| Description | "Respecting the appropriation of his services, &c., &c."
Respected Sir,
Having been informed by your Father that you have it in contemplation to withdraw me in part from my present employments in Mr. Brown's room with a view to my occasional services in your office, and presuming that your object may possibly be, to favor me with a permanent situation near your Person, or that the proposed regulation might eventually lead thereto, I feel it, as a point of honour, incumbent on me to disclose to you certain circumstances which have been long revolving in my mind, and strongly point to the necessity of my removal from Soho.
My feelings on this occasion lead me to tender you, Sir, my warm thanks for the considerations which may have induced you to continue bread, under any circumstances, to a man whose introduction to Soho has been in auspicious, and whose situation and subordinate talents have not furnished him with an opportunity of testifying his gratitude by any material services to his Employers.
I avoid profusing your time I proceed to state briefly, that the imperious claims of a large, and increasing, family call upon me to put forth some extraordinary efforts to secure for them, if possible, a maintenance not depending entirely on my life and health.
Although I have not yet determined upon any specific plan, I persuade myself, that my moderate abilities, aided by a proper degree of application, would procure my family a humble living not so liable to be abruptly broken off, as that depending solely upon my own exertions in a state of service.
Having these thoughts in my mind, it would, I conceive, be treating you with almost criminal reserve were [I] to withold from you this disclosure 'till you have given yourself the further trouble of proceeding to initiate me, considering that the meanest cog, when fitted into a piece of machinery, cannot be displaced without some inconvenience.
At the same time, I submit it to your Father and you to determine the period of my removal, and the objects proper to engage my attention 'till that event takes place. It occurs to me, that I should not be at all missed at the termination of the British Coinage; and if that period be agreeable to your Father and you I shall make my arrangements accordingly and pursue, in the mean time, my employments in the Coinage department, and all other that may be assigned me, with unremitting diligence.
I am, with high respect, Sir, your obedient humble Servant,
Wm. Cheshire
Handsworth, July 4th, 1806.
M. R. Boulton, Esqr.
[Edited transcript.] |