Letter 2330

Blair asks that Sloane send him money so he can continue to practice his trade. He is aware of the great expense he has been to Sloane. Blair suggests that he has ‘done considerable harm to [his] own affairs to serve [Sloane]’, which warrants Sloane coming to his aid. He makes clear that he would not ask if he were not in dire straits. 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]).