The Charles Dickens Letters Project

To MESSRS COUTTS & CO.,1 27-28 APRIL 1850

Text2 from facsimile in Albion Auctions online catalogue, 2017.

                                                                                                                       28 April 1850

                                                                                                         273

Messrs Coutts & Co

            Sell the £500 Exchr Bills you hold on our Joint Account4                                     

                                                CHARLES DICKENS

                                                JOHN FORSTER5

• 1. Bankers, of 59 Strand, with whom CD had an account from Nov 1837 to the end of his life.
• 2. In another hand; signatures are those of CD and John Forster.
• 3. The fact that the document carries two dates – that is, 28 and 27 April – may refer to the dates of signing, or post-dating by CD and Forster; there is no legal or banking rationale for the double dating. The transaction cleared the bank on Monday 29 April (MS Coutts & Co).
• 4. Note in pencil in another hand, in bottom right-hand corner reads: "They were Trustees of the 'James Sheridan Knowles' Fund". Knowles (1784-1862; Dictionary of National Biography), was a playwright, widely recognised as the leading dramatist of the day. He was declared bankrupt in 1847; CD and Forster assisted him financially by opening a separate joint bank account in their names on 17 October 1848, with £557.11s.5d paid in by CD. This amount was the surplus generated by the theatrical production of Every Man in His Humour, performed earlier in the year for Knowles's benefit; see Pilgrim Letters 5, p.222n and 6, p.325n. CD and Forster used the money to buy government bonds with a nominal value of £500 on 7 November 1848, at a cost of £522.0s.10d; and they remitted £35 to Knowles on 10 January 1849. They then made occasional payments to Knowles from the interest earned on the bonds. The sale of bonds referred to in this letter allowed £25 of the capital to be released to Knowles; CD and Forster then re-purchased slightly fewer bonds at a cost of £472.11s.11d on 11 July 1850. They cashed in £191.8s.2d of the investment on 6 April 1853, and paid Knowles £200. The bank account was closed, with the balance of £44.6s.2d paid to Knowles, on 2 July 1856; presumably, the remaining bonds were transferred to Knowles as well.
• 5. John Forster (1812-76; Dictionary of National Biography), journalist, biographer, historian; CD's closest friend, literary executor and authorised biographer.