BRIGHT, Richard (1789-1858). Physician.
Autograph Letter Signed to the sculptor Francis Chantrey, 4 pages 8vo (some faint pencilling on the third page), 14 Bloomsbury Square, 7 June 1830. Recommending his brother-in-law, (Sir) W[illiam] Webb Follett, as one of the hundred candidates for the Athenaeum.
Letters of the great physician, Richard Bright, are extremely rare on the market. We are only aware two others having been sold in the last fifty years or so.
Follett was the brother of Bright's second wife. He was to become Attorney-General in 1944. He was close to John Wilson Croker, the principal founder of the Athenaeum, and married Croker's ward, Jane Mary Giffard, in October 1830.
There is a lengthy and diffident postscript:

'... I will also venture while on this subject to mention to you the name of my own Brother, Benjⁿ Heywood Bright. He is at the Chancery Bar, but it is not on that account I can even mention his name. But as being very profoundly acquainted with the ancient literature of the Country, and as being a man of extensive general knowledge I have no doubt that he would not disgrace even the chosen hundred ...'

[No: 19953]