Heseltine to Newcastle

I beg leave respectfully to submit to your Grace the following short
statement of a grievance for which I have no redress except through
the Colonial Department of Her Majesty's Government.

On the 1st of November 1859 my Son
John Heseltine of the Stock Exchange, London received
a letter dated "9th
Septr Victoria
Vancouvers Island" announcing the death of his Brother Samuel
Heseltine (Her Majesty's Inspector of Steam Machinery in that Island and the Colony of
New Columbia) which took place on the
5th of the same Month.

This letter which was signed "Wootton" stated further that my
deceased Sons effects had been placed by the Writer in the hands of
the Registrar, as being the legal Administrator and that he alone
could receive the pay due by the government to the deceased at the
time of his death.

On receiving this communication, my Son having died unmarried and
Intestate and I being his sole next of kin, I wrote to the Registrar
a letter dated 15th Novr 1859 giving him instructions as to the
disposition of the property that had been handed over to him by Mr
Wootton to whom I also sent a Copy of my Instructions to the
Registrar.

It is now several weeks since my Son John Heseltine received a second
letter from the same Henry Wootton dated Fort Victoria 19th May 1860 in
which he says "The effects of your Brother have been sold and
realized nearly £300 which is more than sufficient to pay all debts"
but I have never to the present moment got any account from the
Registrar of the effects that have come to his hands nor of the pay
due to my deceased Son which he has received from the Government nor
has he in any way acknowledged or noticed my letter addressed to him
on the 15 Novr last.

I have reason to know that the debts of the deceased were very
inconsiderable in amount. The expenses of his Funeral were defrayed
by the Members of the Masonic Fraternity resident on the Island who
kindly attended his remains to the Grave, his rent was paid in
advance so that none could be due, and I have conversed with the
person who attended on him the last few days of his life and who
assures me that he had no debts except such small sums as might be
due for his weekly expenses.

Under these circumstances I respectfully submit that Mr Williams,
the Registrar whose conduct is in question has failed in this
instance to discharge a duty which he was bound by the tenure of his
office to perform and as I have no means of redress except through
the Department of Her Majestys Government over which your Grace
presides, I therefore humbly pray your Grace that he may be required
to render an account with proper vouchers of the effects of the
deceased which have come to his hands and to remit to me such balance
as may be due thereon.