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It is not a little trouble to me to find the reports of your
extravagant passions, & rash proceedings increase every day so that yo^r
friends seem now so far convinced as rather to pity then justify you
Indeed your unkind expressions against those that I have so many
great testimonials of under your own hand makes me know not w^t
to say to you: especially since I am a witness of what hardships
they were under for fighting yo^r battells, y^t almost you owe entirely
your deliverance in Maryland & establishment in Virginia to their
good offices. If after all this you have so much forgot good turns as to
fall upon them with unmercifull severity, as by your own letters to
me you profess to do, can you find fault with them if they complain
to your & their friends of such hard usage? Certainly it
can be interpreted no more then a friendly expostulation. But
give me leave to tell you where your danger lies: your & their
old enemies are hard at work to perswade y^e world of yo^r strange
arbitrary behaviour & passionate breaking out into execrations & oaths &
such other behaviour as alienate y^e minds of all people from you
This they not only averre but prosecute w^th all their might
to possess y^e world with an absolute necessity of calling you home.
Therefore consider w^th yourself whether it were not more advisable
for you to reconcile yourself with your old friends from whose
testimonies we may be able to confute or lay asleep all these
murmurs: then to be forced to come hither with such a cloud
of complaints upon your back, & not a friend to know what
to say in your behalf. For my part I would go a thousand
miles to serve you or to recover y^e reputation you have lost:
but you must set us in y^e way how to do it. For to deal
truly with you, the best of yo^r friends do but shake their
heads, when they come to give an account of your conduct.

Bp. London
to Gov^r Nicholson
Oct^r. 7. 1702—

For his Excel^le: Colonel Nicholson
Governour of
Virginia