Serjeants Inn Fleet Street
29 Nov 1825
Dear Sir
All the deeds are ready for you to execute except that to Beavan & I have written to Mr Tilly his Solicitor to request that it may be sent to me without delay.
Mr Grosetts Lease is for 8 Years from Lady day 1821 & consequently it does not expire ’till Lady day 1829 inconsistent<1>
I have a variety of Drafts & other Papers in my possession which regard Your affairs but they are not of importance & are rather office papers than likely to be of any Use or value to You hereafter. I have some deeds in my possession that were delivered up to me when the Mortgage for the £10,000 was paid off and those are of consequence – At some future time when You are going to the Abbey I would suggest Your depositing them in the Tower: but after a few Years those deeds will be no longer necessary to shew your Title. I will have a List of the deeds made agt you come to Town.
I do not think that you are liable to the payment of the assessed Taxes for your Rooms in Albany <2> for the year ending 6 April 1825, but you are liable to the payment of the duties for that year in respect of your Servant, Horses & Carriages – if You kept any during that year. And there is no doubt of your Liability to the assessed Taxes for the present year for your Rooms – Servants Horses & Carriages – There is a penalty of £50 for not making a return persuant to the Notice & a like penalty for an incorrect return – but I expect I shall get you relieved from the penalty – the leaving the Notice at Your Rooms is sufficient & it is not necessary to prove that it came to your hands. I am unable to refer You to any scource [sic] from which You can acquire a clear Understanding of the assessed Taxes, unless You can obtain it from the Statutes at large, the perusal of which will not I fear very much tend to elucidate the subject – instead of taking that trouble I will suggest an easier mode for your getting rid of the affair – for after all you must pay such Taxes as you are legally liable to pay. I have been to The Tax Office & consulted the Solicitor and it will be requisite for you to write to him a letter stating
That you did not take possession of the Rooms till 8 April 1825.
That with the exception of 2 months, You were on the Continent during the whole of the year 1824 – & that during these 2 months that you [illegible deletion] resided were in England prior to April 1825, You were staying at Captn Feilding’s in Sackville Street <3> or elsewhere – that you never received any paper calling upon You to make any return, and that you did not during that year keep either a Servant, Horse or Carriage so that you had not in fact any thing to return. Thatupon your arrival in England you took Your Rooms in Albany – & entered upon them on 8th April 1825 – that you did not receive the paper calling upon You to make any return & that therefore no return was made by You – that You now keep one Man Servant, but that you do not keep any Horse or Carriage – And that you are ready and willing to make a proper return and to pay whatever you may be liable to pay for the assessed Taxes. That as to the penalty You do not consider yourself liable to it for that you have not recd the Notice & therefore cod not make any return. And leave it entirely to the Commrs of Taxes to decide the amount you are liable to pay for the assessed Taxes. This letter
You will be pleased to address to
Matthew Winter Esqr Solr to
the Commrs of Taxes Somerset
Place London. And it will
meet with due attention. You will of course if you kept a Servant in 1824 return accordingly & I am assured that upon the receipt of this letter the Commissioners will assess You according to your own return & put an end to any further trouble
I am Dr Sir Your obliged & very obt Servt
W R King
If Captn Feilding is at Moreton, <4> be so good as say [sic] I have settled the Action brought by his late Rascally Servant
W. H. F. Talbot Esqr
Moreton
nr Dorchester
Dorset
King 1825
Nov. 29.
Notes:
1. John Rock Grosett (1783-1866), MP; Jamaican Parliament; occupant of Lacock Abbey until summer 1827. Lady Day is one of the traditional English quarter days, the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, on 25 March.
2. Gentlemen’s apartments in Piccadilly where WHFT had rooms 1825–1827.
3. Rear Admiral Charles Feilding (1780–1837), Royal Navy; WHFT’s step-father. 31 Sackville Street, London residence of the Feildings, often used as a London base by WHFT.
4. Moreton, Dorset: home of the Frampton family.