[Edward Samuel Byam, genealogist, Chief Magistrate of Mauritius.] Autograph Letter Signed to unnamed party, regarding his restoration of family monuments.

4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. A long letter of eighty-seven lines, in a neat close hand. Signed ‘Edward S Byam’. The recipient is not identified. Begins: ‘My dear Sir / I have received yours of 7th Instant enclosing proof Sheet of what you propose saying in your next number of the Herald & Genealogist on the Subject of my lately restored Monument, at Stamford, to the Memory of Francis Knollys and asking me, if, I think any thing need be said beyond what you have already said.’ He praises the writing as ‘admirably adapted to the purpose’, before turning to an article sent to him by the editor of the Gentleman’s Magazine. He discusses ‘the Erection or Restoration of two instead of three family Monuments: for in the Summer of 1862 we restored the Monument at Luckham (Lucombe) Church Somerset to the Memory of the celebrated Dr Henry Byam which had gone to decay and had nearly become illegible’. In 1864 his brother ‘erected a Monument to Edward Byam the Doctor’s Brother and his & my own immediate Ancestor in the Church of Castle Lyons Ireland - and this Summer I have restored me to my maternal Ancestor Francis Knollys in the Church of Stanford Berks’. He returns to the ‘admirably written’ article in the Gentleman’s Magazine, and then observes that, ‘a hundred & more years ago a Monument to three of our Family Governor Edward Byam and his two Sons George and William (the latter my Grandfather) was ordered and paid for’: the ‘£100 Sterling being either pocketed or misapplied’.