Letter from Humphrey Jones, apprentice chemist in Chester, to his parents in Llangollen, 20 October 1850 [image 1 of 2]

Description

Humphrey Jones writes to his parents on 20 October 1850 from Chester where he is apprenticed to William Higgins, chemist and druggist. He tells them that his hands are much better - they healed quickly after he applied a liniment which he prepared. He says that the others in the shop do not know what ingredients he put into the liniment, but he is willing to pass on the recipe to his parents.

Humphrey gives an account of a dispute which occurred in the shop on the previous Friday. A man came into the shop to pay from some gold leaf which a boy had acquired there in the morning. However, there was no record of this transaction and William Higgins came looking for Humphrey in the warehouse, believing that he was to blame. As a word of warning to his young apprentice, he told Humphrey:
'If you had sold them, you should not have stopped a minute in the shop. I would have sent you home directly'.