A Home Away from Home:
Stories of Scottish Emigration

Letter of Peter Hastie, shopkeeper in Edinburgh, to his uncle and aunt in Selkirk declaring his intention to emigrate, Edinburgh 12 May 1827A new life in America (NLS shelfmark: Acc. 12249/1)

Letter written by Peter Hastie to his uncle and aunt, 12 May 1827 This letter was written whilst Peter Hastie was still working as a shopkeeper in Edinburgh.

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View of the Lawnmarket, Edinburgh from 'Picturesque Views of Edinburgh', 1825, by W H Lizars (NLS shelfmark: Acc. R.293.a)

Before emigrating to America in the early 1830s, Peter Hastie worked as a shopkeeper in Edinburgh. In 1827, he was based at 351 High Street, Edinburgh. We do not know what kind of shop he worked in, but he writes that ‘I have no prospect of making even a livelihood in this business, either as a clerk or as a master … Traid has been very dull in our line all over Edinburgh for the last twelvemonths, and apparently is getting worse every day; besides this I never much liked the business’ (12 May 1827).

Extract of letter written 16 March 1834. Settling in and finding work

Extract from a letter written by Peter Hastie to his aunt, Mrs James Scott, 16 March 1834 (NLS shelfmark: Acc. 12249/2)

Peter Hastie wrote this letter to his aunt in Selkirk about two years after he first arrived in America. He describes his arrival in New York City during the cholera epidemic, and his attempts to find work. The last page of the letter is written over the first page in order to save paper.

Croton Aqueduct at Harlem River, New York from ‘Description of the Croton Aqueduct’ by John Bloomfield Jervis, 1842

(NLS shelfmark: 6.1241(6))

In 1837, Peter Hastie was promoted to resident engineer on the Croton Aqueduct, part of New York City waterworks. The aqueduct took five years to construct, and gave New York City its first plentiful supply of fresh drinking water.

Map showing the spread of the cholera outbreak, New York City, from ‘A Plain and Practical treatise on the Epidemic Cholera, as it Prevailed in the City of New York, in the Summer of 1832’ by David Meredith Reese, 1833.

Peter Hastie arrived in New York City during the cholera epidemic of 1832. This map shows the spread of the disease, and the site of the cholera hospitals.

Before the completion of the Croton aqueduct in 1842, the Island of Manhattan had a limited supply of fresh water. As the population expanded in the early 19th century, the water supplies became contaminated and led to outbreaks of cholera and typhoid.

Map of New York

Map of New York from ‘The Illustrated Atlas, and Modern History of the World: Geographical, Political, Commercial, and Statistical’, 1850-55, by Robert Montgomery Martin (NLS shelfmark: WD.5.T)

Edinburgh Review, 1834. News from home

The Edinburgh Review or Critical Journal, April – July 1834, Vol LIX (NLS shelfmark: BCL.E154)

Whilst based in Pennsylvania during 1834, Peter Hastie wrote to his aunt: ‘I have not been in the way of hearing much of Scottish or English news since I left New York; to make up for this want in some degree at least, I have become a subscriber for the Boston reprint of the Edinburgh Review’.

Extract of letter written 12 May 1841.

Letter written by Peter Hastie to his relatives, New York, 12 May 1841 (NLS shelfmark: Acc. 12249/6) This is the last surviving letter from Peter Hastie in the National Library of Scotland’s collections. He describes his position as resident engineer on the Croton Aqueduct project, and sums up how he feels about his new career.