Lot 206
British rule in Ireland
Collection of letters, 18th century
Estimate: £300 - £500
Auction: 19 September 2024 from 10:00 BST
Description
all on single bifolium of laid paper (one folio, the rest 4to), most presumed to be addressed to Charles Townshend, 1st Marquess Townshend as lord lieutenant of Ireland (in post 1767-72), and comprising:
Charles Fitzroy, later 1st Baron Southampton (1737-1797), 4 autograph letters signed as regimental colonel of the 14th Light Dragoons, London, 1768-9, all to ‘My Lord’ regarding a request for preferment, etc.,
William Kerr, Earl of Ancram, later 4th Marquess of Lothian, (c.1710-1775), 3 autograph letters signed, Dublin and London, 1762-8, all to ‘My Lord’, on regimental matters, ‘I received a letter yesterday from Lord Shelburne to inform me that His Majesty had granted me leave of absence through your Lordship’s most obliging application', etc., all signed ‘Ancram’ (though the style technically incorrect following Ancram's succession to the marquessate in 1767);
George Purdon, Limerick, 1772, 2 autograph letters signed evidently to Lord Townshend (referring to ‘your Lordship’s son my Lord Ferrars'), requesting preferment for his son, a cornet in the 4th Regiment of Horse);
Thomas Vereker, autograph letter signed, Limerick, 1768, to ‘your Excellency’, a letter of recommendation for his brother, ‘lieutenant of dragoons on this establishment’;
Amos Vereker, Athlone, 1772, ‘Sir, I Hope his Excellency will not censure me, for the freedom I take, in requesting, through you, the vacant place of barrack master for Youghall’;
Edward Smith (identified in pencilled notes as lieutenant-colonel of the 4th Regiment of Horse); 2 similar letters;
and manuscript memorandum concerning a skirmish at Elphin, 11 May 1795 ('a Party of the 10th Dragoons surprised them - killed upwards of Twenty - wounded many and drove sixteen into a river near the place where they were drowned …'), 2 pp., 4to
(a folder)
