This collection of letters provides a record of the correspondence between Joseph Farington and his family from 1785 to his death in 1821. There are numerous references to the effects of the "year without a summer" in 1816 and information as to the health of his brother Richard Atherton Farington, following a probable stroke and later a carriage accident while travelling to Bridlington.

The letters also provide an excellent insight into the development of his younger brother George's career in India from 1782 until his death in 1789. George's letters to his mother and brothers often refer to the problems facing artists who had travelled to India to seek patronage from 'nabobs', wealthy officials in the East India Company. Following William Pitt's India Act of 1784 and the subsequent regulation of profits by the British Government, many of these men returned to Europe to seek titles and government positions at home. As a result George travelled to Murshidabad to paint at the durbar of Mubarak ud-Daula, to whom he was introduced by Sir John D'Oyly in 1785. He painted scenes of the durbar and trained local artists, until his premature death from a fever in late 1788 or early 1789 (see also 1145989).

This collection also contains several letters written to the painter Sir Thomas Lawrence between 1813 and 1815. These letters are friendly in nature and Farington is often praising Lawrence for his work. They also contain references to the political situation in Europe during the Napoleonic Wars. One letter makes specific reference to the retreat of Napoleon following his defeat at Leipzig, while another refers to the tension over his return to power in early 1815. The letters to Lawrence also make reference to the Royal Academy exhibition of the initial paintings he made of the Prince Regent, the Duke of Wellington and the European generals, Blücher, Platov and Metternich, commissioned after the Treaty of Fontainebleau in 1814. The completed paintings are now on display in the Waterloo Chamber at Windsor Castle.

These letters form a part of the Farington papers, a collection of material by the artist Joseph Farington. They provide an excellent insight into the London art community and polite society during the Regency period.