[George IV, King of Great Britain.] Warrant, signed 'George R.', and also signed by the Treasury Commissioners Berkeley Paget, Lord Granville Somerset and E. A. MacNaghten, regarding pensions to servants of younger princes, out of West Indian duties.

2pp, folio. In good condition, lightly aged and worn. Folded twice. Excellent bold signature by the king ('George R.') in the customary position at the head of the first page. Signed at the end of the document by three of the six Lords Commissioners of the Treasury: 'B Paget | G C H Somerset | E A McNaghten'. Embossed tax stamp in left-hand margin of first page, together with remains of red wafer. Twenty-seven line document, written in a secretarial hand, and addressed 'To the Husband for taking up all Goods consigned from Barbadoes and the Leward Islands on Account of the Duties of 4 1/2 per Cent'. Order in another hand at foot of second page: 'Andrew Dickie Esqr. £54 .. 10 .. 0 Pensions to the late Servants of the Royal Dukes'. (Dickie was a confidential clerk and later partner in the banking firm of Messrs Coutts and Co., which handled the king's Privy Purse accounts.) The warrant states that the money is 'To enable him to pay one quarter allowance ended 5th July 1825 to the late Servants of our Dearly Beloved Brother Wm. Henry Duke of Clarence, Our late Dearly Beloved Brother Edward Duke of Kent and our Dearly Beloved Brothers Ernest Duke of Cumberland Frederick Augustus Duke of Sussex and Frederick Adolphus Duke of Cambridge'. 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'.