WINDHAM

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. Although Windham was elected as member for the county of Norfolk in the general election of 1806, the election was declared void on petition. In fair condition, lightly aged, attached to neatly-trimmed border of windowpane mount. With creases from folding. Reads ‘Dear Sir, / I should have apprized you earlier that the Ballot for the Norfolk Petition is appointed for to day, when, I hope you may be able to make it convenient to you to attend / Your’s with great truth’.

One page, folio, top corner lost with apparently little loss of text, fold marks, small closed tear, faint foxing, mainly good condition. "The undermentioned Arms &c being [expec?]ted to complete the 4th/or King's Own Regiment of Foot: I have the Honour to request that your Grace will receive and transmit His Majesty's commends to the Master General and Board of Ordnance, that the said Arms &c. may be delivbered out of His Majesty's Stores, for the use of the said Regiment, and the Expense thereof charged to the Estimate of Ordnance for Parliament".

2pp., 12mo. Written in a small close and neat hand. In good condition, on lightly aged paper.

2pp., 12mo. Bifolium, with the blank second leaf laid down on page removed from album, which bears on the reverse a biography of Windham in a nineteenth-century hand. The letter begins: 'Dear Robert | I have seen the Pr. of Wales, & have written to the D. of Clarence, as well as to some others - It just occurs to me, that you shd get at University the address of Simpson formerly Tutor there who has a living somewhere in Dorsetshire, & endeavour to learn whether he is likely to be affected by the <?> question. Some of those on the spot will perhaps write, & explain why I have not.

12mo bifolium: 3 pp. Good, though lightly creased. Tipped in on the blank verso of the second leaf, to a green paper folder on which an eight-line biographical entry of Shand has been laid down. He has left the packet containing the letters which Mrs Smith 'values' so 'highly' at the Reform Club, not wishing, in case it has changed, to send them to Smith's 'address in the Blue Book'. As he cannot 'make a decent excuse' for the delay in returning them, he throws himself on Smith's mercy.

12mo, 2 pp. Good, on aged paper. A formal letter in the third person. Windham 'is almost ashamed' of sending Sharpe 'anything so trifling as what accompanies this note'. His justification for doing so is the 'wish of having his opinions stated with tolerable correctness on a subject to which Mr Sharpe, as a matter of some interest at the moment, may happen in some degree to have turned his thoughts.' Sharp's name was often misspelt by contemporaries, and he is listed in the index to the online Oxford DNB as 'also known as Sharpe, Richard'.

Politician (1750-1810), a favoured friend of Samuel Johnson in his last years, and a pall bearer at his funeral. 3 pp, 8vo. He apologises for misapprehending his correspondent's letter. "One circumstance which helped to mislead me was of a sort which it is not for me to reproach you with, though it may serve as my excuse. I mean the extreme kindness & delicacy which could think it necessary to consult me before Mr Lukin took the step of submitting a proposal for a tax to the Treasury.