McDONALD, John (1) (Filed under D)
604
No.8 West Nicolson Street
Edinburgh
July 23rd 1819
May it please your Lordship
Understanding it to be the intention of His majesty’s Government to encourage emigration to the Cape of Good Hope I have taken the liberty to address to your Lordship a few lines of explanatory of my uncomfortable situation in the hope that it will excite the interest and compassion of your Lordship.
I have been studying medicine some time in the University of Edinburgh under the auspices of a grandfather. He is lately dead and has left me unprovided for and unable to prosecute my studies. The object of this letter is humbly to solicit your Lordship to procure for me any situation in which the application of the elements of calculation are required. With your Lordship’s permission I might be useful in the Commissariat or as School Master; the latter would be more congenial to my usual habits. I have received a Diploma as an acoucheur, but have not the number of tickets to entitle me to an examination.
My case, my Lord, is one of peculiar [obscured]. I might be of considerable use in a Colony [such] as it is described, when I must inevitably be a burthen to myself and others in this overgrown country. I humbly entreat your Lordship not to turn a deaf ear to my respectful [petition?]. I could not have had the freedom to intrude upon your Lordship’s precious time under any but the most urgent circumstances. Under the humble and confident hope of hearing from your Lordship I beg leave to subscribe myself
Your Lordship’s most humble and obedient servant
John McDONALD