Letter 2115

Posted on August 2, 2016 by -

Patrick Blair to Hans Sloane – October 1, 1716


Item info

Date: October 1, 1716
Author: Patrick Blair
Recipient: Hans Sloane

Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4044
Folio: ff. 225-226


Original Page


Transcription

[fol. 225] Honoured SR I render you my most Hearty thanks for the assistance you have been pleasd to afford me in this my so great necessity by the two Guinea’s I receiv’d in your name from Mr AlexR Geeky My aversion to be cargeable to any I doubt not is so well known to you that I need not insist on it But if youl consider what hardships I am brought under by ten Months Imprisonement and the Charges of Jaylors fees Necessary maintenance Two Reprieves when Remittances from home have been stop’t some time ago and when all my Goods and effects are seiz’d you’l soon see what grounds there are for being charitably assisted by my ffriends And although this my Humble Representation be as far contrary to my inclinations as below the Character of a Physician yet its too sutable to my present circumstances and therefore hope it will purchase an excuse at your Hands I need not repeat my gratefull thoughts for the many obligations I owe you I shall only beg in the Continuance of your ffavour and countenance To Honoured SR Your most Humble most obedient and most obliged servt Pa Blair Newgate Octobr 1 1716

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]).



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