Works of Charles and Mary Lamb. VI-VII. Letters
Charles Lamb to Thomas Holcroft, Jr., [Autumn 1819]
DR Tom, Do
not come to us on Thursday, for we are moved into country lodgings, tho’
I am still at the India house in the mornings. See Marshall and Captain
Betham as soon as ever you can. I fear leave cannot be obtained
at the India house for your going to India. If you go it must be as
captain’s clerk, if such a thing could be obtain’d.
For God’s sake keep your present place and do not give
it up, or neglect it; as you perhaps will not be able to go to India, and you
see how difficult of attainment situations are.
John Betham (1787 c.-1835)
The son of the Rev. William Betham (1749-1839); in Madras he was a port official and
police magistrate with the East India Company and was twice married.
Thomas Holcroft Jr. (1803-1852)
The son of the dramatist and his wife Louisa Mercier Holcroft; he was a clerk in the
House of Commons before 1819, spent time in India, and was Paris correspondent for the
Morning Herald and secretary of the Asiatic Society.
James Marshall (d. 1832)
Translator and literary jobber; he was a schoolmate and bosom friend of William Godwin, a
drinking companion of Charles Lamb, and associate of Mary Shelley.
