Autograph letter signed : London, to Rev. John Stanley, 1776 December 23.

Discussing the death of his wife, Charlotte, and its impact on his service in Canada and on his return to England; saying "From the hour of my arrival about this time twelvemonth I plainly discerned the near approach of death in your dear, invaluable neice [sic]: She I am persuaded felt the same conviction: but seeing how ill I, or any who lived with her, could bear the thoughts of her loss, she kept up a continual attention to conceal the badness of her symptoms - the only circumstance in which she was ever a hypocrite. I also to save her from the knowledge of my sufferings, the only trial she found it difficult to support, lived in her presence under equal constreint - often have I left the room to give way to a burst of tears & forced a smile at my return to her Company. In this wretched state I was called upon by the King, &, as it was represented to me, by the Publick, for high post & important service - Canada at that time being supposed to be lost, & circumstances & opinion having pointed me out as the most proper man to recover it;" discussing the emotional pain of his departure and his own illness as he left which required surgery in Portsmouth before embarking for North America; relating his emotions when he received the news that Charlotte had died and the "two days interval in Montreal during which he "...made an effort on my mind; & succeeded so far as to be capable to busyness & not to cast a gloom on those about me. I did not quit the field 'till the campaign closed but my effort occasioned a strong nervous disorder & a slow fever which I did not get rid of 'till I got to sea;" describing the difficulties of returning home and facing the loss of Charlotte; saying "what remains is a settled, melancholy, tender remembrance, renewed by every place & circumstance wherein I have been used to find her - & more renewed by the inferiority I ever discern in the rest of her sex - I pay a daily devotion of thought to her affections & her virtues - My ambition is gone - Interest in life I have none - I throw myself into busyness of every kind as a resource, not as a pursuit - I shall live I hope of some use & at work not a burthen to my friends...I bow - humbly to the will of that Being who gave & who has taken away, & in whose mercy I trust....to be conveyed in due time to the place which she who is gone before me inherits;" sending his love to his wife.