[Lyme Regis, Dorset.] Autograph Letter Signed from ‘Wm Curtis’ [William Curtis] to ‘Mr Wh[encon?] / Town Clerk / Lym’, regarding legal action with ‘Mr Preston’ (‘Mr Recorder’) who ‘Threatens to play the very Devil’ with him.

Neither Curtis nor the 'Mr Recorder' named Preston mentioned in the letter feature in G. Roberts’s ‘History of Lyme Regis’ (Sherborne, 1823). Preston may be ‘Richard Preston Esq.’ of ‘Marino’ named as living near Barnstaple in Cary’s New Itinerary, 6th ed, 1815. The recipient’s name is not decipherable. Six years previously a parliamentary committee had examined ‘Mr. Follett, the town clerk of Lyme. He said, he had held that office fifty years.’ (Luders, Reports, 1789) 2pp, 4to. On first leaf of bifolium, the reverse of the second leaf being addressed to ‘Mr Wh[encon?] / Town Clerk / Lym’. In fair condition, aged and worn. Folded into packet. Begins: ‘Sir / I think it proper to apprize you that Mr Lowton of the Temple is the Gentleman who has undertaken to conduct my Defence, & that when you [file?] the Information, he will consequently appear & that in my Plea. I give you this information to [prevent?] unnecessary Trouble & Delay; you will therefore please to request your agent to serve him with the necessary Notices - I am informed Mr Preston Threatens to play the very Devil with me. You may please to give my Compliments to Mr Recorder & tell him that he will stand in need of all his Confidence when we come to Trial -’. He claims that he has ‘never yet heart two opinions repsecting the Truth of my Charges against that Gentleman’. He has ‘the offer of a greater number of Substantial Evidence’ than he will stand in need of to substantiate his accusations, ‘& as Honest Juries are become very much in Fashion I shall leave it to a Society of this Description whether to send Mr Recorder to Coventry or me to Newgate’.