The letter was found in an envelope addressed to Reverend R[obert] N[owell] Whitaker, Whalley Vicarage, Blackburn and postmarked Rochdale, October 13, 1856. Robert Nowell Whitaker, 1800-1881, was the son of Thomas Dunham Whitaker. A note on the inner flap of the envelope, initialed by F[rancis] R[obert] R[aines], 1805-1878, indicates that he was returning the enclosed petition to its owner. The note mentions several others from whom he borrowed documents for compiling a biographical work about Wilson. Raines cites this petition in his monograph, Miscellanies: being a selection from the poems and correspondence of the Rev. T. Wilson, with memoirs of his life, published in the Chetham Society series, Remains, historical and literary, connected with the Palatine counties of Lancashire and Chester, Vol 45 (1857), xxi-xxii. After receiving the returned petition, Robert Nowell Whitaker added to the envelope a memorandum written on a scrap of paper and dated October 24, 1856 verifying the petition as Thomas Wilson's handwriting.

In 1967 or earlier the University of Kansas Libraries purchased the first 75 volumes (plus an index volume to volumes 1-30) of the 1st series of Remains, historical and literary, connected with the Palatine counties of Lancashire and Chester, published by the Chetham Society, Manchester, England from the Elizabethan Bookseller of Waukegan, Illinois. The earlier volumes in the set are inscribed, "Robert Nowell Whitaker, Vicarage, Whalley," and some or all must have belonged to him. The envelope containing the petition was found as a loose insertion in volume 1; the receipt was found pinned to page 208 of volume 45 (1857).