82 | To Lord Barrington

    Boston Decr. 14. 1761.

    My Lord

    I am favoured with your Lordships of the 28th of August.367 The trouble I have given your Lordship about the Naval Office has been greatly increased by the difficulties wch. attend explanations at a distance: for it has more than once happened that your Lordships letters & mine on the same subject have crossed the sea about the same time & possibly before I recd. this last your Lordship may have found in my Letters matter sufficient to remove the difficulties which this affair has laboured under.

    I wrote to your Lordship by the Chesterfield man of War inclosing all necessary papers with Letters from Mr. Pemberton for your Lordship & Mr. Pitt.368 I wrote again by the packet Boat which Sailed in Octr. last; & I sent a duplicate of the last letter (together with a duplicate of the agreement with Mr. Pemberton & a supplement to it signifying his consent to the new grant as proposed)369 by the Lucretia Snow I also sent another part of the agreement by the Adventure Snow So I apprehend that your Lordship has all necessary pappers now by you.

    As for Objections against an appointment in joint Names, I was always aware of them & endeavoured to obviate them in my memorial, which I suppose Mr. Pitt not seen when he made the objections. My arguments in favor of a joint appointment arise from the office having usually been granted so, for which I alledged the appointment immediately preceeding Mr. Pembertons which was to two. And I understand that in all public offices in London where there has been an usuage of granting to two, an office may be granted to one or two at pleasure. For this there are frequent precedents in the Custom house Exchequer Chancery &c.

    I believe I have not mentioned the reason of my being so desirous of having this Affair settled in a public way. I know very well that reversionary promises of Offices in America are now very much solicited. I have particular advice that there are some people in pursuit of this very office and I can form to my self no adequate Security against a surprize but an Actual Grant. A Promise of the Secretary of State extends only to himself; and if it is not to be executed till Mr. Pembertons death, the Office probably will be in anothers disposal, at that time: to guard against which it will be necessary to make a fresh application whenever there is a Change in the Secretarys Office.

    As my Son is to have no intrest in the Office till sep 1764 I could have no objection to letting the Office, continue, as it is, to that time if my life & Continuance in this Government were certain & if this delay would remove the difficulties now started, But in regard to the first, the number of my Children makes me desirous of leaving as little to the hazard of my life as possible I can. And as to the latter, the same difficulties will remain, if they can not be obviated now If a Joint appointment should be thought exceptionable then I shall not be able to contrive an appointment to one that will answer my purpose. For If Mr. Pemberton is to be the Grante’e it will give me no power over nor much dependance upon the reversion. And if I should ask Mr. Pemberton to let my Son be the Grante’e I know not what Security I could give him to indemnify him if my son should die before him. Besides, I have thought it advisable to press the dispatch of this business now, because as Mr. Pemberton’s Age & health are now, The Reversion of his Office is of little or no Value to the present Secretary of state, But as his Age increases & his health impairs, the Reversion will become [an] object of much more Value than it is at present, & therefore more hard to obtain.

    I have another reason to desire that the grant may be made in the Manner requested which is that it will put an end to your Lordships trouble, which has already been more extended than I flattered my self it would be when I first made the Application, which I considered to amount only to this, for leave to make such a grant of the Office as [my] predecessors have been used to make, with the consent of the present possessor of the Office Mr. Pemberton has been so good as to allow me to defer the issuing his patent as long as I shall see occasion. I shall therefore wait untill the paper[s] I sent by the Chesterfield &c shall have had their Effect.

    I have the highest sense of your Lordships continued favor & Am with great respect My Lord your Lordship most obedient &c

    Viscount Barrington

    L, LbC BP, 2: 18-20.