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Dear Friend,
I wrote to you 7th current, as you complained so emphatically, I have daily had hopes of hearing from you.
My worthy and affectionate friend Alston has expressed anxiety to be free of the guarantee he generously came under for me in 1782, which probably you have heard of from Messrs. Nicholls & Nettleshipp, to whom he applied when he was lately in London, which I wish he had not done, that our application might have been jointly, for to the utmost of my power I would heartily and gratefully put his mind at ease. To say truth, I thought he had long since received his bond as a guarantee, but I see he still continues bound.
Messrs. Nicholls & Nettleshipp have made a draft for his release and sent it to me for your, Mr. Alston's, and my consideration, which I return them by the coach to morrow, and copy of a memorandum I have wrote to you with Mr. Alston's remarks thereon, and the original memorandum I shall send to them in a packet directed to you with eight papers, viz.
Samuel Garbett in Carron Co. Charles Gascoigne to Francis Garbett, 1766.
Francis Garbett-ditto. Samuel Garbett's representation to Messrs.
Charles Gascoigne-ditto. Boulton and Baxter, December 1785.
Prestonpans. Samuel Garbett to Mr. Hog, July 15, 1796.
Samuel Garbett's letter to a meeting
of creditors, July 1800.
and a tract which I printed in 1787 and delivered copies of to many creditors, and which contain very important facts.
This afternoon, since writing the above, I have had a long letter from Messrs. Nicholls & Nettleshipp, dated yesterday, containing the tenor of what had passed with you and them at a meeting that day. I think your determination very proper. I will send the account, as desired, on Tuesday to Messrs. Nicholls & Nettleship. As I am not in town I cannot send them sooner, and I will then write what further may occur in reading their letter.
I wish you was well at home.
God bless you. I am ever gratefully and affectionately yours,
Samuel Garbett
I have had some of the excellent product of your garden. I did not apprehend that sufficient legal authority had been given by my creditors for the proceedings at law.
The following were sent with this letter:
'A memorandum from Samuel Garbett to Mr. Boulton, July 9, 1800, with Mr. Alston's remarks on the back of it.' 9 Jul. 1800.
Memorandum by Samuel Garbett, entitled, 'Samuel Garbett's stock in Carron Company.' Jul. 1800.
Memorandum by Samuel Garbett, entitled, 'Francis Garbett's Carron Stock.' Jul. 1800.
Memorandum by Samuel Garbett, entitled, 'Stock in Carron Company standing in the name of Charles Gascoigne.' Jul. 1800.
Memorandum by Samuel Garbett, entitled, 'Prestonpans.' Jul. 1800.
Copy letter. Samuel Garbett [Birmingham] to a meeting of his creditors in London. Jul. 1800.
[Transcript in Garbett's hand.]
I regret that a journey to London would endanger my life, but I have the consolation of sending papers to Messrs. Nicholls & Nettleshipp by which it will appear the whole funds that for many years I have been anxiously endeavoring to protect are now plainly in the hands of Carron Co., Mr. Hog, and Mr. Boulton, and that they are much more than sufficient to pay all my family debts, exclusive of interest.
Upon examining the several representations I have sent of the conduct of Mr. Gascoigne and his trustee Mr. Anderson, and of Mr. John Adam, Mr. John Balfour, and Carron Co., it will appear that very considerable attempts have been made not only to prevent my obtaining a true state of our accounts, but to deprive our creditors of much more than one hundred thousand pounds; and that Mr. Hog has not only been partial but censurably inattentive; and that the earnest representations I have for many years laid before him (part of which he explicitly agreed were important, and that he would enforce) plainly shew that the necessary attention cannot be hoped for from him.
My time of life renders my health and existence precarious, but I am at present capable of attending to any measures that may be adopted for the common interest of our creditors and to prevent partial preferences; and as one of the partners of Carron Co. who is entitled to vote and to receive attested copies of the minutes made at their general and committee meetings, I am enabled to lay before our creditors the situation of their funds at Carron; and that station has allowed me access to know there are profits undivided, which, with stock bought with undivided profits, amount to more than £70,000, of which our creditors are entitled to more than £30,000. That sum, and Carron Company's illegal and unjust determined intentions by keeping it in hand, it is not probable my creditors would have been acquainted with if I had died some years since, and which event Mr. Hog in January 1798 recommended a general meeting of creditors at Edinburgh to wait for.
My frame hath lately had so severe a shake, that I take the liberty to submit to the consideration of this meeting the expediency of appointing a committee in London for Mr. Boulton to advise with while I live, as it is certainly necessary to prevent Carron stock to the amount of £37,500 being sold until it is ascertained whether it belongs:
to Francis Garbett and Charles Gascoigne jointly;
to Charles Gascoigne as his separate effects;
or to Francis Garbett and Company,
vizt. Francis Garbett
Charles Gascoigne
Peter Capper
If our creditors would go before the Court of Session in a proper mode without contest, it is probable a decree might in a few months be obtained that would ascertained who hath a right to the stock, and thereby Mr. Hog may be amicably relieved from the embarrassment he has involved himself and our creditors in. And it is also necessary to prevent the Scots creditors by arrestments obtaining preferences on my stock that was assigned to Messrs. Boulton and Baxter under a commission of bankruptcy in England, and to Mr. Hog under a sequestration in Scotland, and which by Carron Company's books is entitled to upwards of £36,000, after paying all incumbrances upon it. If these arrestments should be confirmed, interest as well as the principal debt will be claimed.
A committee should also be appointed in Scotland, and I believe it will be judicious to fix upon the gentleman named by the creditors in that country (and Mr. Mackenzie as agent), who have already been acting ably, as appears by copies of minutes of several meetings they had at Edinburgh, which are in the hands of Messrs. Nicholls & Nettleshipp.
Samuel Garbett |