Rowley

[A Scottish Royal Navy Midshipman in the Napoleonic Wars.] Autograph Letter Signed to his mother from Robert Kennedy Thomson of Daljarrock, giving news from HMS Imperieuse, and commenting on news from Scotland.

Author: 
Robert Kennedy Thomson of Daljarrock, Ayrshire, Scotland, Royal Navy Officer in the Napoleonic Wars [HMS Imperieuse; Sir Henry Duncan; Vice-Admiral Sir Joshua Ricketts Rowley]
Publication details: 
‘H.M. Ship Imperieuse Port Mahon [Minorca] / Jany. 12th. 1813.’
£180.00

See Thomson’s entry in O’Byrne’s ‘Naval Biographical Dictionary’ (1849). He had entered the navy in 1811, ‘on board the Impérieuse 38, Capt. Hon. Henry Duncan’, and would retire with the rank of Lieutenant, after a reasonably eventful career, in 1829. In 1849 he was said by O’Byrne to be ‘a Captain in the Ayrshire Militia’. On 30 September 1864 the London Gazette listed him among the ‘Lieutenants on Reserved List, to be Retired Commanders’.

[‘The Sicilians are not quite so well disposed towards us’: Edward Foord Bromley, Royal Navy surgeon and source of Tasmanian scandal.] Autograph Letter Signed to Sir Sidney Smith, from HMS America at Palermo, describing the unsettled state of Sicily.

Author: 
Edward Foord Bromley (1776-1836), Royal Navy surgeon and Naval Officer at Hobart Town, Tasmania, putative embezzler [Sir Sidney Smith; HMS America; Sicily; Sicilians]
Publication details: 
‘H M Ship America Palermo. / Septr 11. 1813.’
£180.00

An excellent letter, describing the state of affairs in Sicily during the period of British occupation, 1806-1814. The recipient Sir Sidney Smith (see Oxford DNB) was second in command to Sir Edward Pellew, head of the Mediterranean squadron which included Bromley’s ship HMS America, a 76-gun third-rater, launched only three years before, in 1810. The present letter is written with the ship on the verge of a notable engagement (described in the European Magazine, March 1814, pp.245-247, quoting from the London Gazette). From Bromley’s entry by P. R.

[G. C. Williamson [George Charles Williamson] (1858-1942), art historian ‘Rowley Cleeve’, who advised J. Pierpont Morgan on purchases.] Two Typed Letters Signed to social historian Amy Cruse, praising her books and discussing a Milton portraits.

Author: 
G. C. Williamson [George Charles Williamson] (1858-1942), art historian and ‘Rowley Cleeve’, who advised J. Pierpont Morgan on purchases [Amy Cruse (1870-1951; née Barter), social historian]
Publication details: 
16 October and 5 December 1941; each on letterhead ‘From Doctor Williamson / Mount Manor House, / The Mount, / Guildford, Surrey.’
£120.00

Some of Williamson’s papers are held by Boston College. These two items are each 1p, 4to, on aged and worn paper, the first letter with blotting to signature. The two are held together by strip of paper mount. Written little more than a year before Williamson’s death. ONE: 16 October 1941. Begins: ‘Dear Miss Cruse, / I am delighted to have your letter of October 9th, and so glad that my epistle to you gave you any pleasure.’ He finds her books ‘very delightful’, and names ‘the other two’, of whose existence he was ignorant.

[Sir Henry Rowley Bishop, English composer.] Five tickets of admission to the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, each signed ?Henry R Bishop?.

Author: 
Sir Henry Rowley Bishop (1787-1855), voluminous English composer, whose songs include ?Home! Sweet Home!?, Professor of Music at the Universities of Edinburgh and Oxford [Theatre Royal, Drury Lane]
Publication details: 
21 February, 13 March, and 6 and 9 and 20 May 1826. Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London.
£50.00

The tickets are all in fair condition, each on one side of a landscape slip of paper (all slips roughly 11 x 7 cm). All five with creases from folding. Each of the five signatures has been scored through in ink, indicating that the ticket was used. All read, ?T. R. D. L. / Admit Two Boxes | Henry R Bishop?, with date at bottom left.

R. V. Williams and the Mourne Press.] Signed ('Richard Rowley.') and inscribed ('R. V. Williams') copy of 'The Big Grey Man | A Legend of Mourne', with 'Illustrations after woodcuts by Lady Mabel Annesley'.

Author: 
'Richard Rowley' [pseudonym of the Ulster poet Richard Valentine Williams (1877-1947), proprietor of the Mourne Press]; Lady Mabel Annesley (1881-1959), illustrator and artist
Publication details: 
[Newcastle, Co. Down.] 'Published by the Mourne Press for the author.' [Slug on last page: 'BANBRIDGE CHRONICLE PRESS'.]
£320.00

[12]pp, landscape folio. Sewn with red thread. The words 'The Big Grey Man' on cover and title-page in red ink, rest of pamphlet in black ink. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. A 48-line poem, in eight six-line stanzas, spread over three rectos, signed at end 'Richard Rowley.' Inscribed on title-page: 'Mrs. Brown. | With best wishes for Christmas | from | Mr. & Mrs. R. V. Williams. | 1942.' Six bucolic illustrations reproduced from woodcuts by Annesley, including one on cover. Colophon on recto of last leaf, with printers' slug on otherwise-blank reverse.

[ Sir Henry Rowley Bishop, English composer. ] Autograph Letter Signed ('Henry R Bishop:') to 'Miss Macirone' (the pianist and composer Clara Angela Macirone), regarding an invitation to one of her concerts.

Author: 
Sir Henry Rowley Bishop (1786-1855), English composer [ Clara Angela Macirone (1821-1895), English pianist and composer ]
Publication details: 
'Cambridge Street [ Hyde Park, London ] | Tuesday -' [16 June 1846].
£45.00

1p., 16mo. Bifolium. In fair condition, lightly aged and worn. Docketted on reverse of second leaf 'Sir H Bishop June 17th/46' (17 June 1846 was a Wednesday, so probably a mistake for the previous day). He is much obliged by her 'kind thought, in sending me a Ticket for you Concert', but it is uncertain whether he will be in London at that time, 'but I wish you, most sincerely, every success'.

[Rowley Lascelles, antiquary.] Autograph Letter Signed to John Thomas Smith (Keeper of Prints and Drawings, British Museum), asking that his son be allowed to copy out a pedigree in the Harleian Collection for Marquess Wellesley.

Author: 
Rowley Lascelles (1771-1841), antiquary and archivist whose employment by the Record Commissioners for Ireland ended in controversy [John Thomas Smith (1766-1833), Keeper of Prints, British Museum]
Publication details: 
Without date or place. [Between 1816 and 1833.]
£65.00

1p., 12mo. On bifolium, with the verso of the second leaf addressed to 'J. T. Smith esqr.' In fair condition, on aged and worn paper.

Autograph Letters Signed (x 2) to Mrs [Henry?] Brewster.

Author: 
Anna Bishop.
Publication details: 
Pavilion Hotel, no date, and Madras, [18] March 1868.
£100.00

Ann[a] Bishop, singer (1814-1884)(DNB). (No date) Three pages, 8vo, fair but legible, edge rough where extracted from an album.. She is sorry not to have been able to see her. She is travelling to Australia on that day and willbe in England in four months. She apologises for the writing, giving the reason. (1868) Four pages, 8vo, good condition but edge rough where extrcated from an album. She would be pleased to meet Mrs Brewster in England and gives her brother's address ("Mr Riviere". She would be happy to give her singing lessons. Two items,

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