The letter is addressed to J. Crowdy Esqr Sussex Hotel Boceverise (?) Street London. (He was one of the firm of solicitors from Highworth, Wiltshire), who was then at a hotel in London.

That address is illegible to us.

Woodstock Septr 5 1815

Dear Sir

Ld Shaftesbury has just recd a letter from Mr Forster of which I send you the Copy

Yrs J Blackstone.

Copy

My Lord,

I have been absent from Town a few days. I have seen Mr Rankin Mr Goodeves partner this Morning who mentioned another Stipulation on the part of the Sassine Office, viz That if the annuity should be redeemed within four years it should be redeemed in Stock “at the Price of the Day on which the money is advanced by the Office.” + Subject to this stipulation I have engaged the money & it will now be necessary for the D of M solicitor to furnish the office with a Rentall & Abstract &c.

Signed J Forster.

+ This cannot be Correct – it must be the price of the day at the time of redemption.

Note

The Lord Shaftesbury referred to in the first paragraph was a British politician, Cropley Ashley-Cooper, 6th Earl of Shaftesbury (21 December 1768 – 2 June 1851). As a younger son of an earl, he was styled The Honourable Cropley Ashley-Cooper until 1811, when his elder brother died.

Shaftesbury was elected Member of Parliament for Dorchester in 1790, a seat he held until 1811. In that year he succeeded his elder brother in the earldom and entered the House of Lords, in which he served as Chairman of Committees.

So when this letter was written he was the 6th Earl of Shaftesbury. He died in June 1851, aged 82, and was succeeded in the earldom by his son, Anthony, the noted social reformer. His widow, Lady Shaftesbury died in August 1865, aged 91.

1815 , concerning Lord Pembroke

1820 , Elections in 1820