Letters to Joseph Barrett, 1715-1723

18 letters to Joseph Barrett, a goldsmith in Cheapside, 15 of which were written by his brother Richard Barrett between 1715 and 1720. The two earliest letters are from Tewkesbury, announcing riots in Worcester and Richard's intention of going to Scotland. The next letters, written from Paris between February and June of 1719, describe the sights of Paris and Versailles; clothing styles and customs of the French; High Mass at Notre Dame celebrated by the Cardinal de Noailles; and some political gossip, including the illness of the duchesse de Berry and the first reports of the marriage between the Young Pretender and Maria Clementina, Princess Sobieski, at which "the Jacobites here flatter themselves with...Hope."

Richard's letters from Leiden, written between October 1719 and April 1720, contain his impressions of the city; news of his health and financial situation; his desire to "take his degree" in medicine there; and his investment advice to his brother during the "prodigious rise in Stocks" on the London and Amsterdam exchanges in April 1720. The collection also contains two letters to Joseph Barrett from Anthony Bewly, describing Amsterdam and his business there, and one from Elizabeth Bostock, containing family news