Autograph letter signed : place not specified, to [Edward Dickinson], 1752 November 23.

Referring to an enclosed letter (no longer with the item) by Lucy Cleland instructing Dickinson to cut off contact with John Cleland; flattering Dickinson: "Poor [Allan] Auld was not Arab enough to be a man after her own heart, and you seem to me to have too much humanity to be employed merely as an instrument 'who has no power to alter her Resolution, or do any thing but execute the affair' in the manner she has prescribed: an affair in which a Bailiff's follower would disdain to have his name mentioned as one capable of accepting such an Employ"; listing the things and people being "bilked" by Lucy Cleland, including "a poor Washerwoman" and "[a]n honest old Nurse, who when she came to dun me for a debt to her, was so struck with my condition as to force money upon me"; lamenting his position: "Birth. Education, and a certain rank defend most real gentlemen from at least mean, and dirty distresses, but my gratious parent is content! yes content! that I should fall by such hardships, as Tinkers, Taylors, or an honest Washerwoman would not think of their children enduring if they could help it: and yet She, even she herself it is, whose rank obstinacy has brought them every one upon me. Can Lady Allen join in this execrably inhumane procedure? Can this be the spirit of our Family? if so: happy the Dead of it"; quoting from and disputing accusations in Lucy Cleland's letter; apologizing for lying to Dickinson by telling him he had never received "reliefs" from his mother before: "Whatever was done for me, in that way, was done in her way: that is to say, in a sordid, supercilious, pityfull way: tossed to me like scraps to a beggar [...] In short it was rather an injurious insult than a Relief"; exclaiming "a fine Relief indeed! to stab me worse to the heart than an absolute denial would have done, which at least would not have tantalized, or trifled with my agonies on the Rack"; writing that he will "send for my poor wretched creditors, whose demands are rather indispensible wants, than debts, and acquaint them with what my friends have not been ashamed to propose to me, and which I am too much ashamed of for them, to accept: Let them take my confiscate carcase if they please."