James Boswell, London, to John Fawcett, Brearley Hall, Halifax, Yorkshire, 12 October 1792.

Sir,

I am very much flattered by your letter which though in a high strain of compliment, appears to me to be sincere, and therefore gratifies both my vanity and my benevolence; for, believe me, Sir, the hope of giving instruction and entertainment is a great motive to my literary labours. 

I should have thanked you for your letter, and complied with your request sooner; but to make amends for the delay, I enclose you a small piece of the handwriting of my illustrious friend. I am Sir

                           your much obliged

                                             humble servant

                                                               James Boswell

Text: Timothy Whelan, Baptist Autographs in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, 1741-1845 (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2009), pp. 61-62 (annotated version); also Eng. MS. 343, fol. 43, John Rylands University Library of Manchester. Fawcett’s “request” of Boswell (1740-95), the Scottish-born biographer of Johnson, is unknown, but what he received from Boswell is most likely the letter from Dr. Samuel Johnson to John Ryland of London, January 1756 (Eng. MS.343, f. 44, JRULM, published in The Letters of Samuel Johnson, ed. Bruce Redford, 5 vols. (Oxford, 1992-94), 1: 127-28). In August 1814, on a visit to Fawcett, Thomas Raffles received several autographs, including an MS. of Oliver Heywood. Thomas Raffles, Jr., noted that his father “ever preserved it amongst his most cherished treasures.” Raffles probably received the Boswell and Johnson letters from Fawcett at this time. See Thomas Stamford Raffles, Memoirs of the Life and Ministry of the Rev. Thomas Raffles, D.D., LL.D. (London:  Jackson, 1864), 124-25.