The reference to Cassandras business in the letter maybe quite sad,actually.

Tom Fowle , her fiancee, had died by the time this letter was written.

He had accompanied his kinsman Lord Craven to the west indies.He died off St Domingo of yellow fever in February 1797 and had been buried at sea.

Lord Craven did not know of Toms engagement to Cassandra.According to Le Faye(A family Record p 101) he was reported to have said that had he known he would never have asked him to go on to so dangerous a climate.

Tom had obviously looked into the future before he left for the West Indies.He left Cassandra £1000: all his savings.

This sum was invested in Government stocks and provided Cassandra with an income of 335 pa.Not enough to live on,as Le Faye comments,but giving her a slight independence from her family.

The " business" would probably have been the completing of the probate stage of his will: it had been administered.