NELSON (HORATIO)
Autograph letter signed ('Nelson & Bronte') to Mr Fellowes, earnestly promising to do all he can to relieve his distress but regrets he can not help him financially ('...I am glad You are at least got quiet better times may come round and although I am not in a situation to lend Money Yet You shall not want my assistance. I will speak to Mr Creed the first time I see him and as he has always professed himself so much Your friend he will I dare say join in assisting You, at all events twenty five Pounds I will answer for when ever You draw upon Marsh & Creed for it...'), sending 'Every kind Wish' and subscribing himself 'Yours Most Sincerely', integral autograph address leaf franked ('Nelson & Bronte'), directed to 'Lieut Fellowes R.N.' in Cork, one page on a bifoloium, slight fading, creased and soiled, 4to (256 x 184mm.), framed and glazed (unexamined out of frame), Merton, 31 October (franked 1 November) 1802
Footnotes:
Provenance:
Bonhams, Nelson & The Royal Navy 1750-1815, 5 July 2005, lot 125
Private collection, UK

'BETTER TIMES MAY COME ROUND': NELSON OFFERS HELP TO HIS FORMER SECRETARY.

This letter is to John Bourdon Fellowes who had served as Nelson's purser and secretary throughout his time on the Agamemnon. Nelson held him in high regard, and secured for him a lieutenancy (see White, New Letters, p.164). A year earlier Nelson wrote to St Vincent: 'I have been much distressed at finding that Mr Thomas Fellowes, who served with me as Purser during the whole time I commanded the Agamemnon, has not only lost his appointment of Purser to His Majesty's Ship Superb, owing to an arrest for debt, but is involved, with a wife and family, in the most abject misery, without the slightest means of support for them, or for himself... speaking from my own knowledge, I can safely say that Mr Fellowes is a man of strictly honest principles, and I believe his distresses to be chiefly owing to the want of integrity, or the negligence, of those who were entrusted with his concerns in the Ship, at those periods when he was absent on duty'; and he told Captain Berry: 'I would lend him money, but in truth I have it not' (26 November and 26 January 1801).

Nelson writes from Merton Place, the country estate purchased for him by the Hamiltons, fresh from a triumphant progress throughout England and South Wales in the summer of 1802. The lavish lifestyle he enjoyed with Emma Hamilton at his 'dear dear Merton' and a generous settlement paid to his wife took a toll on his finances, and he often complained that his financial situation did not reflect his fame and success. He was in considerable debt and was forced to borrow money from his friend Alexander Davidson and his brother-in-law George Matcham, admitting here that he 'is not in a position to lend money' and asking Fellowes to apply to his naval agent, Marsh & Creed, for help.

The letter is not published by Nicolas, Dispatches and Letters, or White, New Letters.
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