PATTESON (Sir John, 1790-1861, Judge of the King's Bench )

Charming autograph letter signed to his brother Edward, saying his gout "while it stayed was very trifling so I had no chance of being a cook in a rage", they have had "long letters from Coley", his son John Coleridge PATTESON (1827-1871, from 1861 Bishop of Melanesia), "last date November 23rd - they got back to Auckland on the 17th. ... They visited 66 Islands & landed 81 times - never in danger from the natives but once, when two arrows were shot at their boat as they went off: one went over their heads & the other fell 10 yards short - He is very hopeful of doing good, but bitterly laments that there are so few labourers in the Vineyard & of those few many not of the right sort - How should it be otherwise, well-educated men won't go, & half-educated men do almost more harm than good", he rejoices that "you have good accounts from Franky; he is a plucky fellow to have shaken off the fever & marched up to Cawnpore &c", while "Colin ... plans & executes, careful of the lives of his men, leaving nothing to chance ... You see we have knocked up the Denison case - I was quite satisfied on carefully considering the Act of Parliament that we could not come to any other conclusion. I hope that the Archdeacon will not provoke another attack", he is "poor" but sends "a cheque for the Church £5 self - £2 Joan ... It is all very well Rowland Hill making a scapegoat of the Cullompton Postmistress, who no doubt was the primary cause: but the transmission of letters through London is shameful at the London Post Office", 4 sides 8vo.(of which one side is black edged), Feniton Court, Honiton, 9th February

Sir John was one of the ablest judges that ever sat at Westminster, having been raised to the bench in 1830 without taking silk. He was later in great demand for arbitration, including that between the Post Office and the Great Western Railway.
His son had joined George Augustus Selwyn, the first Bishop of New Zealand in 1855, and was consecrated in 1861. He was murdered apparently in revenge for the kidnapping of natives by traders to work in sugar plantations.

Item Date:  1858

Stock No:  54263      £350

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