Catalogue description Folios 17-18. Letter from J Gilchrist of St Aubyn Street, Plymouth Dock [Devonport],...

Folios 17-18. Letter from J Gilchrist of St Aubyn Street, Plymouth Dock [Devonport], reporting the presence of plague, its impact in wiping out a seventh of the 40th [2nd Somersetshire] Regiment in the last month, and encouraging the authorities to make strenuous efforts to control its spread and to care for the sick. Gilchrist goes on to refer to his 4-month wait to join his ship, not yet commissioned, to the ruin of his business in London, and asks the Home Secretary to obtain the relief from Lord Chatham [First Lord of the Admiralty] requested in his previous letters.