Records of the Cust Family is in Modern Era.
Lord Tyrconnel to Sir John Cust. Belton. May ye 7th, 1748.
Dear Nephew
After ye Pleasing News of ye signing ye Preliminaryes for our General Peace & as I hoped ye stopping ye Issues of ye most Noble & Best Blood in Christendome; a Day I never thought I should have to see: How great must be my schock when I heard of an unaccountable Victory to no use or Purpose but to robb us of ye most valuable of Men1! yo Best can tell, by what yrself felt upon this most Melancholy occasion. To Aggrevate yr greif I cannot, to Alleviate itt, I am too much a Fellow sufferer to have itt in my Power, i stand as much in need of itt myself itt is an Honest Sorrow & becomes us, can we Deny ye Tribute of our Tears to him, who did not spare his Blood to serve his country. Possessd of every amiable Quality that endear’d him to all who knew him, whose Love & Affection to his Brothers & Sisters, whose Duty & Piety to his Mother whose readiness & willingness to embrace any condition of Life that his Freinds & Relations thought proper for him, whose great Gratitude to me for ye small services which itt was in my Power to d him, & ye fatal Proof he has given of my two first Recommendation of him! his constant & e act correspondence by Letters (Divided by such Immense extracts of sea & Land) with his Freindes Relations, & not forgetting ye Lowest of People whom he knew from his childhood, & his finding Tme to do itt in ye midst of ye greatest Danger and Difficultyes of ye sea, & of a most Long & Bloody Warr, while att y same Time he was a most Dilligent & Active officer ; His indefatigable Zeal for his King & Country ; his Protecting our Trade, & takeing so many Privateers with which our Coast swarm'd, & when he had done all this, After a Peace sign’d, when his valour could be of no Farther devoting his life to his country and Dying a victim to itt! Young indeed in years, but old in Honour and Virtue; whose courage was founded upon ye solid Basis of Religion, & Like Elijah, he is gone to Heaven in a Chariot of Fire! We Lament ourselves & not him; & he now Receives those eternal Glorious Rewards from ye King of Kings, which no earthly Monarch can give: Such joys as nothing can Interrupt ; but ye knowledge of ye greif that his Loss is to his Freinds; that is all Freinds to ye Greatest virtue & Meritt ; which is ye only greif he ever gave them, there is not a Dry eye in this house, nor, I beleive, in Grantham.
My good sister2 Beares this severest of Tryals like a Roman or Rather a Christian Heroine & as a Mother truly worthy of such as Son, & worthy ye envy of all her sex, for eve Haveing had such a one! Dear Nephew as itt is a great Honour to yo to be so nearly Related to this Man, excellent, most Accomplished & most glorious oyuth, so is itt more so to find yo are as neary Related to his virtues.
I am. Dear Nephew
yr most afflicted
& affectionate uncle
& sincere humble servant Tyrconnel [aged 57].
My wife & Mrs. Levinz Joyn with us in services to good Lady Cust & ye young ones Miss Jenny, ye alderman, Mr. Cust, Mrs. Newton services to Lady Frazer & Mrs. Woodcock.
Note 1. This letter refers to the death of the author's nephew William Cust [aged 28] on 8th March 1748 whilst in service for the Royal Navy during the Attack on Port Louis.
Note 2. Anne Brownlow Lady Cust [aged 54].
