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Auction: 16043 - Autographs, Historical Documents, Ephemera and Postal History
Lot: 29

(x) Documents
Admiralty Letters of Admiral Jahleel Brenton
1814-21, a ledger being the copies of letters relating his time at the Navy Dockyards in Mahon and Table Bay.



The Mahon Yard is on the Island of Minorca and is one of the deepest natural harbours. It was ceeded to Spain in 1802. 1814 letters with copies of the correspondence between various Navy establishments (mostly H.M. Ships) and the Mahon Yard, and includes victualling orders, costs and stocks of different size masts and spurs, stocks at the Naval Arsenal, accounts and exchange rates and correspondence from Gibraltar Yard. There are many letters from Francis Pickmore on H.M.S. St. George who was Vice Admiral of the Blue (he was later Governor of Newfoundland), a lot of correspondence from Rear Admiral Edward Pellew, Commander in Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet on H.M.S. Caledonia, he later became Lord Exmouth when his letters were then signed "Exmouth", several letters from Benjamin Hallowell, Rear Admiral of the White, on H.M.S. Malta, including giving the Duchess of Orleans passage to Marseilles and there is a list of ships under the command of Admiral Hallowell, translated letters from Antonio Iuesade on Ferdinand 7th, and General Sir John Murray from Gibraltar.



The ledger continues 1817-21 when Admiral Brenton had been transferred to Table Bay Yard in Cape of Good Hope. Here there are only copies of his letters to Rear Admiral Sir Pulteney Malcolm of the St. Helena Squadron, to Rear Admiral Robert Plampin of the C.G.H. Squadron and finally to Rear Admiral Lambert of the St. Helena Squadron. These letters include references to shipments to St. Helena, where Napoleon was held in exile. Rear Admiral Lambert was also Governor of St. Helena and attended Napoleon's funeral in 1821. The letters conclude with the proposed reduction in the scale of operation of the Table Bay Yard.


A fascinating resource into the workings of these two naval dockyards

Sir Jahleel Brenton, 1st baronet, KCB (1770 – 1844) was a British admiral born in Newport, Rhode Island, British North America. Brenton's most brilliant action was fought with a squadron of French ships at Naples on 1 May 1810. He was severely wounded during the battle. Brenton was made a Baronet in 1812 and KCB in 1815. After his recovery from his wounds he was found to be unfit for service at sea, and so was made Commissioner of the dockyard at Port Mahon, and then at the Cape of Good Hope, and was afterwards lieutenant governor of Greenwich Hospital till 1840. He attained flag rank in 1830. At the Cape he surveyed and declared Knysna Lagoon as a harbour in 1815. The nearby seaside resort of Brenton-on-Sea is home to the endangered Brenton Blue butterfly. Two islets of the St. Croix archipelago off the Port Elizabethan coast in Algoa Bay, Jahleel Island and Brenton Island, are named for him.



Francis Pickmore (c.1756-1818). In 1806, in the Ramillies, Pickmore took the French raider Marengo in the Atlantic, and the following year he was in a force sent to capture the Danish West Indies. On 28 April 1808 he reached flag rank as rear-admiral of the blue, and he became rear-admiral of the white on 25 Oct. 1809 and of the red on 31 July 1810. He was subsequently appointed vice-admiral of the blue on 12 Aug. 1812 and reached his ultimate rank of vice-admiral of the white on 4 June 1814. Though his commission as governor of Newfoundland was dated 18 May 1816, Pickmore did not arrive there until 5 September.



Admiral Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth, GCB, (1757 – 1833) was a British naval officer. He fought during the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary, and the Napoleonic Wars. Pellew was promoted to Rear Admiral in 1804. He was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the East Indies. It took six months to sail out to Penang so he took up the appointment in 1805. On his return from the east in 1809, he was appointed, to the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet from 1811 to 1814 and again in 1816.



Admiral Sir Benjamin Hallowell Carew GCB, (1761 – 1834) was a senior officer in the Royal Navy. He was one of the select group of officers, referred to by Lord Nelson as his "Band of Brothers", who served with him at the Battle of the Nile. Hallowell remained a serving naval officer after Nelson's death. He was promoted to the rank of Rear-Admiral of the Blue on 1 August 1811; Rear-Admiral of the White in 1812; Vice-Admiral of the Blue on 12 August 1819; Vice-Admiral of the White on 19 July 1821;and Admiral of the Blue in 1830.



Admiral Sir Pulteney Malcolm GCB GCMG (1768–1838) was a British naval officer. He was born at Douglan, near Langholm, Scotland. In 1816–17 he was Commander-in-chief on the Saint Helena station, specially appointed to enforce a rigid blockade of the island and to keep a close guard on Napoleon Bonaparte.



Vice-Admiral Robert Plampin (1762 – 1834), was a British Royal Navy officer during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, serving in the American Revolutionary War, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. In 1816, following the end of the wars, Plampin was appointed commander at the Cape of Good Hope, replacing Rear-Admiral Sir Pulteney Malcolm.



Rear Admiral Robert Lambert (1772-1836) was in command of the St. Helena from July 1820 to September 1821,






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