We have all received those letters and emails requesting money or asking someone to invest in a scheme. Here is one of the recent ones I received, which is addressed to “Dear Sir.” OOPS!!! Obviously, my gmail account sent the request to the spam folder.
Alan Taylor at the British History Georgian Lives Facebook group recently posted, “Begging letters were often written in the 18th and 19th Century. Sometimes the author was trying his luck with the vulnerable – as some charities today badger the elderly with requests for donations. Other letters were written by the ‘down and out’ to relations, authorities or creditors begging for help. I have a letter of the latter type written by Elizabeth Perry in 1757 from Hanslope in Buckinghamshire to a Francis Walker to whom she owed money. She could not pay the debt and ‘must rely upon your goodness as an excuse’. The tragic tale enfolds ‘my husband has been these two years past…miserably afflicted with the dropsy (a heart condition)’ and so apparently was unable to work. According to records he was a malster (making malt from grain in the brewing industry) but there was also another misfortune for the family as Elizabeth states ‘if it had not been for the loss of our cattle we would not be the humble supplicants now’. This was a double whammy as many artisans of the period would have kept a few animals to supplement their income in hard times. There seemed no way Elizabeth could pay the debt as she had even tried ‘selling all our goods’ but ‘will not near raise the money’ – she was even willing to sell their furniture and other household goods leaving them with nothing, but realised this would not be enough. The only possible end to this was what she dreaded most ‘we must fling ourselves entirely on the parish & become a burden to that place in which we have formerly lived so well’. This outcome was not only a future life of poverty but also a great blow to the pride and reputation of the family!
“I do not know if Mr Walker was sympathetic to their situation, but online research revealed that Mr Perry died the next year, and in his will, there was a section leaving ‘goods, chattels and furniture’ to Elizabeth after the payment of a Bill of Sale..to the Reverend Moses Agar and John Downing’. My interpretation of this statement is that these two Samaritans had bought the furniture, etc., in order for Elizabeth to pay off at least some of her debts but allowed her temporarily to keep it. Further the Northampton Mercury for June 1758 states; ‘to be sold – A malting and orchard..in Hanslope..late belonging to John Perry’. It seems probable that once this was sold, Elizabeth would have been able to pay off the rest of her debts, but I am not sure what happened afterwards although there is a record of the burial of an Elizabeth Perry (pauper) in Hanslope for Dec 1759. The photo shows the church of St James the Great whose vicar, Moses Agar, helped Elizabeth in her distress and possibly buried her as a pauper!”
The State Library of New South Wales has a collection of Begging Letters Received by Banks from Various Persons 1786 – 1808. Purchased in 1884 from Lord Brabourne by Sir Saul Samuel, the Agent-General for New South Wales, the letters were later transferred to the Mitchell Library in 1910 as part of the Brabourne Collection. Sir Joseph Banks was the recipient of many letters requesting financial support, or his support in obtaining a position or promotion. [You can view the series at this Link: https://transcripts.sl.nsw.gov.au/section/series-76-begging-letters-received-banks-various-persons-1786-1808-1884-undated ]
The Jot101 blog shares a begging letter from a debtor in prison. The blog piece goes on to say: “This particular letter is from someone who signs himself M. Eurius Beaubrier, and is addressed to a Henry Clarke. Although preliminary research has revealed nothing of the writer, who may have been French, the handwriting is that of an educated man and the tone is rather pathetic. The letter suggests that both he and Clarke, who is also hard to identify, had dealings before.
“The plea for help comes from the King’s Bench prison in Southwark and is dated 20th July 1827. The tone is pretty desperate:
“‘More than three months have elapsed since first I entered these walls–& God knows what have been my sufferings during that time. I have settled two of the actions against me & I can obtain my discharge on the last for about five pounds. I shall trespass on your friendship once more & for the last time & shall beg of you to lend me the amount which I shall faithfully repay with what you had the kindness to advance me already. I shall be indebted to you for my liberty, which I have learned to appreciate after so long a confinement.
I hope that the country air has been beneficial to you and that you are recovered from your late illness. Mrs Beaubrier writes to say that they have received letters from Sir William Congreve & that he finds himself much better.
I remain,
dear Sir,
your ever grateful,
M. Eurius Beaubrier'”
The May 1850 edition of Household Words contained an article entitled The Begging-Letter Writer written by Charles Dickens. Household Words was an English weekly magazine edited by Dickens in the 1850s. It took its name from the line in Shakespeare’s Henry V: “Familiar in his mouth as household words.” In the article Dickens describes examples of the many begging letters he had received over the years, and the ruses employed by their writers to gain funds from the recipients.
Every Woman Dreams... 
