that I received a letter from my Agents two or three days ago informing me that I owed them Rs. 300. This is part of my allowance which I drew through them & should have been paid at home but it now comes upon me.
Again by this time the £200 which I wrote home for would have been here and I should have cleared myself of debt.
You cannot imagine how my debts prey upon my mind. I can assure you that at times they make me perfectly wretched and miserable, and when I see now that in a short time I shall be able not only to pay off all debts, but be to live very comfortably it is perfectly disgusting to me to feel myself so involved.
I told you before that I have written to Peter to get him to send me some money out, but in the meantime I hope that you will kindly assist me & set me a little square.
I don’t know whether you have ever been in debt – if so, you can perhaps imagine my feelings at present. I can assure you they are not to be envied.
You make a mistake about what money is left us, as Peter distinctly states in his letter home ‘£5,000 is left to each of his sons at 25 & £200 a year from 21 years of age until they reach 25.* This does not commence however for a year after his death.’ * I did not send Peter’s letter to me to you as there is nothing further than what is contained in yours in it, and not half so much as it is very short.
I return your letter with many thanks for sending it to me.
We are all hard at work here now, our inspection by the General comes off in about a week or 10 days, and the Commander in Chief is also coming up here.
I must bring this to a close as I have no more time to spare, but before doing so I just remember that in your letter you express a doubt whether, in the event of my debts being paid off, I should keep clear. After what I have now told you, I hope you will no longer have any doubt upon the subject. I have had a thorough sickener of it. Awaiting your answer,
Believe me ever
Your affectionate brother
Arthur H Laurie
108th Regt
* Trimulgherry – a district about one mile north of the centre of Secunderabad
* Rs. (600) six hundred – At that time £1 bought about Rs 10 (multiply by 120 for inflation to 2020)
* Jaulna – now Jalna, in the State of Maharashtra
* until they reach 25 – Arthur was at that stage 23 years old.
Their father’s will, dated 13 Jun 1864 left each of his seven younger children £5,000 on reaching their 25th birthday: before that £200 annually, once they attained 21 years old until reaching 25. The eldest, Mary - by now the widow of John Riley - received £500 ‘as I consider that .. [she].. is amply provided for’
* after his death – John Laurie died 2 Aug 1864