Your letter of the 6th. instant, has revived me! I bless you for it& I wish to retain my Office till my last Moment. My little Gregory, & my Clerk, leave me no trouble in it. I have had a generous offer, from a Friend here, to whom I had rather confide the Use of the Office for the Benefit of my Family, than to any Son I have.

It will not be reasonable to ask Frank to act for nothing, as he is poor, that is in fact dependent on his Wife, till he can receive Mr. Grymes’s legacy &c, I am too poor to give him any thing to act for me. I have made a melancholy discovery lately. vizt. that my Son Mann as a Lawyer, has declared, that by a letter which he has found amongst mine to Genl. Nelson, Rosewell must be his at my Death, and he supposes that my poor Wife, & her five Children must be dependent on him!! Rosewell is all I have left, of Land; & by Sales & Deaths of Negroes, I have not enough left to work it! and its produce, & my Salaries here for five years, have not been sufficient to prevent my encreasing my Debt 600$ per Annum—!! When I married my dear unhappy Wife, I held nearly 3000 Acres of land in Gloucester, & above 100 Negroes, & I supposed, that by the Sale of my Frying Pan Estate, which would command above 4000£ (& Fo. Fairfax in fact, did give 9 Years after my Marriage, in Bonds 4500£ for it) & the produce of my Estate in Gloucester I might venture to marry a lady without a Fortune whom I preferred to one with 10,000£. Fairfax’s assigned Bonds were good for little, were sold at a great Loss, & of his own for 1513£..10..0 he has kept back to this day £600, which he knows he must pay: but by a hellish Spirit; & the Chicanery of our Law, I fear I shall not come at in my life time. God bless you! then my dear Friend, for your Consolation    As to Death I have long been prepared to meet it as my little Son will shew you when I shall be dead & gone.

I am indeed so Weak, that I am ready to die this Minute but I make Efforts to live & I declare to you my Friend! that no misfortunes no certain approach of death, have I suffered to sink my Spirits—No, I call in some Hope small as it is, & then wrap myself up in a Chri [. . . .] Resignation. And since I received your Letter, I have told my Wife, I could turn over on my Bed, & die with a sweet Resignation.

That God Almighty may preserve & bless you my belved Friend, is the fervent Prayer of your old Friend