The Francis Levett letter, 1771, documents the experience of a British colonial settler and plantation owner in Florida. It consists of one letter which details Levett's financial plights as he asks for his brother-in-law Rev. Charles William Tonyn's payment of an overdue debt, dated May 6, 1771, from St. Augustine. He also expresses his hopes for his other brother-in-law, Colonel Patrick Tonyn the last British royal governor of East Florida, to visit him. The letter provides insight into life in British colonial Florida and the difficulties that Levett faced. Francis Levett (?-c.1775) was a merchant from London, England who moved to the East Florida colony in 1768, which was under British rule at the time. With assistance from another merchant, Richard Oswald, Levett acquired a large 10,000-acre estate near St. John's River that he named Julianton Plantation after his wife Juliana. Upon his arrival, Levett was the plantation agent for John Perceval, the 2nd Earl of Egmont. He later was appointed onto the East Florida colony's Royal Council and named an assistant judge. Levett's plantation had many problems despite its successful appearance, as the costs of maintaining the land exceeded his income. Levett was later accused of mismanagement and embezzlement from absent land grantees and spent the remainder of his life in East Florida living in scandal. After the American Revolution, Levett's surviving family abandoned their plantation and moved to the Bahamas due to the Spanish succession of the colony.
