Letters – John Erasmus Blackett to Thomas Richard Beaumont – 19 Mar 1799

Colonel Beaumont                                                    Newcastle  19th March  1799

Portman Square   London



D[ea]r Sir     

      I am favoured with your letter of the 16th Inst. & as soon as I can get the several Certificates from the Commissioners for the Sale of the Land-tax, they shall be sent to you to enable you to redeem your Land-tax in Northumberland, & Durham.  I imagine that you have taken the like measure respecting that in Yorkshire.  

      This Income Bill is not only a most Complex, but will be found to be a most Perplexed Affair, the Printed Statements of Income etc have been left not only at your several dwelling Houses, but at all your Agents dwellings and at your Office in this Place, were returns to be made at each place signed by yourself as the Act requires it would be a most endless & difficult business, & next to a impossibility to execute; these returns are directed by the Act to be made before the 25th Inst. which is impossible to be done with any degree of Accuracy, not even in one return which I think would be the most eligible measure, but it will require some length of time & in such case it will be necessary for you to make such return in the Statement left with you & likewise that you should acquaint the Commissioners in Town & your Steward those in Yorkshire with the cause of the delay, & that the return will be made in as short a time as possible from your Office in Westgate Street in the Parish of St. Johns in the Town of & County of Newcastle upon Tyne - Should you approve of this measure it will be necessary that the Statement of your Income in Yorkshire should be sent to me, I mean the gross amount agreeable to the Act, specifying the Annuities or Rent Charges that are paid out for which the several Persons will be subject to be taxed.  

         I am D[ea]r Sir etc J. E. B.