PLANTATION

The Countess of Clarendon had inherited the Mesopotamia Estate from her previous husband John Foster Barham (1799-1838), who had died a certified lunatic year before her marriage to the Earl. The Estate had been in the hands of the Barham family for more than a century. The four items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. All four with notes by the recipients. ONE: Letter signed by George J. Nicholson of the London soliticitors Vizard & Leman, in secretarial hand, to Messrs Thomson Hankey & Co. Lincolns Inn Fields; 7 July 1845 ('Mesopotamia Estate'). 1p., 4to.

Full title: 'Comparative Statement of the Imports into Bristol from the West Indies of Sugar, Rum & Coffee, together with Sugar from the East Indies and Mauritius from the 1st. January to the 30th. Septr in the Years 1839 & 1840 shewing the Stocks remaining under Bond at the latter date.' 3pp., 4to. Bifolium. In fair condition, on lightly aged and worn paper. Addressed (with two postmarks, one of them from Bristol) on reverse of second leaf: 'P.P. | Messrs. Hankey Wilson & Co | London', and docketed by the recipients: '496 | Ariel & Beloe | 30 Sept 1840 | recd 2 Oct [1840] | no answer'.

Chester Vale, a substantial estate of 1420 acres, paid taxes on 124 slaves in 1801. McLarty (d.1844) was Physician-General for Surrey (Jamaica), and several letters written by him from the island are in the National Library of Scotland, and are quoted in Alan L Karras's 'Sojourners in the Sun: Scottish Migrants in Jamaica and the Chesapeake, 1740-1800' (Cornell, 1992). In 1794 he acquired Chester Vale on his marriage to Elizabeth Susanna Breon, whose father Edmund Breon had died in 1792, leaving her the ward of the solicitor Thomas Cockburn.

The story of the Johnstone family has been told in Emma Rothschild's 'Inner Life of Empires' (Princeton, 2012). According to Rothschild, Alexander Johnstone 'became a soldier in the British army and was sent to North America.

The two items are in very good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Accompanying the two items is the envelope in which they were contained, docketted: 'Letters. | Duckinfield [sic] Hall Estate | { | Meylersfield Estate & Friendship Estate Trust'. Both items are signed 'Cyril Gurney | H. A. Trotter | L. M. Harvey'. ONE (Duckenfield Hall Estate letter): 1p., 4to.

3pp., 4to. Bifolium. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. Addressed, with two postmarks (one of Savannah la Mar, Jamaica) on reverse of second leaf to 'Thomson Hankey & Co: | Merchants | Mincing Lane | London | p packet', and docketted '84 | Geo R Gow | 29 Augt 1840 | rec 26 Oct [1840] | ans 31 [Oct] [1840]'. The letter is 38 lines long, and written in a difficult hand.

Harper's note is on the recto of the first leaf of a 4to bifolium, addressed by him to 'George Chalmers Esqr' on the reverse of the second leaf, which is docketted by Chalmers 'Notes of Documents from - 1760/67'.. Chalmer's memorandum is written lengthwise and upwards on the reverse of the first leaf. In good condition, on aged paper. Harper's note reads: 'Mr. Harper presents his Respects to Mr. Chalmers with many Thanks for the kind Notice with which he is pleased to honour him. | The Reading Room will be open to Mr. Chalmers whenever he finds it agreeable to avail himself of it'.

6pp., foolscap 8vo. On two bifoliums, placed loosely one inside the other. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper.

2pp., 4to. On two leaves of aged paper, with loss to margins caused by the items being torn out of the volume in which they were bound. Docketted at head of first page: 'No D. D. in name of James Stewart Rodney Miss from 59 to 69. The letter begins: 'I have been a Customer of the Bank for a number of years. In 1864 I returned to Scotland but came back here in 1865 to try and save some of the large amounts due me by the Planters, and to see what I could do with Several Parcels of Cotton belonging to me, and seized by the U.S. Government.

One page, folio, staining and other defects but text legible and complete, as follows (spelling adjusted): "This day the [Sephard?] and Forester arrived here with four ships from Ginny [Virginia] and two from the West Indies bound for London - the Eagle [for "Egell] now in the sound, notwithstanding teh Extreem of weather, the Guernsey in [Catwater] Expecting Cables for her security as [lost], by my last to yor. Hons.