SMITH, William. 18168

£65

Description

A fine Autograph Letter Signed ‘W.Smith’, to Mr. Wilkins, bookseller in Market Place, Norwich, explaining which numbers of various part publications have not yet reached him, an entertaining lament about the frustrations of being a subscriber. 3 pp. 9 x 8 inches, with the address panel, signed for free postage. London, 5 November 1819. William Smith (1756–1835), abolitionist, Member of Parliament. He was a friend and close associate of William Wilberforce and a member of the Clapham Sect of social reformers, and was in the forefront of many of their campaigns for social justice, prison reform and philanthropic endeavour, most notably the abolition of slavery. He was the maternal grandfather of pioneer nurse and statistician Florence Nightingale. “… these mistakes, the having to think about them, & the chance of losing as well as not getting parts, as well as their running into endless length, have made me resolve almost never to subscribe to anything of the kind.”