[Sir Nicholas Conyngham Tindal, as Solicitor General.] Autograph Letter Signed ('N. C. Tindal') to [Lord Lyndhurst] Lord Chancellor, proposing his friend Rev. T. Foord Bowes for the living of Thwing, Yorkshire. With Lyndhurst's autograph endorsement.
Tindal is notable for defending Queen Caroline in her 1820 adultery trial, and for introducing the special verdict 'Not Guilty by reason of insanity', in the case of Daniel M'Naghten. The letter is undated, but Tindal states that it was a written a week after the death of Rev. John Kirk, Rector of Thwing, which took place on 6 November 1827 (see Kirk's death notice, Gent. Mag., November 1827). 3pp., 4to. Bifolium. In fair condition, aged and worn. Folded four times. Tindal begins his letter: 'My dear Lord Chancellor, | I am requested by my friend, the Revd. T. Foord Bowes, who I believe is not altogether unknown to your Lordship, to use what Interest I may have with you, in his favour, as an applicant for the Living of Thwing in the County of York, which became vacant by the sudden death of the late Incumbent in the course of last week.' He proceeds to describe Bowes's attainments: 'Mr. Foord Bowes is a Master of Arts of Trinity College Cambridge, who has lived from the time of his quitting the University in a House belonging to a small property of his own, in the immediate Vicinity of the parish. His Father was the Rector of this Living some years since, and he himself has performed the Duty as Curate for the last 20 years, to the greatest satisfaction of the Parishioners. During this time he has been an active Magistrate of the West Riding of the County of York.' A change in Bowes's circumstances has 'made this Living a very great and important Object to him, independely of the Value which he sets upon it, from his long and early association with it'. Lyndhurst has endorsed the letter in faint pencil on the reverse of the second leaf, the writing being difficult to decipher. In the event the living being presented to William Joseph Butler. For the subject of the letter, Timothy Fysh [or Fish] Foord Bowes (1777-1861), see Alum. Cantab. He was Chaplain to King George IV, Deputy Clerk of the Closet to King William IV, and Chaplain to Queen Victoria. In 1845 he was successfully sued by a former groom for criminal conversation.