Letter – Edward Blackett to Edward Blackett – 27 May 1709

D[ea]r Nedde                                             			27 May 1709

      I received your letr of the 19th and Mr Aislabie and myselfe has very often considered that tis to no purpose to make an Intrest for you to be a Capt. till you can write true English, So you need not expect it till you be a perfect Mastr of the English Tongue which you should Indeed by all means imaginable, and then our best Endeavrs Shall not be Awanting to get you preferr’d.  We shall now shortly most certainly have a Peace and then most of our Ships will be laid up, so my Endeavours now must be to get you continued a Lieut. in a Man of War that will certainly be continued at Sea,  I do not know what you mean by writing you desire to know how you should govern yrselfe when you come home in case you’re ordered a foreign Voyage .  All the advice I can give you is to be obedient to yr Capt. Should go with him wherever he’s Commanded, As I writ you before you cannot Expect to have a Ship till you can write true English   Always when you write to me write the Inside of the Letr the Same as you write the Superscription for that’s legible, the other is not.  All here give you their kind Remembrance, with my Blessing to you, 

      I am you most Affect. Father

    

Lieut. Blackett att Mr Sampson Smiths at the Ship & Ball in the Strand at London