To D. T. Ansted   15 April 1863

Down

April. 15— 1863

My dear Ansted,

I still think that the offer which I made to Mr Ransome of receiving £100 in payment in full for the £250, was fair & liberal.—1 **My Solicitor, who knew all the circumstances, thought that I ought to claim the whole & remonstrated with me.—2 Mr Ransome has not paid me, as he asked for further delay owing to his expectation that a new company would be immediately formed.—3

As I before said I do not wish or intend to press my legal claim, & you can pay me the above sum of 100£, or part, or nothing, according as your circumstances permit.4 On this point I cannot judge & you must decide for yourself.—

Yours sincerely | Ch Darwin

Draft

1
See CD memorandum, 14 February 1863, and letter from D. T. Ansted, 13 April 1863 and n. 1. No correspondence between CD and Frederick Ransome has been found.
2
CD’s solicitor was William Mackmurdo Hacon (Freeman 1978).
3
Ransome’s new company, the Patent Concrete Stone Company, went into production in East Greenwich in 1867 (Engineering, 28 June 1867, pp. 671–2). CD’s bond, however, may have been settled before 1867 (see CD memorandum, 14 February 1863 and n. 2, and letters from D. T. Ansted, 17 April 1863 and 23 April 1863).
4
In CD’s Investment book (Down House MS), an entry concerning Ansted and the Patent Siliceous Stone Company was dated May 1863; it reiterated the settlement recorded in this letter: ‘I have cancelled Ansted [after ‘R’ del] Bond on understanding that if he can ever sell the shares, he will repay me’.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.1 that] interl
2.1 not] interl
3.1 can] above del ‘must’
3.2 sum of 100£,] interl
3.3 judge] above del ‘decide’
3.3 decide] after del ‘fix’
4.1 Yours] after del ‘Believe me’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-4099,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-4099