SD1094. Samuel Goodin Barrett to George Goodin Barrett (1792-1854)
Published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 4, 363 (in part).
Spa Town
Decr 22nd 1839
My dear Uncle
I must confess that the tenour of your last two letters have been most painful & hurting to my feelings, for as much that you in the first part of your letter of the 30th Octr state, “that you attach no credit to the rumours which have reached you,” & yet you still proceed to state & point out my duties as Executor, Supposing I might have acted as the Report states, but which I most distinctly deny. I consider that it is only fair & a duty I owe to myself to demand the name of the parties who have brought so serious a charge & who have so disgracefuly scandalised my name & character. I do not think my late lamented Uncle with whom I had so many transactions during the last 14 months of his life would have left me an Executor to his will, in which so much property was at stake, if he had not been very confidant that the trust he imposed in me would have been honestly executed, & to the letter of the Law. Now as to the 2 rumours, 1st that I have sold land in St Anns by the words of the will one Trustee & execr cannot sell, therefore you charge me with an impossibility, as regards the 2nd charge the disposal of the capital stock, the only return of a Pen is in the sale of Fat cattle, Planters Stock & [illegible word][.] Some Pens have greater advantages than others particularly those situated close to a town as they in addition can dispose of Milk, Grass, & wood. The 1st act is impossible the 2nd is not illegal you are in error if you suppose you can convey any land of my Uncles, any more that I alone can convey. All the Trustees & Exr must join in so doing until the Trusts are all performed & each receives what is devised to him under the Will. You have no remedy against the Executors in a court of Law being yourself an Executor, but you may resort to Chancery if you think yourself improperly dealt with & the plan to prevent serious injury to yourself is to come out immediately & join in the execution of the Trust as after such aspersions thrown out I must decline any longer interfaceing [sic] in what will eventualy be yours more particularly as the management of the St Anns Properties is a very serious injury to my own Estates which require my constant presence on them in these times of difficulty– On your arrival you will be able to judge if I have injured anything which belongs to you. Every account I have in my possession is open to your inspection & your two Sons who are resident on the Pens will be able to inform you what my orders have been to the Overseer regarding the sale of Stock. I have purchased no Penn adjoining yours or have I the least intention of so doing, what I have done has been for your benefit, & that has been to request Partys who are disposing of Land in your neighbourhood to wait until your arrival that if you feel disposed to purchase you may have the preference. I have also had much trouble & subjected myself to much insult & abuse from Miss Gaynor on you<r> account by endeavouring to make the best terms with her. I shall however leave everything to your own opinion when you arrive & which I hope you will do at an early period that we may come to some arrangement regarding the debts.
I am sorry to say Edward has been in bad health for some time I do not think Jamaica agrees with him. I am intending on my way home to take him with me to Thatchfd for change of air– Richd I hear no complaints of so I conclude he is quite well– I enclose you a copy of a letter I received some weeks back from Mr Edwards I should have written & sent it before, but I expected you would have been here long ere this & till your last letter arrived & showed me the uncertainty of your movements– Which has at once induced me to write this painful letter which I never expected to have had occasion to do to you, as I always thought you knew me better than to allow yourself to think I could have acted as your letter goes on to state. I trust that shortly all will be cleared up & the parties brought forward who have dared to insinuate such things against me–
Maria & the childrens best love
Ever Yr Affectionate Nephew
S G Barrett
Address, on integral page: To be Forwarded / Captain Barrett / Milverton Lodge / Leamington Spa / Warwickshire.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Eton College Library.
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