Beschreibung:

NELSON Vice Admiral Horatio, Viscount Autograph letter in the third person from Edward Bentham, First Chief Clerk (Ticket Office) in the Navy Office, to Richard Kee, agent to Captain Surridge, the Master of HMS Seahorse , from the Navy Office, 28 October, 1773, asking him for " a recommendation in favour of Horatio Nelson, a Young Lad Nephew to Captain Suckling, who is going in that ship". One 4to. sheet folded, 22 x 18 cms. Written on one side only along with the name of the recipient, date and "Mr Bentham, Navy Office" written on the verso, with a small wax seal. There is a small piece of paper loss at one corner a a result of the seal being opened. The letter is contained in a glazed wooden frame from which depends a smaller frame containing a printed notice to the effect that the frame containing the letter was made from the ladder of the Victory down which Nelson was carried when mortally wounded, at the battle of Trafalgar, 21 October, 1805 and that it was presented to one, Robert Cole 21 October, 1848, by Admiral John Pascoe Nelson's flag Lieutenant, who hoisted the ever-memorable signal "England expects every man will do his duty." Note: For Bentham see Collinge Navy Board officials 1660-1832 (Office holders in Modern Britain vol. 7) Nelson first went to sea two years earlier in 1771 at the age of twelve as a midshipman on HMS Raisonnable under the command of his uncle Captain Maurice Suckling, although in a sense he did not really go to sea as the furthest the ship reached was the mouth of the Medway. His next embarkation was on a merchant ship, named the Mary Ann , which sailed from London to the West Indies on a voyage which took almost a year. His next voyage took him on board the Carcass on an expedition to the Arctic. His next voyage, his third before he was sixteen, was again arranged with the help of his uncle, but this time to the tropics when he joined the 20 gun frigate Seahorse , one of a squadron of four ships sailing from Spithead to the East Indies. Although Bentham writes to Mr Kerr as agent of Mr Surridge, master of the Seahorse , the Seahorse in fact sailed under the command of Captain George Farmer. Farmer had previously served under Suckling and this probably explained his prompt acceptance of Suckling's nephew on board. Nelson served on the Seahorse for nearly two years. (See Howarth & Howarth Nelson: the immortal memory & Pocock Horatio Nelson .) The writer of the letter, Edward Bentham (fl.1730 - d.1774) held office as first Chief Clerk (Ticket Office) from 1750-1774. The letter being addressed on the verso to Mr Kee (without address) might suggest that it was given by Bentham directly to Nelson to hand to Kee in person. Provenance: This and the following two lots are from the collection of the politician and writer Sir William Augustus Fraser of Ledeclune and Morar (1826-1898) with the backs of both frames in the present lot and of the following lots with his bookplate. Fraser was known in his time as a great hero-worshiper and collector of relics of those whom he most admired. He bequeathed a number of such relics to various institutions - Byron's sofa to the Garrick Club, the manuscript of Gray's Elegy to Eton College Library and Nelson's sword to the United Service Club. His library, which amounted to 1852 lots, was sold by Sotheby's in London on 22 to 30 April 1901. Lots 1188 to 1190 comprise Nelson memorabilia. It is possible the present items formed part of lot 1189 "Collection of 24 portraits, views, facsimiles and autographs and a sepia drawing of the Victory in action