[India – Third Anglo-Mysore War and Tipu Sultan]. Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Skelly (1751-1793) - photo 1
[India – Third Anglo-Mysore War and Tipu Sultan]. Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Skelly (1751-1793) - photo 2
[India – Third Anglo-Mysore War and Tipu Sultan]. Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Skelly (1751-1793) - photo 3
[India – Third Anglo-Mysore War and Tipu Sultan]. Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Skelly (1751-1793) - photo 4

[India – Third Anglo-Mysore War and Tipu Sultan]. Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Skelly (1751-1793)

Lot 57
10.12.2025 12:00UTC +00:00
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ID 1514345
Lot 57 | [India – Third Anglo-Mysore War and Tipu Sultan]. Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Skelly (1751-1793)
Estimate value
£ 12 000 – 18 000
[India – Third Anglo-Mysore War and Tipu Sultan]. Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Skelly (1751-1793)
Autograph and fair-copy journals, 22 October 1788 - 1 August 1792, more than 1,500 pages in 20 volumes, illustrated with sketches and watercolours
Autograph manuscript rough journals for 22 October – 10 December 1788, 4 September – 28 November 1789, 19 February – 12 March 1790, 17 May – 11 November 1790, 29 April 1791 – 1 August 1792, altogether approximately 540 leaves, in 16 notebooks of various sizes, folio, quarto and octavo, the war journals from 17 May 1790 numbered 1-3, 6-12, the post-war journals (from 16 April 1792) numbered 2-4, including a number of watercolours, sketches and doodles throughout; marble paper wrappers (vols. for September-October 1789 and August-October 1791 lacking wrappers); with a few loose leaves and insertions including a fragment of a field journal for 23-31 July 1791 by another hand.
[and]
Fair-copy journals (in a secretarial hand) for the Third Anglo-Mysore War, 24 February 1790 – 2 July 1792, framed as seven letters addressed to the Honourable Charles Stuart, illustrated with nine fully worked watercolours by Skelly of Indian forts and military scenes and two battle-plans, together 325 pages in three volumes, quarto, blue roan; with an unbound duplicate of the first volume.
Provenance: Bonhams, 27 March 2007, lot 607.

An eye-witness account of the war against Tipu Sultan by a leading participant. Skelly's rough journals of the Third Anglo- Mysore War are a day-by-day account (lacking only the period between 11 November 1790 and 29 April 1791), whilst the fair-copy journals are a continuous narrative covering the whole extent of the war, based on the rough journals but sometimes including additional details or anecdotes. The journals open with the initial advance of the main British force under General William Medows from Trichinopoly [Tiruchirappalli] to Coimbatore and the capture of the significant forts at Dindigul, where Skelly leads an attempt to storm the fort, and 'Polligautcherry' [Palakkad], where Skelly plays a leading role in the siege operations: both forts are depicted in Skelly's skilled watercolours in the fair-copy journals. From September 1790, Skelly recounts the army's pursuit of Tipu towards Trichinopoly and then east through the Carnatic. After Cornwallis assumes command in January 1791, the journal describes the advance on Bangalore [Bengaluru] and the siege of the city in the face of Tipu's army, culminating with Skelly's participation in the night-time storming of the citadel (depicted in a dramatic watercolour), followed by the advance on Tipu's capital of Seringapatam [Srirangapatna] and the battle at the crossing of the Kaveri river on 15 May, illustrated with a plan of battle in the fair-copy and described in detail in more than 12 pages of the rough journal. Cornwallis's operations for the rest of the year concentrate on securing his supply-lines, with Skelly involved in the operations to capture the forts at Rayakottai (under Major Gowdie) and at Savandurga in December (both illustrated). The British forces then completed their return to Srirangapatna, culminating in the successful night-action of 6 February 1792 before the city (illustrated with a plan), during which Skelly describes holding an isolated redoubt in the centre of the enemy line unsupported for several hours. Hostilities were suspended on 24 February, with Tipu signing the Treaty of Seringapatam on 18 March; Skelly's fair-copy journal concludes on the 25th, with a brief coda of 2 July describing his return to Madras, whilst the last three volumes of the rough journals describe his journeys across southern India to Calicut, Cochin, Palayamkottai and back to Madras between February and July 1792. The three pre-war rough journals covering October-December 1788 and September-November 1789 describe voyages up and down the Hooghly and Ganges from Calcutta, evidently during periods of leave, with visits to Patna, Varanasi and other sites of interest and hunting for tigers, buffalos and other game; at Munger (modern Bihar) in October 1788 he meets the artists Thomas and William Daniell, then just at the beginning of their tour of north-west India; and in the following month at Bhagalpur he meets Samuel Davies, a member of the 1783 expedition to Tibet, who shows him watercolours of Bhutan.

Hostilities with Tipu Sultan were to resume in 1798 with the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, which concluded with the storming of Srirangapatna and the death of Tipu in May 1799. A grandson of the 2nd Duke of Gordon, Francis Skelly joined the 71st Regiment of Foot (Fraser's Highlanders) on its formation in 1776 as a captain, and served with the regiment as a captain in the American Revolutionary War between 1776 and at least 1779: it was presumably in America that he formed friendships with the Honourable Charles Stuart (1753-1801, son of the 3rd Earl of Bute), the addressee of his journal-letters, and Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess of Cornwallis who was to be governor-general and commander-in-chief in India during the period of these journals (from which it is apparent that Skelly and Cornwallis maintained a correspondence). On the disbanding of the 71st Regiment in 1786, Skelly transferred to a captaincy in the 73rd (Highland) Foot in India, before being appointed a major in the 74th (Highland) Foot in September 1789. Cornwallis formally commended him for his service at the siege of Bangalore in February 1791 and again in October in the same year: he was appointed deputy quarter master general to HM Forces in East Indies with the rank of lieutenant colonel in November 1792, and died in November 1793 at Fort William (Calcutta), with his effects being sold by auction on 5 December. The National Army Museum has two manuscript journals, a fair-copy journal for February-May 1791 (Accession 1966-09-144), and a rough journal for February 1792, apparently a parallel journal to vols 11 and 12 in this lot (1998-05-1), while the British Library holds a set of the fair-copy journals inscribed to Nathaniel Davison, with related correspondence and papers, c.1785-1793 (MSS Eur D 877, acquired at Sotheby's, 20 June 1977, lot 560). Skelly's American journals for April-September 1779 are published in the Magazine of American History in August and November 1891, ed. by Charles C. Jones, Jr, though the originals have not been traced.

The watercolours in the fair-copy journals comprise: (in volume 1) ‘Carroor’ [i.e. Karur: depicting the temples on an imaginary shoreline: signed by Skelly], 'Coimbatoor’ [the river and fort at Coimbatore], 'Dindigull' [the fort at Dindigul: signed by Skelly], the fort at ‘Polligautcherry’ [Palakkad], (volume 2) ‘Storm of Bangaloor on the night of the 21 March 1791’, coloured battle plan of ‘Action 15 May 1791 near Serringapatam’, ‘Riacotta’ [the fort and rock at Rayakottai], (volume 3) Fort and rock at ‘Sevendroog’ [Savandurga: signed by Skelly], ‘Plan / Of Earl Cornwallis’s attack on Tipoo’s fortified position near Seringaptam on the night of the 6th of February 1792’, ‘Tomb of Hyder Ally who died Dec. 1783’ [at Srirangapatna] and ‘View of the North side of Serringapatam’.

Place of origin:India, Asia
Auction house category:Letters, documents and manuscripts, Books and manuscripts
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