1839 entire sent from NORWICH to THOMAS GLADSTONE (older brother of William) in LONDON. Gladstone, an arch Tory, was in between one of his four stints as an MP during what was a pretty dismal political career. He was by this time already focusing on consolidating his position as a landed gent, having married into a wealthy Norfolk landowning family. This letter, from a solicitors, relates to Gladstone’s efforts to have the tenancy for a Norfolk property Brooke Hall terminated.

Later on Gladstone, as oldest son of wealthy plantation and shipping magnate John Gladstone, inherited the family pile at Faske in the Scottish highlands and was able to live the life of a landed nob to the max.