| Description | M’rs C. Brown
Madam
I have been prevented from sending an earlier reply to your letter of the 20th Jany by the illness of Mr Boulton, whose Physician has strictly ordered that he neither receive nor answer any letters, or attend to any business whatsoever, particularly such as may be of a disagreeable nature.
Although Mr Boulton’s name is continued in business nevertheless he has totally withdrawn himself from it & cannot, in his present situation, take upon him the burthen of more distressed families
There are also other circumstances, which he is fully acquainted with, that render it improper for him to hold any correspondence with you or your Relatives.
Mr Boulton cannot help observing that he lent your Brother some years ago £200 upon his bond bearing interest; but he has never paid one farthing of principal or interest, nor has he ever made any apology for not doing it:—he also at the request of your Sister made her a remittance before she died.
Moreover it appears that Mr Boulton’s money has not been applied to the benevolent & virtuous purposes intended but on the contrary it has been squandered in illicit amours & unnecessary expences.
As you say Mr Brown has left you £130 a Year it seems adviseable to sell a part of it & pay off all your Creditors immediately, or make some composition with them, & then to proportion your expences to the remainder, or apply yourself to some business, for I can assure you that you will neither receive pecuniary assistance from Soho nor even answers to your future letters. But lest you may have misled yourself by too sanguine hopes Mr Boulton has ordered me to remit you the inclosed Twenty Pounds which you may acknowledge the receipt of to me, who am,
Madam
your obt Servt
Wm Cheshire,
of Soho near Birmm
Feb’y 4th 1806
If you indorse the inclos’d Bill with your own hand any neighbouring Banker will cash it for you. |