Description
Autograph Letter Signed, as Bishop of Lincoln, addressed “Dear Sir”, about “Mr Hodson’s misconduct at the Asylum”, discussing whether Tomline can “declare the perpetual augmented Curacy void”. 2 pp. 9 x 7 inches, fine, with integral blank leaf. Buckden Palace, 12 November 1797. Sir George Pretyman Tomline (1750-1827), tutor of the younger Pitt, and Bishop of Winchester and of Lincoln. “If the Curacy be voidable, I can of course declare it void, & so get rid of him out of my Diocese without any further trouble.” The crimes of the Reverend Septimus Hodson are exposed on the website All Things Georgian. Hodson was appointed Chaplain to the Orphan Asylum, Westminster Road, Lambeth. There followed a sorry tale of the seduction of a female orphan singer by “the Reverend Violator”. The Ipswich Journal, 14th October 1797, reported that ‘The Prince of Wales has commanded that the name of a certain Rev. Seducer be erased from the list of His Royal Highnesses Chaplains’ and that he has been ‘suffered to resign, in consideration of the services he has rendered to the charity’.