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Militaria and Political Auction
Lot 1295:
"Vice Admiral Lord Visct Nelson" Transmits "the King’s Letter to The Emperor of Morocco" A few Days Before Death at Trafalgar
"Vice Admiral Lord Viset Nelson" Transmits "the King’s Letter to The Emperor of Morocco" A few Days Before Death at Trafalgar
With this letter, transmitted by Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, Foreign Secretary Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, directs British Consul James Mario Matra to present the enclosed letter from King George III and associated presents to Emperor Mulay Suleiman (1766-1822) of Morocco.
Vice-Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson (1758-1805) was mortally wounded during the great
British naval victory over the combined French and Spanish fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar on October 21, 1805, just days after having this letter delivered.
ROBERT STEWART, VISCOUNT CASTLREAGH, Manuscript Letter Signed, to James Mario Matra, October 1805, London, England. 1 p., 8" x 12.25". Expected folds; a few edge tears; very good. Ex-Malcolm Forbes and Sotheby’s July 15, 1993.
As British Consul in Tangier, Matra supported the British Royal Navy with supplies and intelligence on the movement of French and Spanish forces. He corresponded regularly with admirals of the British Mediterranean fleet and mediated communications between the British government and that of Sultan Mulay Suleiman. He dealt with matters of trade involving British merchants and provided updates on the political and economic affairs of Morocco.
Complete Transcript
No 3 Downing Street Octo 1805
Sir
I have the honor to transmit to you The King’s Letter to The Emperor of Morocco, to be by you presented to His Imperial Majesty with the Presents which you will at the same time receive from Vice Admiral Lord Visct Nelson.
I am Sir
Your most obedt / humble servant
Castlereagh
J. M. Matra Esq
H. M. Consul Gel Tangier
Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh (1769-1822) was born in Dublin and attended St. John’s College, Cambridge, for a year in 1786-1787. He was elected a member of the Irish Parliament in 1790, and after spending time in France, returned to the Irish Parliament in 1793. In the 1790s, he aided in the suppression of the United Irishmen. In 1796, when his father became the Earl of Londonderry, Stewart became Viscount Castlereagh. After serving in the Cabinet of Henry Addington, Castlereagh became the Secretary of State for War and the Colonies in the new government of William Pitt in
1804. After Pitt’s death in 1806, Castlereagh resigned, but he was soon reappointed as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies in 1807 in the government of the Duke of Portland. A controversy with Foreign Secretary George Canning led to a duel between the two in September 1809, in which Castlereagh wounded Canning in the thigh. Both ministers resigned in the wake of public outrage over the duel. In 1812, Castlereagh returned to the government as Foreign Secretary, a position he held for the next ten years.
He also became leader of the House of Commons after the 1812 assassination of Spencer Perceval. He helped orchestrate the quadruple alliance between the United Kingdom, Austria, Russia, and Prussia and played a key role at the Congress of Vienna in 1814-
1815. He also aided through a series of treaties in the suppression of the African slave trade after Great Britain abolished it in 1807. Despised in both Great Britain and Ireland and overworked, Castlereagh killed himself while still in office in 1822. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, and his pallbearers included a former, the current, and two future prime ministers.
James Mario Matra (ca. 1746-1806) was born in New York City to a Corsican father named James Magra, who had moved to Dublin, Ireland, studied medicine and changed his surname to Matra, and then migrated to New York. The younger Magra settled in England and entered the Royal Navy in 1761. He joined James Cook’s voyage of exploration to Australia in 1768-1770. On that voyage, he befriended English botanist Sir Joseph Banks, with whom he remained a lifelong friend. Some evidence suggests Mara was the anonymous author of A Journal of a Voyage Round the World, published in England in 1771 about Cook’s voyage. In 1775, Magra petitioned the King to revert his surname to Matra to claim a Corsican inheritance. In 1777, Matra requested leave from his position as consul in Tenerife in the Canary Islands to deal with family matters in British-occupied New York City. He was secretary of the embassy in Constantinople from 1778 to 1780. In 1783, he proposed establishing a settlement in New South Wales, especially for American loyalists displaced by the American Revolutionary War. In 1786, Matra received the appointment as consul at Tangier, Morocco, a position he held until his death in March 1806.
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