From Forest House, Leytonstone, Essex to Cross Hall, Morley Common near Leeds, Yorkshire. Financial details are discussed with regard to rent and land-tax on property [in Leytonstone] owned by Mary.
Mary asked some time ago for franks for Miss March from Mr Ever[?]. The sudden dissolution of Parliament and time taken up by the new elections prevented Samuel from applying for them and then it slipped his memory. Mr Ever has now given him half a dozen - he [Ever] has a petition against him in the House of Commons but Samuel thinks that it will be of little consequence. If the petitioner manages to have him thrown out the franks will prove useless but the petition will not be heard before the middle of February.
He trusts that Mary is well. Mr and Mrs Brocas stayed here recently as did Mr and Mrs [Henry Lannoy] Hunter. Samuel's mother-in-law Mrs Hunter has just come to [London] and is very well. [Elizabeth] Bosanquet [wife of their cousin Jacob] spent a night here last week with her daughters who are now young women. Their aunt herself is very well. Elizabeth's son Jacob junior recently returned from Paris where he spent eighteen months to finish his education. He is now going to join [their brother] Billy in his 'counting house'. Jacob's brother Billy has just gone up to Oxford - he intends to be a lawyer. The youngest boy [Henry] is still at Eton [School].
Samuel has not seen [their sister Anna-Maria] Gaussen lately and cannot therefore give Mary any news of her. Jenny [Gaussen] is well - her brother Peter [Gaussen junior] has returned from Switzerland and is much improved in behaviour and appearance. [Peter Gaussen senior] has now sent him to Norwich 'to recover his English which he has a good deal lost'.
Note
- Jacob Bosanquet was the cousin of Mary Bosanquet-Fletcher. A wealthy member of a gentry family settled at Broxournbury he was a director of the East India Company for forty-five years and served as high-sheriff of Hertfordshire in 1803. Source: Burke's Landed Gentry (1853)