Letter received by Banks from Philip Gidley King, 30 April 1796 (Series 39.017) - No. 0003

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public blessings may have long since been restored to England.

A long & Continued Illness has with the advice of all my Friends determined me on applying for leave to return to England, to try what good I may Experience by the Passage & getting proper Medical advice - My principal & most alarming Complaint is an almost fixed compression of the Lungs & Breast, with a difficulty of Breathing & a Constant pain in the Stomach - And I am not without my hopes that the passage & a Years residence in England may bring me about again in which time I may see my Family fixed, they now Consist of My Wife & Four Children.

I have wrote to the Duke of Portland through Govr. Hunter & I now renew the Application by this Conveyance - with the additional request that His Grace would allow me some assistance in getting my Family home free from that Expence which must attend a passage in a Ship going by