SD834. Edward Moulton-Barrett (father) to Messrs. Clayton
Published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 3, 334 (in part).
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Novr 13. 1837.
By the request of Mr Barrett, I have returned to you the Draft £494.2.11 drawn in favor of him on your Bankers in London. Mr begs that you will communicate to Mr James Clarke his surprise, that he should thus have confounded accounts, which he must know cannot possibly be mixed up together, the purchase money of the Pilgrim Street Property with the exception of his life Interest in it, being in fact the Property of his Son, & the account given, correct or otherwise, resting entirely between him & the Estate of the late Mr G. Clarke. Mr B. begs that you will draw Mr Clarke’s attention to the latter’s letter of the 3d June 1836 to him, wherein he then certainly never thought of such a mode of proceeding, for he there speaks of the £800, without reference to any deduction, and to the following passage contained in his reply to that letter, “[illegible word] upon money matters, always a disagreable subject to me, it may as well to discharge my mind of all topics connected with it, as between me & you, I mean in your Character, as one of your Father’s Executors; you will recollect a Bond for, I think, £3000 with Interest, which I held of your Father, & which capital Sum you paid sometime after his death with a promise to discharge afterwards the interest, the latter you must know I never had; besides from what I recollect of your Father’s Will, it does not appear to me that I have received the whole Legacy to which I am entitled under it; I may be mistaken, as I confess I only heard it once read, & that by J. Clarke on the melancholy night of his funeral.”
Mr Barrett cannot therefore accept such an Account as that transmitted: Will Mr J. Clarke give Mr B. some information as respects the several sums paid him by Woodbridge, as he cannot get at his papers to ascertain their correctness, in saying this he does not mean to imply otherwise than that they are so but the time is distant & they have passed from his memory, therefore if Mr J. Clarke can conveniently afford the information Mr B. will feel obliged: as regards the glass charged for, Mr B. perfectly recollects its being returned to the Persons at Bristol, who supplied it, in consequence of some portion of it being broken from bad package, & that two or three letters passed between them on the subject of payment, when Mr B. peremptorily declared he would pay for it, since which he has never heard any thing more about it. In conclusion Mr B. begs that the Account of the Sale of the Property & the amount of his Son’s share may be made out specifically & transmitted, without mixing up his private account with it, so objectionable in every point of view, particularly when the relationship is so near as it is in this case, indeed it appears so little was considered his interest in it, that he understands it was not thought necessary to obtain his signature to the very Deed, which conveyed the Property- As regards his own Account, Mr B. has to observe, upon a proper & full one, taking in the Debits & Credits to its close being supplied him, that should the balance be against him, he will immediately, after inspection, pay Mr J. Clarke the amount-
13 Nov. 1837.
Remitted the Draft for £494.2.11 to Mess. Clayton &c.
Publication: None Traced.
Source: File copy at Eton College Library.
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