Description
WILLIAM PITT AUTOGRAPH Letter.
William Pitt the Younger. British Tory statesman. Became the United Kingdom's youngest Prime Minister in 1783 at the age of 24. He served a second term from 1803-04. His tenure was dominated by events arising from the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars.
AL. 1p. Downing Street. Sunday evening, October 10th [no year but probably 1784]. To Lord Effingham (Thomas Howard, 3rd Earl of Effingham). Paper with George III government watermark.
"Mr Pitt presents his compliments to Lord Effingham, and will be much obliged to his Lordship if he can have the goodness to call in Downing Street tomorrow morning between nine and ten".
Approx 19 x 14 cms. Old folds, possibly trimmed at top edge at some time in the past. Old mounting traces verso. Very good.
Lord Effingham served in William Pitt's first ministry as Master of the Royal Mint. Effingham held this role from 1784 to 1789, and so the letter almost certainly will date from this period. October 10th 1784 fell on a Sunday. Lord Effingham is probably best remembered for resigning his commission in protest over the American War of Independence. Although he did not support either the taxation of the colonists or their rebellion against the colonial power, he was very much against the sending of British troops to quell the rebellion. Effingham died in 1791.
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