Letter 1624

Blair informs Sloane that the copper plate prints of the elephant and porpoise he was going to send could not be sent together because the ship left suddenly. He could not find a ship to send this letter with so he sent it on September 5. He would like Sloane to return the copper plate prints when he is finished with them. Patrick Blair was a botanist and surgeon whose papers were published in the Transactions. In 1715 Blair joined the Jacobite rebellion as a battle surgeon but was captured and condemned to death. He was visited by Sloane in prison in the hopes the latter might secure a pardon. Sloane was successful and the pardon arrived shortly before Blair’s scheduled execution (Anita Guerrini, Blair, Patrick (c.16801728), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/2568, accessed 31 May 2011]).