my last letter might be,' and finding by the publick Prints from Virginia that Mr Clayton the late Attorney Genl there, who is appointed by Commission from home, dy'd on the 18th of last November, I venture to trespass upon yr Grace once more to inform yr Grace of this Vacancy, and beg the favour that I may be appointed to succeed Mr. Clayton, wch would be a very Advantageous removal for me. After having been so troublesome, I dare not detain yr Grace a Momt longer than with the utmost sense of Gratitude and Duty to yr Grace to subscribe myself My Lord Yr Grace's most Devoted and WM. SHIRLEY. FRANCES SHIRLEY TO THE DUKE OF MY LORD Duke, I troubl❜d your Grace some time agoe wth a letter in relation to the Goverment of New England. If your Grace is so good as to design that for Mr. Shirley when it becomes Vacant I shou'd be very glad to wate some time for it but if neither that nor any other good thing is in View I beg leave to Mention a Post that I Spoke of the first time I had the Honour of seeing your Grace. It is the Naval Officer of New England wch I am Inform'd Mr. Loyd,3 Son in 1 His application for the post of Naval Officer of Massachusetts, ante, p. 9, note. B. M., Additional Manuscript 32691,254. A transcript is in the Library of Congress. See Newcastle's reply of July 23, following. The person referred to is Byfield Lyde. He was the grandson of Judge Nathaniel Byfield and married the only daughter of Jonathan Belcher. Mr. Lyde was graduated from Harvard College in 1723, and was at this time Governor Belcher's candidate for the position of Naval Officer of New England. The Governor sought to obtain the office through Sir Robert Walpole, but was opposed by Mrs. Shirley, to whom he had given the name "Mrs. Gypsy." 6 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., Vols. VII and X. Law to Governor Belcher is now Soliciting your Grace for. Graces Most Oblig'd Most July the 19th, 1738 FRA. SHIRLEY. DUKE OF NEWCASTLE TO FRANCES SHIRLEY1 MADAM, Claremont, July 23d, 1738. I am very sincere, in assuring You of My Readiness to serve Mr. Shirley, on any proper Occasion. I don't at all know, that the Government of New England is like to be vacant, or that the Place of Naval Officer of New England is vacant; so that I can say Nothing to either of those things. If the Chief Justice of New York should be removed, I shall not fail to recommend Mr. Shirley, to succeed to that Post; and will repeat my Sollicitations to Sr. Robert Walpole, for the Employment, that You formerly mention'd to Me, which is in the Gift of the Treasury. Mrs. Shirley. I am Madam Yr Most Obedt. Humble Servt. 1 B. M., Additional Manuscript 32691, 262. A transcript is in the Library of Congress. 2 Thomas Pelham-Holles, Duke of Newcastle, was born in 1693, and died in 1768. During his career as minister to the king, he rose as high as First Lord of the Treasury (1754), but during the period with which we are most concerned in these volumes, he was Secretary of State for the Home Department in ministries headed by Sir Robert Walpole, Lord Wilmington, and Henry Pelham. This department included the charge of the Colonies. WILLIAM SHIRLEY TO THE DUKE OF MY LORD DUKE. NEWCASTLE1 Boston, N. E. March 3, 1738. This Morning I had the honour of yr Grace's Commands relating to Sir Thomas Prendergast's Demand agt Mr. Auchmuty, wch I hope, I have already finish'd to Sir Thomas's satisfaction. And now I must intreat yr Grace to permit me to express the great Concern, I am under, at receiving this Morning an acct of yr Grace's having been troubled wth an Impertinent Letter sign'd J. Bowden, containing Complts. agt Govr Belcher, and desiring that I might be put into his post; and to assure yr Grace that it is Counterfeit. The person, whose name is borrow'd to sign this Letter with, is a Merchant of the largest Estate in this province, a Frenchman by birth, who does not trouble his head abt anything that relates to the Governmt, is upon good Terms with Govr. Belcher, and has very little acquaintance with me; and to bring it to the Test whether the name set to the Letter is of his handwriting, as he is one of the Signers of our Merchants publick bills, I have sent Mrs. Shirley one of 1B. M., Additional Manuscript 32692, 23. A transcript is in the Library of Congress. Substantially the same letter is in C. O. 5, 899, 263. See also an unsigned letter of about eighty words relating to Prendergast's demands, ibid. p. 260. Robert Auchmuty was Judge of the Court of Admiralty and disliked by Belcher. The letter to which Shirley refers is in C. O. 5, 899, p. 250, and the person said to have written the letter was James Bowdoin the merchant, father of the later Governor Bowdoin. James Bowdoin was, as Shirley says, born in France. He was the son of Pierre Baudouin, a Huguenot refugee from near La Rochelle, born in 1676, and died in Boston, Sept. 8, 1747. 6 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll. 10, 364. 'em to make use of for a Comparison of his handwriting with the Letter. I am also perswaded that this Letter did not come from any friend of mine, but from some person, who design'd to discredit me in yr Grace's Opinion; For if the Writer of it had really design'd to serve me, and prejudice Govr. Belcher, he would, I doubt not, have consulted me as to the propriety of framing it, and sending it. And I hope I am not fall'n so low in yr Grace's Opinion as that yr Grace can think me Guilty of offering so very weak, and silly an Abuse to yr Grace's Goodness as to encourage so pitifull a Contrivance. Besides, when this was wrote, I was an utter Stranger to any Application of my friends for this Governmt; And there is no person in this province, who could reasonably think I had any such View. There is indeed one Gentleman in the province, whose Jealousy I can't forbear mistrusting in this Affair, and who, I know, would now be glad by any Contrivance to hurt me in yr Grace's Opinion. It may seem hard and groundless to impute so mean and improbable an Artifice to a Gentleman in the highest Station among us, But as I am thoroughly acquainted wth his politicks, and am knowing to other Instances of the like kind of Treachery from him towards another Gentleman now in England (one of which is now lying before the Board of Trade) I dare almost risque my Credit upon the Truth of my suspicion. Having thus broke in upon yr Grace, I must further beg leave just to mention my uneasiness at Mr. Waldo's 1 indiscretions in his Application to yr Grace in my favour: The Account wch he has sent me, of his intruding upon yr Grace in Sussex, and his manner of solliciting for me since, has given me no small pain. It is what I was much surpriz'd at, and if I had been consulted in it, should never have consented to. I am well satisfy'd of Mr. Waldo's friendship for me, and hold myself much oblig'd to him for 1 Samuel Waldo was a wealthy merchant and second in command at Louisbourg in 1745. He was born in Boston in 1696 and acquired large land holdings in the district of Maine, where he died in May, 1759. his good intentions; but I can appeal to my own Letters to Mrs. Shirley,' and Mr. Waldo's letters to me for a full proof, that he had no Commission from me to be so troublesome to your Grace. It is impossible for me fully to express here the deep sense I have of yr Grace's late Goodness to me in the whole Course of my Application to his Majesty for annexing a Salary to my post of Advocate Genl, and also in nominating me for Chief Justice of New York,2 and there is nothing I more ardently wish for than to have an opportunity of giving a proof of my Duty and Gratitude to yr Grace, and with what an unfeign'd Zeal and Attachmt I am My Lord, Yr Grace's most Oblig'd and WM. SHIRLEY. FRANCES SHIRLEY TO THE DUKE OF MY LORD DUKE Mr. Western has Inform'd me of a late Conversation that he has had wth your Grace by wch I find that it is your Opinion that it is not proper at this time to make an Alteration in the Massachusits Govert. and that therefore your Grace is so good to Advise Mr. Shirley to Accept of the Govert. of New Hampshire together with the Post Office 1 It is interesting to read in the light of this statement Mrs. Shirley's letter to Newcastle of March 13, 1739-40, following. By that time certainly the position of Governor of Massachusetts would have been gratefully received. 2 See Newcastle to Frances Shirley, July 23, 1738, ante, p.12. B. M., Additional Manuscript 32693, 123. A transcript the Library of Congress. During 1739 there had been great discontent with Governor Belcher shown throughout New Hampshire, and a movement for a government distinct from that of Massachusetts had gained |