1781.] TOHUMPHRYMARSHALL. .-(] 



Gerard. I will write to him for more seeds, to be put up more 

 carefully. 



I am sorry for your good wife's affliction, and wisli it was in my 

 power to mitigate it. 



I am, dear sir, 



Yours, most respectfully, 



Th. Bond. 



DR. LETTSOM* TO H. MARSHALL. 



[Not dated, f] 



Esteemed Friend : 



I received thy letters dated the 19th and 29th of October, and 

 November 10th, with some shrubs, and afterwards various seeds. 



I think full half the shrubs are now in a thriving state, and many 

 of the seeds are above ground. For these last I am still indebted 

 to thee five guineas. 



I spoke to Ann Fothergill respecting thy services to the 

 Doctor, her brother ; but she does not think that he considered 

 himself, at his death, indebted to thee, and that she had not heard 

 him mention anything respecting Miller's Plates, which alone 

 sell for twenty guineas. J But, willing to do credit to her brother's 



* "John Coaklet Lettsom, a physician, was born on a small island, called 

 Little Vandyke, near Tortola, in 1744. His father was a planter, and his mother 

 was descended from a respectable Irish family. They were of the Society of 

 Quakers ; and young Lettsom, being sent to England, was placed under the care 

 of Samuel Fothergill, a celebrated preacher of that sect, who sent him to an 

 Academy at Warrington. On arriving at a proper age, he was bound apprentice 

 to an apothecary of Settle, in Yorkshire ; after which, he became a pupil of St. 

 Thomas's Hospital. The death of his elder brother induced him to visit his native 

 island, to look after his property ; but, finding that it chiefly consisted of slaves, 

 he emancipated them all, and settled at Tortola. His stay there was not long; 

 and, on his return to Europe, he took his doctor's degree at Leyden. He then 

 fixed his residence in London ; where, by the friendship of Dr. Fothergill, and 

 his connexion with the Quakers, he obtained a most extensive practice. Doctor 

 Lettsom, however, quitted the Society, some years before his death, which hap- 

 pened November 1, 1815. He was a zealous philanthropist, and a member of 

 most of the Literary and Scientific Societies in Europe and America. His works 

 are numerous and well known." Blake's Biog. Diet. 



f This letter is without date; but, from the contents, was evidently written soon 

 after the death of Dr. Fothergill, who died December 26, 1780. 



% Whatever may have been the fact, with respect to indebtedness, there can be 

 no doubt, from the tenor of Dr. Fothergill's letters, that he intended to furnish 



