Four documents concerning an application by Carolina Nairne [née Carolina Oliphant], Lady Nairne, to Chancellor of the Exchequer Thomas Spring Rice for an extension to her civil list pension, including accounts and statements of her financial affairs

Items Two to Four are in good condition, on aged paper; with Item One worn and creased, repaired with strips of white paper. Items Three and Four are attached to one another by a stub, and all four items show evidence of having been removed from a letterbook. Items One and Four are statements describing Lady Nairne's financial affairs, with Items Two and Three letters to Spring Rice and the Civil List committee on the matter, the first anonymous and the second by Lady Nairne's solicitor John Mackenzie Lindsay, Writer to the Signet. From the context of the four documents, Item One was sent in response to a 'circular letter' from Spring Rice, written at the time of the Civil List Bill of 1837. Item Four is referred to by Lady Nairne's solicitor John Mackenzie Lindsay in Item Two as 'the communication actually made', while Item One is described by him as Lady Nairne's 'intended answer' to the circular, which was not sent, he explains, 'partly on account of her son's [William Murray Nairne (1808–1837)] death, and partly perhaps from her Ladyship's disinclination to place the very limited amount of her means under public notice.' ITEM ONE: Unsigned statement of Lady Nairne's financial affairs, prepared by Lindsay for her to send to Spring Rice and the Civil List committee, but withheld for reasons explained above. Undated. 4pp., 4to. The statement begins: 'William Lord Nairne the immediate Ancestor of the late Lord Nairne, and brother to the Duke of Atholl, was attainted in the Year 1715. His Wife, Margaret, Lady Nairne, a Proprietress of the Estate of Nairne claimed it before the Court of Session in Scotland; her claim was sustained, and she possessed the property until her death, which occurred in November 1747.' Less detailed than Item Four. ITEM TWO: Anonymous letter, written on Lady Nairne's behalf, to Spring Rice. Dated 'Brussels 18th Decr. 1837'. 3pp., 4to. Bifolium. On mourning paper. Addressed, on reverse of second leaf, with remains of black wax seal, 'Private | To The Right Honorable | T. Spring Rice | Chancellor of the Exchequer | &c. &c. | London'. Lady Nairne being 'incapable of writing in consequence of affliction occasioned by the loss [on 7 December] of her only son, a most estimable young man', the writer explains that he or she is 'a friend' employed 'to acknowledge on her part the considerate terms in which Mr Spring Rice has expressed himself' in his 'circular letter'. The writer has enclosed 'a statement of family circumstances, which it is hoped may prove satisfactory to the committee'. With her son's death, Lady Nairne 'loses part of her limited income', and 'should she be deprived of this pension, she must part with valuable servants, who have lived with her for several years, and who during an illness of seven months, attended their master with peculiar vigilance and attachment'. 'J. Lindsay Esq 19 Melville Street Edinburgh' will provide any necessary 'proofs of the accuracy of the family sketch'. ITEM THREE: Autograph Letter Signed from 'John M. Lindsay' to Spring Rice. Dated 'Edinburgh 19 Melville Street | 6th. April 1838.' 4pp., 12mo. Lindsay states that Lady Nairne's income, 'exclusive of the Pension, is about £471 per annum, and her capital Estate about £3170. She has besides a small investment in the Austrian Lottery fund, made on her son's behalf a year or two since'. (These matters are more fully described on the third page of Item Four.) Lindsay 'prepared an answer for Lady Nairne's signature'to Spring Rice's 'first circular' to 'the parties interested', and gives the reasons (quoted above) why this was not signed, and is only being sent with the present letter. He describes the effect of her son's death on Lady Nairne's financial affairs, and ends by stating that 'Lady Nairne will feel very sensibly your kindness in making this further communication on her behalf'. ITEM FOUR: Unsigned 'Answer prepared [by Lindsay for Lady Nairne] to the first circular from The Right Honble The Chancellor of the Exchequer but not transmitted'. Dated 'Brussells December 1837'. 3pp., 4to. Bifolium. The 'Answer', totalling 63 lines, covers the first two pages, with the whole of the third page carrying a 'Note of Lady Nairnes income exclusive of the £200 pension'. The context of this document is explained in Item Three, with which it was sent to Spring Rice. It contains a full description of the family's financial affairs, beginning 'My Husbands family suffered attainder in 1746, but receive back its title from Government in 1824. The large Estates were confiscated, and were sold by the Government in 1755, so that the family was afterwards excluded from a share in the Governments liberality at a later period when they restored all the unsold Estates, - as for instance the Estates of Cromarty and of the Perth family.' A crucial passage reads: 'My Husband [...] likewise with myself held apartments in the Palace of Holyrood by a grant for our joint lives and the life of the survivor, but we ceded this grant when His Majesty George the 4th. made his visit to Scotland, and it was on that occasion that the family pension was raised to £400, by the additional grant of £200 which I now enjoy.'