22 MEMOIR OF DRURY. 



in the end was attended with the most disastrous 

 consequences. 



In 1777, he entered into an arrangement with 

 certain parties to supply them with goods, princi- 

 pally plate and jewellery, to a large amount. For 

 a time he accepted of their bills, hut these he was 

 soon informed by them they were unable to pay, ac- 

 companying this intelligence with a proposal which 

 they thought likely to satisfy Drury for the whole 

 sum they might become due to him. One of the 

 parties represented himself as entitled to a very 

 considerable estate in Yorkshire, which his father 

 then enjoyed, but which must come to him after his 

 father's decease, it being entailed on the male heir, 

 so that it was not in his father's power to deprive 

 him of it. The estate was alleged to be worth be- 

 tween twenty and thirty thousand pounds, and to 

 be let for about a thousand pounds per annum, and 

 it was proposed to convey a mortgage of the rever- 

 sion of the property to Drury as security. This 

 proposal was urged with great plausibility, and 

 Drury's desire to send a lawyer to examine the 

 validity of the title to the estate at once acquiesced 

 in, and every other facility offered for completing 

 the arrangement. The attorney was absent for some 

 time, and his report must have been^such as to 

 satisfy Mr. Drury, for the necessary deeds were 

 afterwards duly drawn up and signed. On the be- 

 lief that the transaction was managed in good faith, 

 and the parties men of honour and integrity, Drury 

 advanced goods at various times, till they ultimately 



