Robert Isaac Wilberforce, 1p ALS (Autograph Letter Signed) from ‘B.A.’ [Burton Agnes, Yorkshire] undated, but as below, 1847. Letter reads:

‘My Dear Sir,
I should be very happy to come to you, but tomorrow I am engaged at the Funeral of my dear Aunt, Mrs. Hughes.
Believe me..’
Signed RI Wilberforce

The letter references his Aunt’s funeral. She would be Mary (Spooner) Hughes (1770 – 1847), elder sister of Wilberforce’s mother, Barbara Ann Spooner. 

Robert Isaac Wilberforce (Dec 1802 – Feb 1857) was an English clergyman and writer. He was the second son of abolitionist William Wilberforce, an Oxford‑educated theologian who became a leading figure in the early Oxford Movement, serving as Archdeacon of the East Riding and Rector of Burton Agnes before his increasingly high‑church convictions led him to resign his preferments and enter the Roman Catholic Church in 1854; a close friend of John Henry Newman, he published influential works on sacramental theology and spent his final years in Catholic ministry, dying at Albano near Rome in 1857.

PROVENANCE:

One of c.2,500+ items once from the collection or dealer stock of Winifred A Myers (Autographs) Ltd, St Martins Lane, London, evidenced by the quantity of Myers pre-printed envelopes and paper folders and the general ‘presentation’ of the items, many having Myers identification notes in pencil. 

Winifred Alice Myers (1909 – 1985) served as ABA (Antiquarian Booksellers Assoc) president, 1950-1952. See the ABA website for an extended article on Myers. Myers left her business, in 1985, to Ruth Shepherd, who traded from home until 2004.