The affectionate relationship between the brothers Richard and George gives human warmth and colour to the family correspondence in its early years. Since George was the unsystematic hoarder who preserved these letters, his own side of the correspondence is poorly represented. So while the flavour of Richard's personality comes over directly from his letters to an intimate friend and brother, in the letters we see George chiefly through the eyes of his family and acquaintances, and he makes an appearance in his own right more often in his accounts and memoranda.

That Richard was the elder of the two is clear from his position as his father's chief executor and from the inheritance pattern of his parents' properties. It could not be guessed from the brothers’ own correspondence, which was carried on in terms of complete equality. They also shared equally in the partnership which they began in 1476, and carried on until George's death in June 1489. But most of the extant letters from Richard to George were written between 1476 and 1482, because after the death of their father both brothers lived for most of the time in London or close to each other in Essex, and the correspondence then comes from William Cely, managing the Calais end of the business.

The handwriting of the brothers is a good indication of the differences in their temperaments and personality.