[John Hiley Addington and Thomas Steele, Joint Paymasters General of the Forces.] Signatures of the two men, with their seals under paper, and signatures of Augustus Hill Bradshaw, William Wood, Thomas Gibbes, to document regarding payment in Ceylon.

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. May 1803 | Thos Gibbes' (Gibbes was a clerk to Lord Sondes at the Office of Auditor of the Imprests) and 'Entered in the Office of the Paymaster General of the Forces the 6th. June 1803. | A. H. Bradshaw'. The document begins: 'Know all Men by these Presents that We the Right Honorable Thomas Steele & John Hiley Addington 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 authorize and empowered and by these presents do authorize and empower Gavin Hamilton Esqre. For Us and in Our Names and stead to pay the Subsistence Contingent and Extraordinary Expences of His Majesty's Forces, and also the Pay of the Staff Officers now and for the time being serving in the Island of Ceylon'. 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'.