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Autograph letter signed to Thomas Bolton, Merton, 21 April 1802
Details
Horatio Nelson, Viscount Nelson (1758-1805)
Autograph letter signed to Thomas Bolton, Merton, 21 April 1802
One page, 237 x 289mm, tipped onto an album-leaf. Provenance: by descent to Bolton's granddaughters Fenella Horatia Girdlestone, Lucy Gertrude Girdlestone and Frances Girdlestone, presented by them in c.1900 to: – C[risp] Berney Brown (undated presentation note attached to letter).
On the purchase of his estate at Merton. Nelson thanks his brother-in-law (the husband of his sister Susannah) for offering help in the purchase of an estate at Merton, excusing himself for not writing sooner as Merton has been full of company, and regretting that Bolton's children, who are staying with them, are about to leave:
'The L[or]d Mayors day & our House full of company has been the cause of my not answering sooner your truly kind letter and the same reason has prevented Lady Hamilton. I feel truly sensible of Your kind offer in the purchase of the Estate so truly necessary for my comfort at Merton but as I hope from what the Lawyers tell me that I shall gain my cause the matter will then be quite easy, but after the 10th May I shall know how I stand. / Your children we are sorry to find leave us today, they behave so well and seem so happy that We regret parting with them'.
Nelson had moved into Merton Place, south of London, with Emma and Sir William Hamilton in October 1801, in accordance with his aim to find 'a little farm' within a short distance of London where their unconventional household could live in relative discretion, but within a convenient distance of London. At the time of this letter Nelson was negotiating to expand the house's grounds, most of which lay on the other side of Merton High Street (reached through a tunnel), by the purchase of a further 115 acres to the south of it: the sale was duly completed a few months later at a cost of £8,000, borrowed half from his other brother-in-law George Matcham and half from his close friend and agent Alexander Davison. The court case Nelson refers to was probably his long-running dispute with Earl St Vincent over prize money: Nelson was eventually awarded £13,000, but only in November 1803.
Autograph letter signed to Thomas Bolton, Merton, 21 April 1802
One page, 237 x 289mm, tipped onto an album-leaf. Provenance: by descent to Bolton's granddaughters Fenella Horatia Girdlestone, Lucy Gertrude Girdlestone and Frances Girdlestone, presented by them in c.1900 to: – C[risp] Berney Brown (undated presentation note attached to letter).
On the purchase of his estate at Merton. Nelson thanks his brother-in-law (the husband of his sister Susannah) for offering help in the purchase of an estate at Merton, excusing himself for not writing sooner as Merton has been full of company, and regretting that Bolton's children, who are staying with them, are about to leave:
'The L[or]d Mayors day & our House full of company has been the cause of my not answering sooner your truly kind letter and the same reason has prevented Lady Hamilton. I feel truly sensible of Your kind offer in the purchase of the Estate so truly necessary for my comfort at Merton but as I hope from what the Lawyers tell me that I shall gain my cause the matter will then be quite easy, but after the 10th May I shall know how I stand. / Your children we are sorry to find leave us today, they behave so well and seem so happy that We regret parting with them'.
Nelson had moved into Merton Place, south of London, with Emma and Sir William Hamilton in October 1801, in accordance with his aim to find 'a little farm' within a short distance of London where their unconventional household could live in relative discretion, but within a convenient distance of London. At the time of this letter Nelson was negotiating to expand the house's grounds, most of which lay on the other side of Merton High Street (reached through a tunnel), by the purchase of a further 115 acres to the south of it: the sale was duly completed a few months later at a cost of £8,000, borrowed half from his other brother-in-law George Matcham and half from his close friend and agent Alexander Davison. The court case Nelson refers to was probably his long-running dispute with Earl St Vincent over prize money: Nelson was eventually awarded £13,000, but only in November 1803.
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Eugenio Donadoni
Senior Specialist, Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts