Boston Augt. 14 1758 Mr. Brown,

As you are bound for London & have a design to visit Scotland in yr. Travels, I must beg the favr. of you being a good old freind of mine to transact some small business for me there. & in the first place I herewith deliver you a Pearl Necklace of 3 Strings & a Lockett which I desire you to enquire the Value of at London & sell it for as much as you can get for it saving that if it will not fetch half a Guineau I should choose to have it brought back again.1

Also I deliver you a pair of Earings which I take to be amythysts, 4 stones & 3 specks each which likewise I would have sold for as much as you can get for them saving that if they will not fetch 1 Guineau & an half or thereabouts as they now are then please to employ some Jeweller to clean them & prize them, & so bring them back.

105

As to the Catalogue, I shall be much obliged to you for yr. Care in buying the Books that they be well bound & that they be the same Books. Some of the Books are printed in Scotland & you will get them cheaper there, & in order to purchase these books I herewith deliver you 7£ Sterling which together with Any money that may arise upon the sale of things above named I suppose will be more than sufficient, but least it Should not I would have you buy the books in the order I have placed them omitting the last if the money does not hold out. I don't Scruple yr. Care to buy them as cheap as if you were to buy them for your self. I expect you will not easily get the first Book as it is An odd vol: but should be very glad to have it if possible. If you can buy any of the Books Second handed, I should like it provided they be cheaper, & therefore I have set down the price of those that I know as by the printed catalogue.2 Please to enquire the price of a Barometer, a Spiritous Thermometer, & a Mercurial Thermometer. I think of Nothing more but heartily wishing you a safe & succesfull Voyage & a happy Return to your New England freinds I subscribe yrs.,

RTP

LbC ; addressed: "Copy of Directions given Mr. Gawen Brown."

1.

RTP noted 10s.6d. in his cash book on Sept. 8, 1758 "for Pearl Necklace sold in London."

2.

RTP recorded the following volumes in his cash book as bought by Gawen Brown from John Stockwell in 1758: Cases in Equity Abridg'd 2d vol (perhaps the second edition of Cases in Equity. London, 1753), £1.11.6; Swinburn on Wills (Henry Swinburn, Briefe treatise of testaments and last wills. London, various edns.), £1.1; Grounds & Rud: of Law & Eq: (Grounds and rudiments of law and equity, alphabetically digested. 1749, 1751), 15s.; Salkeld's Reports (William Salkeld, Reports of Cases in the Court of King's Bench, with some special cases in the Courts of Chancery, Common Pleas and Exchequer. Various edns. through 1743), £1.15; Jacob Abridgment Law Dic: (Giles Jacob, Law Dictionary Abridged. 1743), 5s.; Milton's Paradise lost, 2s.; Dr. Youngs Estimate (Edward Young, A Vindication of Providence: or a True Estimate of Human Life. London, various edns., 1728–1737), Is.; and Burlemaqui's Nat. & Pol. Law 2 Vols (Jean Jacques Burlamaqui, Principles of Natural and Politic Law, 2 vols. London, 1752. 1st ed.), 10s. RTP made a catalogue of his library in 1768 (re-organized in 1805) which is among his papers at the MHS.