Catalogue description Folio 279: Richard Hale, Clerk of the Cheque, Sheerness to Sir Edward Gregory, Chatham....

Folio 279: Richard Hale, Clerk of the Cheque, Sheerness to Sir Edward Gregory, Chatham. He hoped they would have agreed to his keeping his 3rd Clerk. Although the Medway has left, his office is still as busy. He asked, in a letter sent with the Waterboat, if the Clerk could continue and asks Mr. Gregory's pardon for bypassing him. He and his Clerks have both had a share of the sickness going around the yard, but he has not got behind with his work. One clerk is occupied in the yard, except when he is calling the men to work and the other with weighing ironwork from the forge or receiving stores. He and the 3rd Clerk are constantly busy and the books of every ship that comes to Chatham have to be written out twice, once for Jeremy Gregory, the Clerk of the Cheque at Chatham, and once for the Board. There is more work with the many ships that come to the Nore. PS the Centurion has just arrived. Enclosed in f278.