John Frere letter to John Hatley Norton, 1768 April 1

John Frere letter to John Hatley Norton, 1768 April 1

Letter of John Frere, noted English antiquary, to his friend, John Norton in Yorktown, Virginia. Frere sends Norton news of friends in England and their fathers. He mentions that he will soon be married and has taken a house in Bedford Row. Frere apologizes for not being able to procure the breed of hounds Norton requested. He requests Norton send him birds preserved for study, fossils and seeds. The birds and seeds to be of species not native to England. Frere comments on the qualities of their cousin, John Baylor, of Newmarket plantation in Virginia, whom he finds to be a poor student.

MS 1936.3.76
Folder 7

Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

Ink on paper

Page 1

Dear Hatley

Distracted as I am just at this Time
with a thousand different Employments, I cannot
let the Rachel & Mary sail without an Ack-
nowledgement that there is such a Person as
myself in the Land of the Living, who will
be most sincerely glad to see you again in
England, after you have fully accomplish'd
the Ends for which you left it. You will not
wonder that I call myself full of Business, when
I tell you that in all Probability before this
reaches your Hands I shall be a married Man
I have taken a House in Bedford Row, which
I am now painting, furnishing &c. as soon as
that Business is ended, I shall put the last
Piece of Furniture into it - a Wife - and
then adieu to all The Follies & Vices of this
wicked Town - but why do I say adieu to
them? few Men, you know very well, have had
less Acquaintance or Connexion with them.
I suppose you are by this Time inform'd that
your Friend George Brown has parted with
your old Acquaintance M^rs Betty and taken
Miss Mills for better for worse, and your Father
tells me, but whether he is in earnest I am not
certain, that she is already in a fair Way to
make an Addition to his Family

I am sorry to inform you (knowing how great
a Concern it must be to you) that M^r Williamson

Page 2

and your Father are no longer joint Housekeepers
your Father has taken a larger House in Gould
Square & M^r. W. has taken a Lodging in Mus-
covy Court. My Father too is lately remov'd
from Bacton into a House he has purchas'd
about a dozen Miles from Bacton, just in the
Verge of Norfolk, - I came from thence a
Fortnight ago and like the Situation much
better than I expected - I am extremely
concern'd that I have been unsuccessful in
my Enquiries after the particular Kind of
Hounds you requested me to send you -
I employ'd every Body that I thought had
any Connexion with the old Sportsmen in
Norfolk & Suffolk, but without Effect - they
all assure me that the Strain has been so
often cross'd with others, that the true Breed
is very scarce, of the Truth of which you
yourself may judge, when I tell you that
I have remark'd an Advertisement in
the Papers which has been daily continu'd
for some Time, enquiring after some of them.
I am acquainted with a Gentleman in
high Suffolk who has a very old Bitch of
the true Southern Kind, by whom he intends
(if he can any where meet with a Dog) to
breed a Litter of Whelps this Spring, and if
I can make Interest for a Couple of the
Puppies I will certainly send them over

Page 3

next Year : but if I shou'd not be able to do
that, and M^r Nelson wou'd like to have the
Breed of our Shag Hounds (which I believe
you remember when poor Pirrey of Cotton
hunted them) I shall be very glad to supply
him whith a Couple - we had a strong and
excellent Pack of them the Beginning of
this Season, in Norfolk but were so unlucky
to loose several of the best by their acciden
-tally eating the Carcase of a Hog that died
of the Murrain. - you may tell M^r Nelson
that his Friend Harry Crowe is married to
a young Lady of good Fortune and settled
in Norfolk.

I shall with Impatience expect the Return
of the Ship and hope you will gratify my
Curiosity with whatever appears to you to be
an Object of it, in the Country you are in.
The Seeds of Plants & Trees are my first Wish.
if you cou'd find a Method of preserving,
after they are dead, any Birds which differ
from those we have here, I shou'd be much
pleas'd with them - a very good Way to
do it is to draw out the Entrails with a
Hook, without making too large a Hole in the
Belly, and stuffing them, both by the Throat
& the Vent, with burnt Alum, and then drying
them by a gentle Fire - this will do for
small Birds.

Pray make Enquiry wherever you travel about

Page 4

the Country, after Fossils i.e. Stones found in
chalk Pits & which have the Figures
of Plants or Shells upon them - they are
found in various Parts of this Kingdom
and almost all others, & I want to collect
them from as many different Parts of the
Globe as I can, in Order to establish the
Truth of an Hypothesis which a Friend
of mine has adopted, in the Philosophical
Way - if such Things are to be found, the
Negroes I suppose for a small Gratuity
woud bring them to you.

As to publick News M^r Anderson will
doubtless inform you of all that is stirring
at present, and that more private News
which relates to himself - poor Man!
I heartily wish he had to do with a less
obdurate Father in Law, and one who
wou'd have been more sensible of his Merit.

Your Cousin Baylor I suppose you know is
with M^r Chalmers as a Parlour Boarder; I
had partly agreed with a Clergyman of my
Acquaintance to have taken Charge of
him, but upon Examination I found he
was so totally deficient in reading, writing
French & Arithmetic, that we all thought
an Academy much the properest Place
for him - he seems very modest and
tractable

Page 5

tractable, and being thoroughly sensible
of the Time he has lost, will I hope
take all imaginable Pains to redeem
it.

You will not forget the Request I
made you in my last, to send me some
Red Birds.

I beg Leave to congratulate you on
your commencing Merchant of the
City of London and that this a[nd]
every other Undertaking of yours [may]
be crown'd with Success, is the hea[rty]
Wish of

your sincere Friend
& affectionate Cousin
John Frere

London.
April the 1^st. 1768

Address leaf

To
M^r. John Hatley Norton
Merchant
Virginia

Answer'd Dec^r 1768
Jn^o Frere
Lond^o 1^st April
1768