Lightning Strikes: Husband and Dog Killed

My Husband and His Faithfull Dog Killed Dead By Lightning: 28 January 1843 well written 4-page mss letter from Elizabeth Deimster, at Sydney to her family. The primary purpose of the letter is to inform them 'from this distant clime' that 'Almighty God was pleased to take unto himself the spirit of my dear Husband on the 18th of December 1842 by a sudden stroke of his providence he was killed dead by Lightning while following his employment and his faithfull dog also kill'd dead at his feet.......I am as full of trouble as the ocean is of water. I am left a widow with four girls to support.....It is impossible to describe how the lightning tore every part of Clothing upon him.....there was another man kill'd on the same day by the same means.' The letter proceeds with other news: 'The times here are very bad and Merchants that was considered wealthy are becoming insolvent every day almost......dark and dreary are my prospects here....let all our relations know what has befallen me at the Antipodes....' The letter is accompanied by an unrelated but probably contemporary printed pamphlet regarding 'Assisted Passages to Victoria' for Female Domestics, Farm Settlers & Farm Workers and 'British Lads'.