Autograph Letter Signed from Adam Watson to Charles Wren on the subject of the East Lothian & Merse Whale Fishing Company

4to, 2 pp. Bifolium. Good, on aged paper. Addressed, with postmark, on reverse of second leaf. Since Wren's letter of the previous May, 'nothing material has occurred to occasion my troubling you'. Watson announces that at the Company's meeting of that month, 'my friends & I succeeded in taking the Management of the Company out of the hands of those who wished to hold it for Political purposes, and that in consequence of a pretty successful Fishing last Season, the Company paid off the greatest part of their Debt & what with their Ships & Whale Finns on hand the Shares appear at present to be worth £26 each independent of the chance of the Success of the present Fishing.' Watson discusses the details of the transfer of shares belonging to an estate of which Wren is an executor. He asks Wren for 'a Proxy to appear for you at all the General Meetings of the Company and you may rest assured that it shall never be used but to promote the real interests of the Company which can only be done by keeping the Management in the hands of independent proprietors'. He and his 'friends' are supported 'by most of the Proprietors in this place', four of whose names he gives. In his 'Scotland in Modern Times: An Outline of Economic and Social Development' (1964), W. H. Marwick describes the 'East Lothian and Merse Whale Fishery [sic] Company' as a 'noted' one, 'with five vessels and 199 shares, held mainly by local landowners, which had fully half a century's career before dissolving into debt (1804)'.