Scan of the letter: https://imgur.com/a/QkQsyMb
edit: better scan https://imgur.com/a/zStBQxl
The letter is dated March 14th 1681, signed by Robert (?) Hayward (?), and was found last year (2017) in south Wales by my father-in-law. We don’t know where it’s been for the past 3 centuries or how it ended-up in Wales.
The back of the letter says it’s addressed to “Mr. Andrew Layton (?), servant to the Right Honourable Sir John Moore, Mayor of London”.
My father-in-law is wondering if the letter is connected to indentured servants, as Sir John Moore was known to be involved with slavery, as per the article in https://academic.oup.com/hwj/article/64/1/162/600955
Excerpt from Table 1 in link above:
“Sir John Moore’s slavery links: Member of Court of Assistants (i.e. Board of Directors) Royal African Company, 1687–9, 1700–1702; and investor in Guinea trade. Second largest shareholder in East India Company”
This has been in my father-in-law's mind for over a year and he still hasn't been able to find anyone who can read/translate the handwriting to modern English.
Can anyone tell us anything more about this letter's content or context?
I strongly recommend contacting your nearest university's History department. Sending an email explain what you just did here is a good strategy. Someone there might be able to read it, if you take the letter to them, and the physical item itself might have more clues- the quality of the paper, etc.
I can read 17th century handwriting but the scan's not good enough for me to make out much.
Based on what I can make out, it's Robert Howard. While there were multiple Robert Howards in 1681, it could be the famous one (a MP, politician, poet and playwright). Robert Howard and John Moore served in Parliament during the same sessions, though they were of different parties. Both of them had property in the west of England too (Leicestershire and Wiltshire) so they're at least near Wales (sort of). The letter is from during the Exclusion Crisis, though I can't make out anything about that. While it's likely mundane (most letters are) it could be of historical interest, especially because we've lost a lot of Robert Howard's work and letters.
I'd suggest contacting the closest local university with a decent historical department. You could also contact Sir John Moore Church of England School Trust (which has the last of John Moore's money), the City of London Corporation (which would keep John Moore's papers from his time there), Magdalen College, Oxford (Robert Howard's alma mater and where some of his works are kept), and the office of the Duke of Norfolk (who is the head of Robert Howard's family).
Out of curiosity, where did your father-in-law find it?