The date and first three or four lines of it were torn off and gone, and the remainder was, with great difficulty, deciphered, the letter being in several pieces and quite ragged.

This letter must have been written in the year 1785 or '86, as in a letter from a friend to Mrs.Godfrey, dated September, 1785, Little Mag and her husband are said to have been met in the street the day previous to writing.

It is not at all likely that little Mag was long married before she appeared in presence of Governor Carleton.
Had Margaret Newall moved in a more elevated social sphere, and been surrounded by wealthy parents and rich relatives, possibly Governor Carleton would have been obliged to give Mrs.Godfrey a vivid description of Mag's trousseau, and her beautiful presents of gold, silver, diamonds, etc.

But her parents and friends were poor.

Her old father possessed only a moving tent, occuping here and there, as he found a spot to pitch it, a few square feet of King George the Third's wilderness.