Previous Lot Next Lot

Auction: 26066 - Historical Documents, Autographs and Ephemera
Lot: 1072

Parliamentary Navy
1653-65 a trio of Naval documents:

1653 (20 Feb.) letter signed by Henry Scobell as Clerk of the Council given at Whitehall authorising the purchase of a house belonging to John Wolstenholmes in Seething Lane as an office and meeting place for the Commissioners of the Navy. It seems this was Muscovy house, previously the home of Sir Francis Walsingham, and his daughter Frances Devereux the Countess of Essex. Samuel Pepys would later work in a building built on this site.

1659 (21 February) letter signed "By the Committee for the Admiralty and Navy" ordering the payment of £5,000 "unto Major Edward Allen, cashier of the Victualling Office for the carrying out of his victualling duties [as ordered by] Robert Thomson, Mayor Nehemiah Bourne and Francis Wolloughby". Signed by Admiral Sir John Lawson, Carew Ralegh, Sir Robet Reynolds, Slingsby Bethel and George Thomas.

1665 (8 July) letter signed by Thomas Clifford (Lord High Treasurer) headed "The Examination and Deposicons of Mathew Enoff Mate in the Colchester and Nicholas Pere Master of the Ship of the Golden Crowne of St. Malloes, concerning the said Ship the Golden Crowne taken the 7th of July 1665 before Sir Thomas Clifford Knight (by Commission of the Court of Admiralty) on boeard the Swiftsure in the presence of me Richard Harrison Notary Publique". The contents being a report of the action in which the Colchester took the Golden Crowne (which had come from "Dantzick" and was going to Dunkirk) of St. Malloes after having chased it for the space of two hours off the coast of Sicily; it then proceeds to take an account of the French captain, Nicholas Pere and the cargo contained on this ship which included 240 barrels of steel. Both accounts are signed by the two captains and the document would presumably have been brough to the prize court during the Dutch war for their assessment.

An interesting and scarce trio.

Subject to 20% VAT on Buyer’s Premium. For more information please view Terms and Conditions for Buyers.

Estimate
£600 to £800

Starting price
£480