Colonial Despatches

John Roberts was a most respectable Tradesman at Falmouth, who contacted J. C. Baring regarding a debt which he [had] against the Solicitor General of British Columbia, Sir Henry Pering Pellew Crease.1 Baring sent the letter to Frederic Rogers with the request that [he] will have the Secretary of State for the Colonies... forward the same to Mr Crease and call upon him to cause repayment of the bill made to Mr Roberts.2 The Secretary of State, Edward Cardwell, did forward Roberts’s letter to the acting Governor of British Columbia, Arthur Nonus Birch, with the request that he will have the goodness to call Mr. Crease’s attention to the matter.3

Roberts was a tradesman with numerous skills. His letterhead states that he was a Builder, Decorator, Upholsterer, Undertaker, Appraiser, House & Estate Agent, Brick Maker &c.4 After the Patent Law Amendment Act of 1852 was passed, Roberts placed a patent request for improvements in machinery for moulding bricks and tiles, documented in the Journal of the Society of Arts.5 The Patent Law Amendment Act streamlined the process for patent applications in the United Kingdom by requiring only a description of the invention be filed with the application once for the whole country.6

• 1. Baring to Rogers (Permanent Under-Secretary), 24 March 1866, 2951, CO 60/26, p. 234.
• 2. Ibid.
• 3. Ibid.
• 4. Enclosure in Baring to Rogers (Permanent Under-Secretary), 24 March 1866, 2951, CO 60/26, p. 234.
• 5. Journal of the Society of the Arts, June 13, 1856, p. 530
• 6. The History of Patents, Wilson Gunn History Since 1864.