Joseph Cottle, Bristol, to Thomas Raffles, Liverpool, May 29, 1823.

My dear Sir

         I send you one line just to say, that I have not yet been successful in my endeavour to obtain an Autograph of our poor unfortunate Chatterton. I have still one clue which may conduct to the desired result, but should any impediment arise in that quarter, why I will then, even filch a bit from my own continuous MS; so much is it my wish to comply with your request.[2]

         Pray accept this as an apology for my not having returned an earlier answer, & however much you may have censured me in your heart, for this unexplained delay, believe me still to be, with much respect for your talents, and usefulness,

                                             My dear Sir,

                                                               Yours with great sincerity

                                                                                    Joseph Cottle

Dr. Raffles   Liverpool

Text: Eng. MS. 351, fol. 49a, John Rylands University Library of Manchester. Thomas Chatterton (1752-70) gained considerable notoriety for his “Rowley Poems” (he began composing them when he was 12); he alleged that the poems were transcriptions of fifteenth-century manuscripts found at the Church of St. Mary Redcliffe in Bristol. He tried to sell his poems to various magazines in London, but to no avail. They were soon declared as forgeries; consequently, broken and impoverished, Chatterton committed suicide at the age of seventeen. Chatterton later became a hero to many of the Romantic and Pre-Raphaelite poets. In 1802, Cottle, in collaboration with Robert Southey, published the complete edition of Chatterton’s Works (3 vols). Though no Chatterton letters exist in the Raffles Collection, Raffles continued to query Cottle for some time about a Chatterton autograph. The following letter by Cottle (MS. Eng. Lett. d. 455, f. 201, Bodleian Library, Oxford), dated 1 May 1828 and clearly written to Raffles (though unassigned), confirms this, as well as Cottle’s decision not to “filch a bit” of Chatterton from his own collection. 

Sir,

An opportunity offers of sending to Liverpool, free of expense, by which I avail myself of informing you, (and which I do, with much regret,) that I have none of Chatterton’s writing by me, except such as is of a continuous nature, and which would be greatly injured by mutilation. Under other circumstances I should have felt pleasure in complying with your request.

                                             I am  Sir

                                                    very respectfully yours

                                                               Joseph Cottle

P.S. I have to return you many thanks for the interesting relict of that great Ornament of Human Nature, Wm Penn. Will you do me the favour to accept the enclosed. It becomes me to offer many apologies for not having returned an earlier reply.