Description
Letter Signed ‘Cathcart’, with three lines in his hand, referring to the reward due to Joseph Wilson of General Gore’s Regiment of Dragoons, who was present at the seizure of 1437 pounds of smuggled tea at Aldeburgh (Suffolk). 1 page 9 x 7 inches, in good condition. Camp at Carresbrook [Isle of Wight], 26 July 1740. Charles Cathcart, 8th Lord Cathcart (1686–1740), was a distinguished military officer who had served with Marlborough in Flanders, and particularly at the Battle of Sheriffmuir during the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion. He became a Major General in 1739 and in 1740 was appointed Commander-in-Chief of all British Forces in North America. He embarked at Spithead with his expeditionary force towards the end of 1740 but died at sea on 20 December. He is buried at Prince Rupert’s Bay, Dominica. In this letter Cathcart states that Joseph Wilson now belongs to Colonel Douglas’s Regiment of Marines under Cathcart’s command “in the present Expedition”, and asks his correspondent to give instructions to the Collector at Aldeburgh to send the money before Wilson proceeds.