[BEAUMONT, Francis]

The Case for Francis Beaumont, Undertaker for Forage, Delivered to the Forces in Flanders in the Years

London? 1715. Broadsheet. [1]p. plus printed docket title on verso. Ornamental border and initial. Disbound. Small folio. Two contemporary manuscript corrections. Early folds and early stab holes in left margin. Small portion of inner margin excised, with no loss to text. Mild foxing.

A rare document lobbying Parliament for payment to Francis Beaumont, who supplied British troops in Flanders with fodder during the War of the Spanish Succession in 1711 and 1712. Beaumont had contracted with the Duke of Marlborough to provide the forage with the understanding that he would receive an advance payment before the winter of 1711 and the remaining payment due one month after delivery. Although he never received the advance payment, Beaumont still provided the forage, yet still had not received any payment three years after the fact. As a result, Beaumont, "as well as many more families in Holland, Flanders and Brabant," were left in crippling debt and faced ruin. An early example of lobbying literature, which first began proliferating in the lobby of the House of Commons at the time of the accession of King George I and the British general election of 1715. Rare, with ESTC and Hanson recording only one copy, at Oxford.

Hanson 2159.

Item #21229

Price: $475.00