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MS has not survived. Previously published: Gentleman’s Magazine, 70.1 (March 1800), 226 [from where the text is taken].
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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As the Rev. Sir Herbert Croft has replied in your
Magazine (p. 99) to my statement of his conduct towards the
family of Chatterton, I trust you will insert the few
remarks which his letter requires.
My statement, it appears, was inaccurate, in
supposing him to have been in orders in 1778. In no other
part does it require correction: Sir Herbert does
not deny that he promised to return the
letters in an hour when he borrowed them; nor that
he published them, without the knowledge
of the family, for his own emolument. How far the
publication, intituled, “Love and Madness,”after-assistance; nor that, when Mrs. Newtonhe required a certificate of her character
from the clergyman of the parish.
To the personalities contained in Sir Herbert’s
letter, I make no reply: these things do not concern the
publick. Sir
Herbert may still date his letters
from Denmark, and complain of my attacking him
during a North-east wind; it is not my business to correct
these mis-statements. But, as he has endeavoured to injure
the proposed publication, by declaiming against the
principles, real and imputed, of the editor, I will not let
pass the opportunity of requesting, that party prejudices
may not impede a work designed to benefit the family of
Chatterton. The sister of Chatterton
supports herself by teaching children to read; she is
advancing in years, and her sight begins to fail.
Should the subscription for his Works be extensive, it will
render her old age comfortable, and provide for her
child.
Sir Herbert intimates, that my object is to profit by the subscription. The list of the subscribers shall be published, and the accounts.