Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson (1758-1805) - photo 1
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson (1758-1805) - photo 2

Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson (1758-1805)

Lot 30
09.07.2025 10:30UTC +01:00
Classic
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CHRISTIE'S
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
Buyer Premiumsee on Website%
ID 1450487
Lot 30 | Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson (1758-1805)
Estimate value
£ 15 000 – 20 000
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson (1758-1805)
Autograph letter signed ('Nelson & Bronte') to Captain Thomas Foley, HMS Victory, 18 October 1805
Three pages, approx. 235 x 185mm, bifolium. Framed between sheets of glass. Provenance: by descent.

Nelson writes to one of his 'band of brothers' three days before the Battle of Trafalgar, hoping for 'a good battle which God of his infinite mercy grant us very soon and I hope that the result will be for the general benefit of Europe and little England in particular'. Nelson replies to a letter received from Foley just before his departure from Portsmouth to rejoin the fleet watching Cadiz, asking for a favour: 'You may rely that if it is in my power that your Nephew shall be promoted but at present I have such a load of Admiralty recommendations that I see no prospect even with this Large fleet of getting thro' them with[ou]t a good battle which God of his infinite mercy grant us very soon and I hope that the result will be for the general benefit of Europe and little England in particular'. Nelson goes on to refer to his hopes that 'Sir Rich[ar]d Strachan has finished the Career of the Rochford [squadron] ... I wish Sir Rich[ar]d had a good three decker with him for in reality although success may attend a two decker yet I am bold to say that nothing less than a three decker is fit to go alongside one'. Nelson concludes by sending the regards of Thomas Fremantle (captain of Neptune), Captain Hardy and Revd Dr Scott, commenting 'our weather is delightful', and sending his own compliments to Foley's wife, 'I wish her Ladyship would produce you a Boy...'.

Nelson had joined the fleet off Cadiz on the evening of 28 September, and immediately made preparations for the anticipated battle. It was in fact the 'delightful' weather on 18 October that finally enticed the Franco-Spanish fleet out of the safety of Cadiz: their preparations for leaving port were spotted by the British frigate Sirius at 9am on the 19th, and thereafter the countdown to the battle itself on the 21st was inexorable. The recipient, Sir Thomas Foley (later Admiral Sir Thomas Foley, 1757-1833) is one of Nelson's 'band of brothers', having led the British attack in HMS Goliath at the Battle of the Nile, and having served as Nelson's flag captain on board HMS Elephant at the Battle of Copenhagen (Foley's nephew Richard, whom Nelson refers to here, was a midshipman on the same ship); Foley married Lady Lucy Fitzgerald, daughter of the Duke of Leinster ('her Ladyship', as Nelson calls her affectionately) in July 1802, and was prevented by poor health from returning to sea thereafter. Sir Richard Strachan, 6th Bart (1760-1828) was in command of a detached squadron in the Bay of Biscay, charged with tracking down the elusive French Rochefort squadron under Contre-Admiral Zacharie Allemand who were much in Nelson's thoughts in the days before Trafalgar: it was whilst searching for them on 4 November that Strachan was to defeat and capture the four surviving French ships under Admiral Dumanoir which had escaped unscathed from Trafalgar, thus completing the annihilation of the Allied fleet begun by Nelson. The letter is apparently unpublished. According to our research, this is the latest letter by Nelson to have appeared at auction in recent decades: RBH/ABPC records one other letter dated on 18 October, and no letter from the subsequent three days.
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
Preview
09.07.2025 – 09.07.2025
Phone +44 (0)20 7839 9060
Email
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