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Keswick Museum and Art Gallery, KESMG 1996.5.180. Not previously published.
These letters were edited with the assistance of Carol Bolton, Tim Fulford and Ian Packer
For permission to publish the text of MSS in their possession, the editor wishes to thank the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Library, Yale University; Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations; the Bodleian Library Oxford University; the British Library; Boston Public Library; the Syndics of Cambridge University Library; the Syndics of the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge; Haverford College, Connecticut; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Hornby Library, Liverpool Libraries and Information Services; the Houghton Library, Harvard University; the John Rylands Library, Manchester; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; Luton Museum (Bedfordshire County Council); Massachusetts Historical Society; McGill University Library; the National Library of Scotland; the Newberry Library, Chicago; the New York Public Library (Pforzheimer Collections); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York; the Public Record Offices of Bedford, Suffolk (Bury St Edmunds) and Northumberland, the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge; the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne; the Trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, the Wisbech and Fenland Museum; the University of Virginia Library.
A research grant from the British Academy made much of the archival work possible, as did support from the English Department of Nottingham Trent University.
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I have this day received my Uncles letter respecting Lord Proby, & will give you his
own words. “My motive for writing is to desire you would consult with Thomas whether it would not be more
advantageous for him to get on the Lisbon station, where perhaps I might be of
use to him by means of Lord St Vincent. If he should wish it, Lord Proby who expects to have a
Frigate given him & to return to that station has promised me to bring him
out – that is to give him a birth, or an appointment on board his ship. You will
write to Ld P. to inform him that
Thomas will accept of his offer, & to give him Thomas’s direction that he
might inform him whence & when he sails. There need not be any explanation
with Capt. Hood till Lord P. writes to him, as you see,
it depends on two contingencies. Lord
P. may not get a ship, & if he does may not go to Lisbon. tho of
this last he tells me he is certain”
Now Tom you must use your own judgement. if you see no impropriety in leaving Capt. Hood – & as the change would be so much to your advantage I should think he cannot but wish you to accept it, I can see no other objection. let me know immediately, that I may inform Ld. P.
You tell me you have left off sugar & rum. I do not know my
dear Tom that this, or any circumstance could now raise you in my opinion – but
I know well what in your situation the sacrifice must be. Be not surprized if I
say that I do not wish you to persevere in it. When I first did the same, it was
at a time, when, from the general agitation of the subject, & the number of
abolitionists, there was a hope & prospect of mortally wounding the traffic
by the disuse of West Indian commodities. that prospect is gone. it is now
evident that the very few who persevere can do nothing. & my reason for
still persisting as I ever shall, is from a respect to my own feelings, for the
satisfaction I feel in being conscious that in no ways do I contribute to so
accursed an evil as the Slave Trade, that if all else had acted as I act, that
Trade must have been destroyed. for you Tom – your possible comforts God knows
are few enough, nor do I think that you ought to abridge yourself of one, by
indulging in which no actual evil is done
<committed.> now it is true that the efforts of an
individual can do nothing.
My last it seems (inclosing a 2 pound bill from my Mother) had not reached you
when you wrote. it was directed to Torbay. I shall not send you a parcel till my
Joan& I think, if my literary plans do not sadly
fail, to accomplish this by the next Christmas – & then Tom you shall come
& chuse a cot & fit up a room in your own taste.
We came here on Wednesday last, & to night enter our lodgings, in the very house on Kingsdown Parade where my Aunt Mary once lodged. I shall have a barrel of cider there Tom – & if you can come to us we will work it merrily. I expect to hear from my Mother daily respecting her house. if she gets rid of that, & my Uncle reaches Lisbon well – why our family affairs will look better than they have long done. & God knows it is time we had a little sun shine. Edith is well – & I hope air & exercise will clothe her bones. for me I am the healthiest of all skeletons.
I mean to write a ballad soon. in the course of next week if nothing prevents me, & you shall see it as soon as done. the Magazines shall come with the parcel – but tell me what was the last number you had.
I hope you may go to Lisbon – far as the distance will be, &
long as it would seperate us. your time would pass comfortably – & it is
snug lying in the Tagus. I must prepare my Letters