| Description | (3 pcs.)
Dear Sir,
I was favoured with your letter of ,[A blank is left at this point. Perhaps Boulton refers to Matthews' letter of 25 Dec. 1791.] which I did not reply to as I expected to see you in town in a few days. Moreover, I have not lately been in good health, insomuch that Dr. Withering thought it dangerous for me to go town untill he had put me into a little better order, and for that purpose he gave me mercurial pills last night and other phisick to day. However, I am far from well, but hope to be able to set out on Thursday morning next with Mr. Watt, in order to consult lawyers about engine business, as we are attacked on all sides.
Mr. Wilson comes up from Cornwall at the same time, on our and other business.
I observ'd in your letter that Miss Mary F. had offer'd to accomodate me with a loan of 3,000£, in order to pay off my bond to Mr. Foreman. This I consider'd as a very handsome thing in her part, and shew'd a generous and gratefull heart, with which I was much enamour'd.
But I now perceive by your letter of the 6 instant that the scene is changed, and that I am not to expect any such like indulgence, but on the contrary something like an unfriendly disposition appears. Perhaps as I am not well to day I may see things through a darker medium than necessary. However, I feel my self shielded by a consciousness of haveing done that which is just, right, equitable, and honorable towards Mrs. Fothergill and her children and if I have wrong'd any one it is my own . . .
I have just received from Mr. Walker a state of account at Midsummer 1782, and from that time to the present, by which it appears:
1782
June 24 B. & F. ow'd to M.B. 2141. 13. 7
I.F. ow'd B. & F. 749. 19. 2
Other bad debts since June 1782 231. 17. 1½
Ballance in 1782 against the partnership 9732. 15. 5½
Suppose half the loss to I.F. and half to M.B. 12856. 5. 4---- 6428. 2. 5
M.B. hath paid to Mrs. F. since June '82 3425. 4. 6
Paid that part of Bedford's bill for law which related to Mrs. F. 184. 5. 4
Paid Mrs. Swelengrable to keep her from starving,
10 years at 50 guineas a year, 10 years 525.
10562. 12. 9
This sum may be doubled in its consequences as to it may be added the interest of the above and to that add the expences I was plunged into by the supporting of an enormous Bill Account at and since the year 1782, not less than £1500 a year at that time and for the greatest part of the time since, and it will be ten years at Midsummer next. If that Bill Account had not been supported by my unceasing labour and anxiety, Mrs. Fothergill would have had the painfull and disgracefull talk of grappleing with a bankruptcy, and left with a large family in want, distress, discredit, and penury, and thereby deprived, probably, of those prosperous and fortunate connections which providence has so recently blessed her family with-whilest I have been persuaded by a series of misfortunes as merited as they were unforeseen, such as arise from fire, from deceipt of Goverment, from attacks upon my patent and property and credit, and will Mrs. F. soon join my enemys? Surely it cannot be. However, I thank God I am prepar'd to meet the worst, for I have . . . If Mrs. F. family had not been fortunate, I should have continued to have divided the loaf with her, so long as I had any bread; but as her family is now possess'd of many times my fortune I naturaly expected she would have lighten'd my burthen instead of increasing it by vexation, which I am ill suited for in my declining health and years.
Perhaps Mrs. F. may be offended that I did not take Tom into partnership. It was impossible I could do it without throwing all into confusion and endangering my own ruin. The reasons against it were too cogent and too numerous to admit of a pause; but I had rather submit to some reflections than lower Mrs. F.'s opinion and affection for her son by giving all my reasons for not takeing him back again.
I will beg the favour of you to pay two years' interest to Mr. Foreman's executors; and if they must be paid the principal, I hope they will allow me six months' notice, and I will in that time provide it, for I am not so poor but I can pay my debts, nor so rich as not to say but it would be more convenient to me to keep it a little longer.
My stay in town will be very short, and my time taken up with disagreeable business; and as I am not in health sufficient to encounter with more than one disagreeable thing at a time, I should be much obliged to you if you would see Mrs. F. and Mr. Foreman's executors and thereby learn what they wish to have done and you'l oblige, dear sir, your faithfull and obliged friend,
Mattw. Boulton
[Edited transcript.] |