AYRSHIRE

[' there are 5 french frigates at sea escaped from Toulon': Captain Sir Peter Parker and HMS Menelaus (Royal Navy in the Napoleonic Wars).] Autograph Letter Signed from midshipman Robert Kennedy Thomson, describing his exploits to his mother.

Author: 
Royal Navy in the Napoleonic Wars; Captain Sir Peter Parker and the Menelaus] Lieutenant Robert Kennedy Thomson (fl. 1849) of Dalgarrock, Ayrshire, Scotland
Publication details: 
26 December [1812]. ‘H M. Ship Menelaus’. With ‘Ship Lre’ postmark from Portsmouth Dock’.
£220.00

Real Hornblower stuff: a breathless letter full of interesting content. The Oxford DNB entry for Sir Peter Parker the younger (1745-1814) gives the background: ‘in January 1812 he joined Sir Edward Pellew at Port Mahon, where he remained for the greater part of the year, attached to the in-shore squadron before Toulon. There he had more than one opportunity of distinguishing himself in a brilliant skirmish with the enemy's advanced ships.

[A Scottish Royal Navy Midshipman in the Napoleonic Wars.] Autograph Letter Signed to his mother from Robert Kennedy Thomson of Daljarrock, giving news from HMS Imperieuse, and commenting on news from Scotland.

Author: 
Robert Kennedy Thomson of Daljarrock, Ayrshire, Scotland, Royal Navy Officer in the Napoleonic Wars [HMS Imperieuse; Sir Henry Duncan; Vice-Admiral Sir Joshua Ricketts Rowley]
Publication details: 
‘H.M. Ship Imperieuse Port Mahon [Minorca] / Jany. 12th. 1813.’
£180.00

See Thomson’s entry in O’Byrne’s ‘Naval Biographical Dictionary’ (1849). He had entered the navy in 1811, ‘on board the Impérieuse 38, Capt. Hon. Henry Duncan’, and would retire with the rank of Lieutenant, after a reasonably eventful career, in 1829. In 1849 he was said by O’Byrne to be ‘a Captain in the Ayrshire Militia’. On 30 September 1864 the London Gazette listed him among the ‘Lieutenants on Reserved List, to be Retired Commanders’.

[George Boyle, 4th Earl of Glasgow.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Glasgow'), as Lord Lieutenant of Renfrewshire, transmitting the condolences of 'the Co: of Renfrew - and Paisley' on the death of heir to the throne Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales.

Author: 
George Boyle, 4th Earl of Glasgow [Lord Glasgow] (1766-1843), Scottish peer, successively Lord Lieutenant of Renfrewshire and Ayrshire, Rector of University of Glasgow [Princess Charlotte Augusta]
Publication details: 
29 November 1817; Hawkhead, Paisley.
£120.00

2pp, 4to. Bifolium. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded several times. Endorsed on reverse of second leaf: 'Transmitting two Addresses of Condolence from the Co: of Renfrew - and Paisley -'. Reads: 'My Lord | I am directed by a Meeting of The Noblemen, Gentlemen, Justices of Peace, & Commisioners of Supply of The County of Renfrew, Held at Renfrew on the 27th.

[Thomas Francis Kennedy, Scottish Whig politician.] Autograph Letter Signed ('T. F Kennedy'), as Chief Commissioner of Her Majesty's Woods and Forests, to Mayow W. Adams, JP, regarding a 'warrant' for the killing of a 'Buck from The New Forest'.

Author: 
Thomas Francis Kennedy (1788-1879), Scottish Whig politician [Mayow W. Adams, JP, of the Old House, Sydenham, Kent]
Publication details: 
Dalquharran Castle, Nr. Maybole [Ayrshire], Scotland. 25 August 1851.
£45.00

4pp., 12mo. Bifolium. In good condition, on lightly-aged paper. He requests him to have 'a warrant issued, in my favour, for a Buck from The New Forest, as soon after this letter reaches you, as may be convenient - and that you will give the instructions for its disposal'. He gives three numbered instructions regarding the warrant's packing and dispatch, adding 'going by the Luggage train is essential, in order that the expence may not be excessive'. In a postscript he asks that the buck be 'killed & dispatched ' when the weather is 'suitable'.

Autograph Letter Signed from W. B. Dunlop to 'Mr. Hodge' [Chairman of Sotheby's Tom Hodge], discussing the acquisition for the Burns Cottage Museum of a copy of the Kilmarnock Edition of Robert Burns, with reference to prices fetched by other copies.

Author: 
W. B. Dunlop, cousin of William Hamilton Dunlop of Downside [Tom Hodge (1860-1939), Chairman of Sotheby's; Burns Cottage Museum, Alloway; George Seton Veitch of Paisley; Robert Burns]
Publication details: 
7 Carlton Street, Edinburgh. 23 July 1903.
£180.00

3pp., 12mo. Bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Dunlop begins by informing Hodge that his cousin William Hamilton Dunlop of Downside, Ayrshire, 'has purchased as one of the Burns Monument Trustees the "Veitch" of Paisley copy of the Kilmarnock Burns for £1000'. He describes the book as 'the most perfect copy known uncut & with both blue paper covers much better than the Lamb copy.' Dunlop is 'glad it has been secured for the Burns Cottage Museum at Alloway & is not going across the fish pond [i.e.

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