This sub-series consists of about 150 manuscript letters to and from Robert Hume. There are about 30 letters from the period before his emigration; 37 letters from the years 1836-1846 when he lived in both Upper Canada and England (including 20 letters of introduction); and 83 letters from the years 1849 to 1869 when he was a farmer in Hamilton township. Most of the letters were written by his father John Hume, but his grandfather, aunts, and siblings also wrote him. The correspondence is heaviest in his youth for the periods of separation from his father: while his father was engaged in trade in Hamburg, Germany; while Robert was in school in Edinburgh (1832); and while he apprenticed with a farmer (1833-1835) in Belford, Northumberland, England. The letters reveal the family's deep love, intense religious conviction and spirituality, and concern with maintaining its middle class status in the uncertain world of industrial England. His father frequently advised him on his career prospects and necessity of choosing and committing to a vocation.
Robert Hume's decision to emigrate to North America (or not to emigrate) looms large in the correspondence from 1836 until his father's death in 1862. In the letters, the motivation for emigration is laid bare: poor prospects at home, a father who cannot provide for his son as he wishes, and the alluring reports from others who have gone before. His father often advised him to seek his fortune in the United States but Robert remained committed to Upper Canada. John Hume also often mentioned the possibility of his own emigration to North America and the prospects for his other children. The letters are very revealing of the economic challenges and labour conditions that faced young men in England and Upper Canada, and the dilemmas of parents trying to provide for their children.
The later correspondence continues these themes, even in the 1850s Robert still had second thoughts about the wisdom of his emigration, but adds new themes including marriage and family and, in particular, the economics of farming and land ownership. Robert borrowed money from his father and invested it in Upper Canada, and his concerns about these investments are seldom far from the surface, especially as John Hume's own financial position appeared to deteriorate in England. Letters from the summer and fall of 1855 also show John Hume arranging the publication of his son's manuscript on emigration and settlement in Upper Canada in "Hogg's Instructor", a periodical based in Edinburgh. Correspondence in 1868 shows that Robert Hume was by then dealing in "Choice Peas, Grains, General Produce" out of Port Hope. No longer simply a farmer, he engaged in agricultural commerce across the lake with New York state and used the new railways in Ontario like the Grand Trunk to ship goods and produce. Finally, there is a small amount of financial correspondence pertaining to Henry John Doogood of London.