My Dear Sir,
I wd not recommend you to be in haste to present to Fisherton - perhaps you or I - may meet with a Purchaser for the Advowson<1> & you can present at any time within 6 months from the Vacancy. I think £1500 much beyond the Value & that 1000£s is enough.
I rather think I recommended a written Contract & there the Purchaser might have presented & the £1500 been recovered. I thought there was a Captiousness as to the title which shewed that some thing was not quite right & I dare say it was the want of the money - however it is of no less to conjecture as to the motive - the Incumbent is gone & we must make the most of it. Let me know the lowest Sum you will take & I will try what I can do with it
I am Dr Sir Yours truly
W.R. King
Serjeants Inn Fleet St
31 Oct 1836
W.H.F. Talbot Esqr
Lacock Abbey
Chippenham
Notes:
1. Fisherton Anger, Salisbury, Wiltshire. WHFT had inherited the advowson (the right to present a new Rector to St Clement's Church) from his father, Davenport Talbot, and held it until 1849. The new Rector would enjoy the income and assets of the living, including the Rector's house. St Clement's was demolished in 1852 and parts of it were incorporated into the new St Paul's Church.