Sir
In compliance with your desire that I would acquaint you what loss or expence Captn & Lady Elizth Feilding <1> were put unto in your affairs beyond what was retained by or allowed to them either as against your Estate or as agt the Creditors of your late Father, I beg to state, that so far as I can now ascertain the same, the amount was about 391£-; for tho' at one time it was expected the loss would have been from £1500 to £2000, yet by a judicious arrangement & selection of the disbursement the result was very different to what was anticipated - nevertheless there certainly were sundry of the payments charged in the confused & complicated accounts of Mrs Davenport <2> & others which were disallowed & consequently were a loss to Captn & Lady Elizth Feilding -the favourable issue however of their accounts was materially affected by the following circumstance of the purchase & Sale of the Furniture Books Pictures &c in the Abbey. These Articles with the Plate Wine &c were the personal property of your late father & as such liable to be sold for the payment of his Debts - & sometime after his death these things were valued by an Auctioneer & Broker from Bath, who was called in to estimate what they would fetch at a Sale by auction, if removed from the Abbey (for no Sale could have taken place there) for the purpose of freeing the amount of the personal Estate in order to take out Administration.<3> This Auctioneer valued the Furniture Pictures & Books at £954 and the Plate at 242£, & tho' certainly under the real value, supposing the same were to have been taken to by the Owner of the House, yet if removed from the Abbey the whole would not have fetched so much to the Creditors as it is well known there is at least ⅓ d difference when property is sold by Auction & where taken by appraisement. The Plate was then bought at the 242£ by the late Lord Ilchester <4> & Lady Elizth; and subsequently the furniture Books & Pictures were taken to by Captn Feilding at the 954£ to prevent the Creditors removing it from the Abbey for Sale which must have been productive of great injury to the place. The Countess of Shrewsbury <5> then occupying the Abbey, furnished, it was considered that it would be very advantageous to continue her Ladyship as Tenant & an application was made to the Court of Chancery by whom it was referred to the Master to enquire the Value of the Furniture Books & Pictures - Upon this occasion the Master ordered a Valuation to be made by some indifferent Person & under his Orders, an Auctioneer from Gloucester was employed - he valued these Effects upon the principle that they were to remain in the Abbey at £1554 - Accordingly the Master reported that sum to be the value thereof & at which the Court directed the whole to be purchased - Now tho' it appears that Captn Feilding sold the furniture &c for about 600l more than what was actually paid for it, yet in truth he never recd this money nor ever derived any benefit from the Sale because that £600 went to cover the Payments made by Mrs Davenport which Lady Elizth was obliged to allow her tho' no part thereof was ever reallowed her Ladyship in any of her Accounts. I wish I could specify the Particulars of the sums disallowed, but I really am unable to do so, and when it is known that the Investigation & Arrangement of the Accounts occupied me more than 6 months - that I was aware many of the Payments could not be allowed in any way & therefore did not note down the Items it is not singular that I cannot now after 16 years, point out the specific payments that were disallowed - The result however of all the Accounts, as applied to Captn & Lady Elizth Feilding is strongly & indelibly impressed upon my memory - that after giving Credit for the difference in the purchase & Sale of the furniture &c and balancing their Accounts they were put to & an expence & sustained a loss - entirely exclusive of the various Payments that they must themselves have made, of 391£ - but this loss compared with their anxiety & trouble for a period of near 3 Years, judging by my own, (who received a remuneration for it) was but trivial & even now I look back with feelings of surprize how the Accounts were ver ever got through with; without 10 times the loss, for neither before or since have I ever met with any equally complicated & confused nor where there was a greater misapplication (in a legal sense) of the monies received.
I am Sir Your obliged & obedt Serv
Wm Read King
Serjeants Inn Fleet St
12 Feby 1821
Notes:
1. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780-1837), Royal Navy; WHFT's step-father, and Lady Elisabeth Theresa Feilding, née Fox Strangways, first m Talbot (1773-1846); WHFT's mother,
2. Barbara Davenport (1754-1812), WHFT's aunt. [See Doc. No: 03356].
3. William Davenport Talbot's will named no executor or residuary legate and there was no grant of probate. Letter of administration were granted to Lady Elisabeth Talbot (later Feilding), WHFT's mother.
4. Henry Thomas Fox Strangways, 2nd Earl of Ilchester (1747-1802).
5. Elizabeth Dowager Countess of Shrewsbury (1724-1810), widow of the 14th Earl.