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Auction: 16043 - Autographs, Historical Documents, Ephemera and Postal History
Lot: 59

(x) Documents
Lady Jane Franklin / Hawaii
1865 (6 September) mourning A.L.S. to Thomas Stilwell thanking him for his gift of twenty guineas for Queen Emma's fund for the erection of a cathedral in Honolulu. The letter includes further details of her Hawaiian Majesty's visit including that her stay at Claridges Hotel was by the arrangements of Lord Russell. With the original mourning envelope with her crest on the flap, signed "Jane Franklin".


Also 1863 (25 November) small mourning letter to Thomas Stillwell, she writes that she is planning dinner for some friends, including "Mrs Rose Greenhow, whose book, just published, on her doings & sufferings in the Confederate cause...", also attending was General Edward Sabine, President of the Royal Society. Signed "Jane Franklin". Photo

Lady Jane Franklin (1791 – 1875) was a Tasmanian pioneer and traveller. She was the second wife of the explorer John Franklin, and was instrumental in pushing for searches once the Franklin expedition failed to return from the Arctic.



Queen Emma of Hawaii (1836-85), was queen consort of King Kamehameha IV from 1856 to his death in 1863. She ran for ruling monarch against King Kala-kaua but was defeated. Despite the great differences in their kingdoms, Queen Emma and Queen Victoria became lifelong friends; both had lost sons and spouses. They exchanged letters, and Emma travelled to London in 1865 to visit and spend a night at Windsor Castle on November 27. Queen Victoria remarked of Emma, "Nothing could be nicer or more dignified than her manner."


Rose O'Neal Greenhow (1813– 1864) was a renowned Confederate spy during the American Civil War. A socialite in Washington, D.C. during the period before the war, she moved in important political circles and cultivated friendships with presidents, generals, senators, and high-ranking military officers. She used her connections to pass along key military information to the Confederacy at the start of the war. She was credited by Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president, with ensuring the South's victory at the First Battle of Bull Run in late July 1861.

Captured in August, Greenhow was subject to house arrest; found to have continued her activities, in 1862 after an espionage hearing, she was imprisoned for nearly five months in Washington, DC. Deported to the Confederate States, she travelled to Richmond, Virginia and new tasks. Running the blockade, she sailed to Europe to represent the Confederacy in a diplomatic mission to France and Britain from 1863 to 1864. In 1863, she also wrote and published her memoir in London, which was popular in Britain. After her returning ship ran aground in 1864 off Wilmington, North Carolina, she drowned when her rowboat overturned as she tried to escape a Union gunboat.

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