Letters and other documents pertaining primarily to Sampson's consulship at Tangier and Tetuan between 1770 and 1772. Many of his letters, addressed both to government officials and to family and acquaintances, refer to his success in getting the Emperor of Morocco to comply with his demand of granting duty-free provisions to British ships of war in Moroccan ports, as well as express his dissatisfaction with Charles Lennox, Duke of Richmond and Henry Seymour Conway for refusing to raise his salary despite this accomplishment. Other letters are addressed to his daughters, instructing them to forward his correspondence; one letter to his daughter Mary expresses his reluctance to endorse her romantic attachment to John Shaw due to his recent bankruptcy, followed by a letter to an acquaintance asking him to guide his daughter away from Shaw. Other letters concern orders to merchants for sundry personal goods such as sugar, linen, coffee, and furniture. Other correspondence includes five letters from Sampson's agent in Tangier, Meshod Megueres, written when Sampson was in Tetuan, and reporting on such matters as the detainment of several English sailors who landed at Cape Spartel and the arrival of the Prince of El Araich. Sampson's daily activities as consul in Tangier are also detailed in his journal. Written in the third person, subjects include reports of the arrivals of ships; accounts of espionage; requests for passage home from released slaves; financial disputes both among the British and between British and Moroccans; and anecdotal descriptions of military persecution of civilians. The collection also includes Sampson's daughter Mary's letter book, which contains not only copies of her letters to him attending to his business in London, and explaining her attachment and marriage to John Shaw in 1771, but also includes numerous social letters to friends and other family members; medicinal and culinary recipes; and several tables for weight and volume conversions.
