THE RIGBY CORRESPONDENCE.

[In "N. & Q.," Vol. vii., pp. 203. 264. 349., mention is made of this correspondence. The letters, of which the following are copies, were sold as waste paper, and are in my possession. They appear to have been written by the Rt. Hon. Richard Rigby, Master of the Rolls in Ireland, and relate to the appointment of an Examiner in the Chancery in the year 1783.

James F. Ferguson.]

Dublin.

St. James's Place,

24th May, 1783.

My dear Lord,

I return you many thanks for your two letters of y^e 10th and 11th inst., and for the trouble you are so obliging as to take on y^e business of the Examiner's Office. I have found a copy of an appointment of an Examiner transmitted to me by Lodge in the year 1762, and I send you Mr. Meredith's appointment upon the stamp'd paper you inclosed to me. If that appointment will not answer, or if the stamp is not a proper one, as you seem to hint may be the case, I must desire you to tell Mr. Perry to make out a proper appointment and send it over ready for my signature. I shou'd hope the one I send herewith will answer, that you may have no further trouble. I perceive five hundred pounds English was y^e sum I receiv'd in 1762; and I imagine that is the sum Mr. Meredith proposes to give now, and to which I give my consent.

I thank you for inquiring after my health; my fits of the gout are not very violent, but I am very glad you never have any of them. Pray make my best comp^ts to Scott, and tell him that I din'd yesterday at Streatham with Macnamara, who is getting better, notwithstanding the weather here is as cold as at Christmas.

I am, my dear Lord, with all possible regard, your most sincere friend and oblig'd humble servant,

Richard Rigby.

Your stamp'd paper was not large enough, but my servant found a stamp'd paper at Lincoln's Inn.

———

St. James's Place,

9th June, 1783.

My dear Lord,

Ten thousand thanks for all the trouble you are so kind (as) to take in my affairs; this day I receiv'd yours of the 31st May, with the bill inclosed for 498l. 2s. 5d. If the instrument I sent over should not be satisfactory, I will sign any new deed which shall be sent me for the purpose.

I have not much acquaintance w^th Lord Northington; but seeing him at St. James's the day he took leave of the King, I wish'd him success in his new government, and took the liberty to mention your name to him as y^e person in the whole kingdom whose advice would be most beneficial to him. I told him I asked no favour of him but one, which was to recollect what I then said to him if he should have occasion to call upon you for advice and assistance hereafter, when he would find it for his great satisfaction to be well founded.

I am, my dear Lord, your most obliged and faithful humble servant,

Richard Rigby.

To the Rt. Honorable Lord Ch. Justice Paterson, at Dublin.

Free, R. Rigby.