Horatio, Viscount Nelson | autograph letter signed, to his father,15 August 1799

Horatio, Viscount Nelson

Autograph letter signed ("Nelson"), to his father the Rev. Edmund Nelson

ANNOUNCING HIS ELEVATION TO THE DUKEDOM OF BRONTE ("...His Sicilian Majesty having created me a Duke by the title of Bronte..."), explaining to his father that the title has come with land worth about £3000 a year, promising that he "shall certainly not omit this opportunity of being useful to my family" by setting aside one third of the income for a family legacy and in the meantime requesting that his father accept an annuity of £500 ("...receive this small tribute as a mark of Gratitude to the Best of Parents from his Most Dutiful Son..."), 1 page, 4to, integral blank, Palermo, 15 August 1799

NELSON'S DREAMS OF FAMILY LARGESSE. King Ferdinand of the Two Sicilies owed a great debt to Nelson: not only had Nelson's victory at the Nile destroyed French naval power in the Eastern Mediterranean, but Nelson's naval assistance had been crucial to the overthrow of the short-lived Revolutionary Parthenopean Republic in Naples. Ferdinand acknowledged this debt by creating for Nelson a Dukedom based on the estate of Bronte, on the western flanks of Mt Etna in Sicily. "Income from the estates in Bronte was never to materialize, and they were to cost Nelson far more than they earned, even though he had great hopes of them" (Knight, The Pursuit of Victory (2005), p.425). However, Nelson's wish that his family should benefit was, at least, fulfilled: Bronte was inherited by his brother William and remained in the family until the 1980s.

LITERATURE:

The Dispatches and Letters, vol. III, p.441.

PROVENANCE:

Matcham family collection; Trafalgar: Nelson and the Napoleonic Wars, Sotheby's, 5 October 2005, lot 5