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Auction: 14035 - Postal History, Autographs and Historical Documents
Lot: 3037

(x) Historical Documents
Francis Edward Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings
1793 (28 November) A.L.S. written in Portsmouth to Augustus Rogers, he is requesting that the guns and howitzers which he ordered be obtained from other stores (these not being available in Portsmouth), "Sir Charles Grey has left some of the sixteen Light Six-pounders attached to the Regiments with their amunition. He has also made over to me two 5½ inch howitzers ..." and concludes, "Admiral Macbride is at Spithead. If, when I can converse with him on the subject I find that I must not reckon of the assistance of heavy cannon from the ship ..." and is signed "Moira".

Included with this letter is a reply from the Office of Ordnance to The Earl of Moira on the subject of the revised and agreed ordnance for the expedition and lists the guns, howitzers and mortars which are to be supplied from Portsmouth and from Woolwich.

Fine documents dealing with the Expedition to Ostende during the French Revolutionary Wars. Photo

On the death of the first Earl, he became The Earl of Moira from June 1793 to 1816. He was a British soldier and colonial administrator. He served as Governor-General of India from 1813 to 1823. He had also served with British forces for years during the American Revolutionary War and in 1794 during the French Revolutionary Wars. He took the additional surname 'Hastings' in 1790 in compliance with the will of his maternal uncle, Francis Hastings, 10th Earl of Huntingdon

Following the declaration of war in 1793 of France upon Great Britain, Rawdon-Hastings (as he was now known) was appointed major general, on 12 October 1793. Sent by the Pitt ministry, Rawdon-Hastings launched an expedition into Ostend, France, in 1794. He marched to join with the army of the Duke of York, at Alost. The French general Pichegru, with superior numbers, forced the British back toward their base at Antwerp. Rawdon-Hastings left the expedition, feeling Pitt had broken promises.

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Estimate
£100 to £150