[Robert Owen] Autograph Letter Signed "R Owen" to [Rowland Hill, inventor and social reformer], about the movements of his son in America, and Joel Roberts Poinsett, with a long (and significant) MS. note by the latter

Two pages (and a line), 12mo, bifolium, fold mark, tiny closed tears at fold, minor staining, mainly good condition. With a lengthy note about his relationship with Robert Owen and Owen's plans by "R.H." [Rowland Hill]. LETTER from OWEN: "Until this moment I have not had any opportunity of attending to private correspondence since your note arrived. | My son Robert [Dale Owen] leaves New York shore this time for New Harmony New Orleans & thence to England where I expect him in May or June next year - I will however give your friend a letter to the new editor of the Free Enquirer New York which will I hope be [Robert Dale] useful to him but I have also mentioned him to the celebrated Mr Poinsett [Joel Roberts Poinsett (1779–1851),politician and diplomat] late American Ambassador to the Congress of Panama & also to Mexico at the time I was there - he is one of the first Statesmen of the present day & is to return to the United States [...] from Liverpool the 1st of October & if possible your young friend should endeavour to accompany him. Mr Poinsett is now a member of his own state legislatur & is is likely to return here to assure us [underlined] ['''?] our liberal views. If your friend cannot go with him I will give him an introduction to him & he knows any body worth knowing in all the [...?]" MANUSCRIPT NOTE by "R.H" [Rowland Hill] on reverse of second leaf, c.23 short lines, as follows: "Owen, Robt Sep. 19. 1832 [above probably written on receipt] | His son (Robt Dale Owen)' s departure for the United States [an inaccurate statement!]. | [At this time I was very intimate with the Owen family & had in the whole [phrase added] a high opinion of their plans but afterwards the father's views at least became very wild. | At one time Mr Owen wished me to undertake the management of a cooperative colony. | The Owens were ['most estimable" crossed out] people of deservedly high character & were held in great esteem by many religious people - especially the Quakers. ["Robt" crossed out] Mr. Owen & his family were frequent visitors at Bruce Castle" | RH June '73] Note: a. "Upon returning to the United States, Owen and [Frances] Wright revisited the Nashoba and New Harmony communities, then in a state of decay. They settled in New York, where Owen edited the Free Enquirer. The paper opposed evangelical religion and advocated more liberal divorce laws, more equal distribution of wealth, and widespread industrial education; it was at the centre of radical free thought in New York. For two years, Owen, with Wright and other radicals, sought to turn the New York Workingmen’s Party away from Thomas Skidmore’s belief in an equal division of property. They successfully ousted Skidmore, but later their own program of social reform through public education was also repudiated.After a brief trip to England in 1832, Owen returned to New Harmony. He served three terms in the Indiana legislature (1836–1838), where he advocated the allocation of government funds for public schools, and two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he introduced the bill creating the Smithsonian Institution." b. Robert Owen offered to him [Hill] the management of one of his communities, but he declined it on account of Owen's rashness (old DNB on Rowland Hill)".