ADDINGTON

This document, signed by George IV as Prince Regent, and by the former Prime Minister Lord Sidmouth as Home Secretary, relates to Matthias Maher (1798-1865), a Royal Navy officer who was twice tried at the Old Bailey on a charge of forgery. On the first occasion, 6 May 1818, he was found not guilty by reason of insanity; and removed to the criminal asylum in St George's Fields. Maher was found sound of mind – as the present document reveals by Sir George Leman Tuthill (1772–1835) and Edward Wright (c.1788-1859), the latter to die of disgrace in Australia.

See Napier’s entry, and that of his sister Maria’s husband John Gellibrand Hubbard (1805-1889), 1st Baron Addington, in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, 4to. In good condition, lightly aged and discoloured, with small closed tear to a crease. Part of letter torn away on opening, and now under small black wax seal (good impression of crest with letter N). Folded four times. Addressed, with three postmarks, on reverse of second leaf, to ‘The Rt Honble | The Lady Napier | Kew Green’. Minuted by Lady Napier: 'Cambridge Novr. 1838’. 64 lines of neatly-written text.

1p, 4to. Bifolium endorsed on reverse of second leaf: 'Ansd. 30th. | Transfg. an Address of Condolence from the County of Fife'. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. The subject of the address is the Prince Regent's mother Queen Charlotte (1744-1818), and is addressed to him rather than her husband George III as the king is incapacitated. Morton served as Queen Charlotte's Chamberlain between 1792 and her death in 1818.

1p, foolscap 8vo. In good condition, lightly aged, with thin strip of paper from mount adhering to blank reverse. Folded twice. Embossed tax stamp at head. Twenty-three lines of text in a secretarial hand, signed at foot by 'Thos. Steele' and 'J. Hiley Addington', both signatures accompanied by seals under paper. To the left of the signatures: 'Sealed and Delivered being first duly Stamped in the presence of | Wm. Wood'. (Wood was a cashier in the Army Pay Office.) At foot of page: 'Entered in the Office for Auditing the Public Accounts 10th.

1p., 12mo. On aged paper, with particular wear to one corner. Laid out in the usual style, with printed text completed in manuscript. Begins (with manuscript text in square brackets): '[12th. March 1681] | Received of the Officers of the Tally-Court, one Tally levied on His Majesties Hereditary Revenue of Excise, containing the Sum of [three pounds] due unto me for one Quarter of a Year ended at [Michas 1682] [...]'. Signed at the foot: 'Fleetwood Dormer | for Sr. John Busby'. Busby married Mary Dormer, a kinswoman of Fleetwood Dormer of Lee Grange.

4pp., 12mo. Very good, on lightly-aged paper with watermarked date 1848. Addressed to 'My dear Dean'. As the letter clearly concerns Pellew's life of his father-in-law Lord Sidmouth (1847), with Croker referring to his own review of the book in the Quarterly Review, the reason for the gap between the date of publication of the book and the writing of the letter is unclear. Croker writes that he has received Pellew's 'last livraison & kind letter which gives a very just idea of the correspondence'.

12mo: 3 pp. Good, on lightly aged paper. Small spike hole through both leaves of the bifolium. Text clear and entire. Execrable hand. Begins 'I certainly shall not secede from my conditional Promise'. Paragraph describing the weather ('The Heat of the Weather here is intolerable.') 'I agree entirely with respect to the Character of our worthy departed friend. It is a great loss to this Part of the Country.'