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Result number 14 of 46:   < Back     Back to results list   Next >  

Document number: 7101
Date: 26 Dec 1854
Recipient: TALBOT William Henry Fox
Author: BOLTON John Henry
Collection: British Library, London, Manuscripts - Fox Talbot Collection
Collection number historic: LA54-75
Last updated: 18th February 2012

Lincoln’s Inn <1>
26 Dec 1854

My dear Sir

I send You a statement of sums recd by this firm on accot of Patent dues &c from the commencement – to the present time: where the line is drawn down to July 1853 they have been accounted for to You – from 25th Nov 1853 to present they are carried to Your credit against which will be set off our Bills of costs from Novr 1852 to the end of this year –

Now to answer Yr questions I do not expect the Brief for the Privy Council <2> will be very long – we must shew

1st A Dt & Cr account of payments and receipts – Year by Year from the commencemt will be best – The sooner this is prepd the better – if You will send me the rough materials I will place them in form. They will be established by Your own oath.

2dly We must shew the utility of the Invention and its merit – a few choice Photoges and will perhaps suffice But on both these heads, Counsel must advise and if they prescribe more to be done – we must comply.

At present I cannot add to what I have before written as to the fees to be given to Counsel – they must be high – vide <3> my letter of Saturday which by the bye You had not received when You put the questions – I need not repeat therefore what I said therein as to the Court of Exchequer –

But we must return to Jervis’s <4> Court – at all events to move for & obtain a Rule for a new Trial: we may then either go on or negotiate for an arrangement – but if we acquiesce in a verdict founded on a mistake of the Judge we absolve him from complaint and accept the judgment – I look upon it as being indispensable to take this course.

This does not touch Yr right to proceed in any or Court agt anor Infringer – nor cod <5> the latter turn the verdict agt by anor person against You – I do not think it safe however to proceed agt Mayall <6> on the present evidence. – I will see Henneman <7> as to obtaining more as You suggest.

Nor am I for proceeding agt Henderson <8> unless his Attorney demands it –

You have a right of course to drop Sir F. Thesiger, <9> but having given him a retainer he would be prevented from accepting a Brief from our opponents and therefore it would not be proper to leave him out.

I do not see any great utility to be gained by a further disclaimer but as Carpmael <10> says this may be done after the Privy Council has granted the prolongation & there is no use to decide upon this point at present

5

but the prudence of proceeding beyond the 1st stage will depend upon the decision of the Privy Council and may be either prosecuted or abandonned [sic] according to circes. <11>

Since writing the preceding, I have seen Grove <12> who is about to leave Town until the 5th or 6th but he says he will return before if necessary or indeed serviceable but inasmuch as Sir F Thesiger will be absent too he thinks nothing can be done before then – That may be as regards having a consultation in order to enable You to steer a definite course and to determine which is the least evil of the numerous difficulties in our path. – As regards my movements however it will be indispensable for me to have my Briefs ready for delivery by the 6th I mean for the Privy Council and therefore shall be glad to see You as early in Jany as possible that You may superintend the new Chemical experiments <13> which are suggested –

I am completing proceeding as fast as I can, in the completion of our account of Your costs charges & expences – from which as from the preceding bills I shall distinguish such parts as have no reference to the Patents – I fear I shall not be able to comprise all the payments to Xmas <14> inasmuch as sevl of the witnesses are not settled with – but we shall not be very far from the mark.

I hope by tomorrow or Saturday’s post to send You the whole of the bills and the figures You require, so that You may judge of the financial part of the question –

Remaining meanwhile My dear Sir Yours very sincerely
J. H. Bolton

I have got the shorthand writers note of the Judgment <15> which I believe is taken verbatim with great exactness.Mr Grove says we must have the whole of the evidence and he thinks too that affidavits will be needed, that is to be prepared and to be kept in readiness –
I am glad to find that he thinks the Chief Justice <16> to have erred as greatly as I do.

J. H B


Notes:

1. One of the four Inns of Court, the ‘colleges’ of barristers at the English Bar. Bolton had his chambers [lawyer’s offices and, at the time, living-quarters also] there.

2. The British sovereign’s private body of advisors, which had been responsible for the regulation of patents until the Patents office was set up under the Patent Law Amendment Act 1852, and which still dealt with many aspects of patents. As Talbot’s photographic patents were due to expire in 1855 Bolton was preparing to apply for their prolongation. (As it turned out, in the light of the unhappy outcome of his patents trial, Talbot decided to give them up entirely.) See also Doc. No: 07102.

3. see

4. Sir John Jervis (1802–1856), lord chief justice of the common pleas. He had presided over the patents trial. See also Doc. No: 07114.

5. Contraction bar over c: could.

6. John Jabez Edwin Mayall (1810–1901), photographer.

7. Nicolaas Henneman (1813–1898), Dutch, active in England; WHFT’s valet, then assistant; photographer.

8. James Henderson, photographer, London.

9. Sir Frederick Thesiger (1794–1878), later 1st Baron Chelmsford, Lord Chancellor [1858]. He was Leading Counsel for Talbot in the patents lawsuit, Talbot v. Laroche, of 18 to 20 December 1854, but his lack of scientific expertise was a disadvantage to WHFT’s case.

10. William Carpmael (1804–1867), patent agent & engineer, London.

11. Contraction bar over es: circumstances.

12. Sir William Robert Grove (1811–1896), scientist.

13. See Doc. No: 07102.

14. Contraction bar over X.

15. Viz. in favour of Laroche in the patents trial.

16. Sir John Jervis [see above].

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