Letter

This letter is addressed to 'Sr Rowland Winn, Bart, at Nostell Near Wakefield Yorkshire London Sepr 27 1769'. It runs: 'Sr Rowland, I hope that you will be so good as to Except the liberty I have taken in writing to you, but it is to inform you that ye Note which you was so kind to give me has been due five or six days and it has been presented for payment several times. It lay at Sir George Colebrooks. Sir George was so kind as to give me Cash for it and he has sent to me to insist of the payment which it is absolutely out of My power at present to do. If you can by any Means send ye money to town it will save My Credit other wises I Shall be ruined. Your things are all finished and they will be sent a way by ye very first waggon. I am your Very Humle Sert Thos Chippendale' [punctuation corrected]. It is endorsed in Sir Rowland's hand 'Answered ye 1st Oct 1769'.The letter is one of over thirty from Thomas Chippendale or his son to Sir Rowland Winn, and a handful from Sir Rowland to Chippendale. The theme is almost always the same: Sir Rowland's dissatisfaction with Chippendale's service on the one hand, and Chippendale's constant need for his bills to be paid on the other. Sir Rowland's preferred method of payment was by promissory note or banker's draft which the recipient could either endorse and pass on to their own creditors or get them discounted by a banker into cash. This particular note was probably for £200, redeemable at six months and sent to Chippendale in March 1769. He had evidently presented it to Sir George Colebrook, a well-known banker (and Chairman of the East India Company), but it had ‘bounced', several times. Chippendale's financial affairs were dogged by his clients' tardiness in settling their accounts: perhaps the most famous example being Edwin Lascelles of Harewood, who ran up a bill of £6,838 19s 1d over ten years – an unimaginable sum, perhaps worth £500,000 today. At this particular time Chippendale was in constant fear of bankruptcy since his business partner James Rannie had died in 1766 and his executors were still attempting to withdraw his capital and wind up the estate. The crisis dragged on until 1771 when Thomas Haig, Rannie's former book-keeper, became a partner after borrowing £2,000 from his late master's widow and a certain amount of stability returned to the business.

This item is owned by The Chippendale Society. Explore the Society’s website and collections by clicking the external link below.