BLIGH

[Admiral Sir Richard Rodney Bligh, Royal Navy officer in American War of Independence.] Autograph Letter Signed to the Admiralty, regarding ‘Her Majesty’s Sloop the Wasp under my Command’.

Author: 
Admiral Sir Richard Rodney Bligh (1737-1821), GCB, Royal Navy officer who saw service in the American War of Independence and French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars [HMS Wasp]
Publication details: 
‘Wasp, Portsmouth 1st. Decr. 1775.’
£180.00

Bligh’s entry in the Oxford DNB does not note his service on HMS Wasp, to which he was appointed in October 1774. According to one authority the ship ‘saw service out of Passage, County Cork, Ireland from [November 1774]. In October 1775 [Bligh] brought sixty volunteers from Ireland into Plymouth, and in June 1776 sailed from Portsmouth to Plymouth with money for the dockyard artificers.

[Ivo Bligh, 8th Earl of Darnley, England cricket captain in the first Ashes series against Australia.] 15 manuscript items of banking correspondence between Darnley (8 signed items), his attorneys Wadeson & Malleson (6) and bankers Coutts & Co (1).

Author: 
Ivo Bligh (1859-1927), 8th Earl of Darnley, England cricket captain in the first ever Ashes series against Australia, 1882-3; his attorneys Wadeson & Malleson, London; his bankers Coutts & Co, London
Publication details: 
All items from 1901. The Earl of Darnley, Cobham Hall, Gravesend, Kent; Coutts & Co, 59 Strand, London, WC; Malleson & Co, 7 Devonshire Square, Bishopsgate Without, London, EC.
£420.00

See his entry in the Oxford DNB. The correspondence dates from the year 1901, Bligh having acceded to the earldom on the death of his elder brother Edward on 31 October 1900, and the material consists of what is probably the first set of banking instructions, mainly relating to his ‘accession account’, with recipients of payments ranging from the Dowager Countess to Rochester Golf Club. 10pp, foolscap 8vo; 2pp, 4to; 10pp, 12mo. The fifteen items range in size from foolscap 8vo to 12mo. Four items (letters to Coutts from Wadeson & Malleson) are typed and the rest are in manuscript.

[Lieut-Col. John Stuart Bligh, 6th Earl Darnley, amateur cricketer.] Autograph Note Signed, giving ‘Mr. F. York’ permission to ‘take some photographic views’ of Cobham Hall, Gravesend. With stamped envelope, addressed in Autograph.

Author: 
Lieut-Col. John Stuart Bligh, 6th Earl of Darnley [formerly Lord Clifton] (1827-1896), amateur cricketer, father of the England captain Ivo Bligh, 8th Earl of Darnley [F. York, London photographer]
Publication details: 
5 September 1868. On embossed letterhead of Cobham Hall, Gravesend.
£50.00

See his son Ivo Bligh’s entry in the Oxford DNB. 1p, 16mo. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice. Reads: ‘Sir: / You are welcome to take some photographic views of this place: - you will please to ask to see the Houseeeper when you come. / I remain / Yours faithy / Darnley’. In worn envelope, self-stamped with pink penny stamp and two postmarks, one from Gravesend. Addressed in Autograph by Darnley to ‘Mr. F. York / Alfred Villa / Lancaster Road / Notting Hill London W.’

4 Autograph Letters Signed from John Stuart Bligh, 6th Earl of Darnley, and 8 Autograph Letters Signed, Autograph Card Signed, and 5 invitations from his wife Harriet Mary, Countess of Darnley, all to Rev. Charles William Shepherd of Trotterscliffe.

Author: 
John Stuart Bligh (1827-1896), 6th Earl of Darnley, of Cobham Hall, Kent, and his wife Harriet Mary (1829-1905) [née Pelham], Lady Darnley [Rev. Charles William Shepherd (1838-1920) of Trotterscliffe]
6th Earl of Darnley
Publication details: 
1853, 1855, 1889; from various addresses including the House of Lords and Cobham Hall, Gravesend, Kent.
£325.00
6th Earl of Darnley

The Earl of Darnley's four letters (all signed 'Darnley') total 27 pp in 12mo; Lady Darnley's eight letters (all signed 'H. Darnley') total 26 pp in 12mo. All items in good condition, on lightly-aged paper. Darnley's first letter, 16 September 1853 (12mo, 12 pp), is unusually blunt for the period, and revealing on the etiquette of the period. It begins: 'I trust that the change in your mode of addressing me was accidental, and I have therefore not imitated it, and have used one word which you omitted [presumably 'Dear'].

Three Autograph Letters Signed (all 'Clifton') from Edward Henry Stuart Bligh, Lord Clifton (later 7th Earl of Darnley) to Rev. C. W. Shepherd of Trotterscliffe, all concerning Kent natural history. With 15 page list of 'Funghi, East Kent'.

Author: 
Edward Henry Stuart Bligh (1851-1900), of Cobham Hall, Gravesend, Kent, successively Lord Clifton and (from 1896) the 7th Earl of Darnley [Rev. Charles William Shepherd (1838-1920) of Trotterscliffe]
Edward Henry Stuart Bligh (fungi)
Publication details: 
4 October 1889 and 22 August and 14 September 1891. All from Dumpton Park, Ramsgate, Kent.
£650.00
Edward Henry Stuart Bligh (fungi)

All 4to, with the letters totalling 22 pp, and the list of 'Funghi, East Kent' of 15 pp. All items clear and complete. Three leaves with light staining (one with short closed tear), otherwise all in good condition, on aged paper. All three in envelopes (lacking stamps), addressed by Clifton and with his seal in red wax. ONE. 4 October 1889. 4to, 12 pp. Begins: 'It seems a long time since we had a ramble on the Cuxton and Ralling hills from Cobham, and when I killed a viper; and I have been much amused at the apparent incredulity of a brother B.O.U. at the Dumpton Park rarities!

Syndicate content