1784  10 Oct  London  

322. Henry Paget to Gideon White, in receipt of letter. He has just arrived from Jamaica. "Our half pay was only settled about two months ago & I am inform'd we are indebted to the good offices of Lord Sidney for it with respect to the sending out of ship carpenters coopers Blacksmiths &c. you have not been explicit enough on that Subject you do not mention what we can afford to give them p. annum, or on what terms to engage them, indeed in one part you desire me to buy a Carpenter or two with Nineteen pounds Jamaica Cury. from this I can only think...that you have been led away by the public prints respecting thoose poor deluded wreches who immigrated from Ireland to the American States & where there sold as slaves, it is not so with this country I imagine tradesmen of the description you mention could not be procured under forty fifty & sixty pounds p. annum their Passage & meat drink & lodging found them. "He is going to Shropshire whre they build vessels and could engage some there if he knew the terms which White wants. Wants description of Chedabucto. Holograph.

White Family Nova Scotia Archives MG 1 Vol. 948 No. 322