[Lord Charles Somerset and George Rose, Joint Paymasters General of the Forces.] Both men's Autograph Signatures, with those of witnesses Henry Hallam, William Stewart Rose, Henry Wrottesley and [Mark?] Blyth, to document appointing attorneys.

For information about George Rose (1744-1818) and Lord Charles Somerset (1767-1831) see their entries in the Oxford DNB. The two men served as Joint Paymasters General of the Forces, 1804-1806. Rose, who was a close friend of Lord Nelson, was mocked by Cobbett for enriching his family at the public expense. The present document, witnessed by one of his second sons the poet William Stewart Rose (1775-1843), appoints his eldest son, the future Sir George Henry Rose, (1771-1855), as one of the two attorneys of his office. The second witness to George Rose's signature is the historian Henry Hallam (1777-1859), a family friend to whom W. S. Rose would address his published 'Letters from the North of Italy' (1819). 2pp, foolscap 8vo. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded twice. Embossed tax stamp at head of first page. The signatures of 'George Rose' and 'Charles Henry Somerset' are at bottom right, with the two men's seals in red wax beside them (Rose's intact, Somerset's with slight loss at foot). The document is witnessed at bottom left, firstly by Rose's witnesses 'Henry Hallam' (the historian) and 'W. S. Rose' (Rose's son William Stewart Rose); secondly by Somerset's witnesses 'Henry Wrottesley' and '[Mark?] Blyth'. Written in a secretarial hand, and beginning: 'Know all Men by these presents that We The Right Honorable George Rose, and The Right Honorable Lord Charles Henry Somerset, Paymaster [sic] General of His Majesty's Forces, as well within Great Britain as without (that part of the United Kingdom called Ireland excepted) […] have nominated and appointed and by these Presents do Nominate Constitute and Appoint George Henry Rose Esqure & Charles Duke Esqre Our True and lawful Attornies to and for the Execution of the said Office, […]'. From the distinguished autograph collection of the psychiatrist Richard Alfred Hunter (1923-1981), whose collection of 7000 works relating to psychiatry is now in Cambridge University Library. Hunter and his mother Ida Macalpine had a particular interest in the illness of King George III, and their book 'George III and the Mad Business' (1969) suggested the diagnosis of porphyria popularised by Alan Bennett in his play 'The Madness of George III'.