Jane Lawder was Goldsmith's cousin, and the daughter of Thomas Contarine. The cousins, who by Catherine Hodson's account were fond of each other as children, seem to have fallen out in the years preceding this letter, possibly while Goldsmith was on his Continental travels. Over that period, Contarine's health, physical and mental, had declined. Goldsmith's communications in the meantime may have consisted of letters asking for a continuation of financial support from the Lawders, though Goldsmith was, ostensibly, no longer dependent on his uncle. Whatever the cause of their falling out, Goldsmith was clearly troubled by it. In the following letter to Dan Hodson, he asks his sister Catherine for information regarding the Lawders, indicating that he had also asked his brother Charles to write to him with similar information, which was never furnished. The Lawders seem not to have responded to his letters, including this one, nor did they inform him of the small legacy that Contarine had left him when he died (which was probably in 1758). He would only refer to that legacy, writing to Maurice twelve years later (Letter 29), in which he records, more generally, the kindness of the Lawders to the Goldsmiths.

The copy-text is the manuscript in the Free Library of Philadelphia. It was first published by Prior in 1837. It is addressed ‘To | Mrs. Jane Lawder at Kilmore near Carrick | on Shannon | Ireland.’ It is postmarked 17 August. There is some addition marked on the envelope as well with the amounts of ‘5/4 | 8 | 4 | [=] 6/4’. This is too expensive to be postage so it may be related to the purchase of a copy of An Enquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning in Europe, Irish copies of which were priced at 5s. 5d.