Wilson, George, Esq. ; Cox, John Pope ;

[ALS, Early Telegraph] A group of three handwritten letters to George Wilson, Esq. , Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Electric Telegraph Company

Liverpool Station and Southbury London: 1848 and 1850. First Edition. Three handwritten letters, each on Electric Telegraph Company letterhead. Each letter is a single sheet folded, offering four pages each, of which seven pages are written on.

1) Letter to George Wilson, Esq. from John Pope Cox. This letter tells the Chairman that there is no fault at their offices for a problem reported by Acland (??). "I start for Dublin at 4am + will take care that for the future nothing shall beat us." and he notes a slip that might have otherwise bright the company 100 pounds. Further "I think that after working every day from between 6 & 7 am midnight Mr Aclands remoars as to laziness and ignorance are rather uncalled for." Cox was a senior superintendent in Manchester, and was dispatched about this time to Ireland to insure that news was properly reported. (see Distant Writing website)

2) A pair of letters to Wilson from an employee in the impressive Lothbury office (signature indistinct). The first, dated March 9th, 1850 talks about the liveries (special uniforms) worn by London employees and the costs thereof. The second letter, Dated Apr 6 1850 reports on various business issues, and also asks Mr. Wilson relative to liveries for Liverpool and Manchester to "be kindly requested to place his own signature to the orders he may issue, to prevent abuse in the present and all other instances" Very Good. [26075]


"The Electric Telegraph Company was the world's first public telegraph company, founded in the United Kingdom in 1846 by Sir William Fothergill Cooke and John Lewis Ricardo, MP for Stoke-on-Trent. At creation the company purchased all the patents Cooke and Wheatstone had obtained to date. It merged with the International Telegraph Company in 1855 to become the Electric and International Telegraph Company." (wiki)

Business correspondence from this period in telegraphy is not often found on the market.

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