YORKTOWN

[?Billy Blue?: Admiral Sir William Cornwallis, as Commander-in-Chief of the East Indies Station.] Manuscript Copy of letter to Philip Stephens, Secretary to the Admiralty, suggesting five ?additional Lieutenants?.

Author: 
Sir William Cornwallis (1744-1819), distinguished Royal Navy admiral, nicknamed ?Billy Blue?, brother of the Marquis of Cornwallis [Sir Philip Stephens (1723-1809), Secretary to the Admiralty]
Publication details: 
?Crown [i.e. HMS Crown], in Santa Cruz Bay. / Teneriffe 12th March 1789 -?.
£100.00

See his entry, and that of the recipient, in the Oxford DNB. 3pp, foolscap 8vo. Laid-paper bifolium with ?I TAYLOR? Britannia watermark. In good condition, lightly aged. Folded twice into a packet. Reverse of second leaf docketed: ?12 March / Copy / to Philip Stephens Esqr / Duplicate - left at Santa Cruz / Triplicate. sent by the shop from Port Praya Bay 24th. March 89.? See the ODNB: ?When his brother Earl Cornwallis was appointed governor-general of Bengal, Cornwallis was sent out as commodore and commander-in-chief in the East Indies in October 1788?.

[Privately printed booklet, in French, on Admiral François Joseph Paul de Grasse and his role in the American Revolution.] Appel aux Etats-Unis. Un Grand Oublié.

Author: 
[Admiral François Joseph Paul de Grasse (1722-1788), commander of the French fleet at the Battle of Chesapeake; Lady Marie de Grasse Evans (d.1907), American-born wife of Sir Francis Henry Evans]
Publication details: 
Imprimerie des Orphelins d'Auteuil, 40, rue La Fontaine, Paris. No date.
£220.00

16pp., 12mo. Stapled. In cream wraps, with the title in brown on front cover. In fair condition, on lightly-aged paper, with vertical fold and slight rust staining to cover from staple. From the Evans family papers, which include those of de Grasse's descendant Lady Marie de Grasse Evans [née Stevens]. No copy traced, either in English-speaking libraries or the Bibliotheque Nationale.

Manuscript 'Report on the Road from Frimley to Yorktown [Surrey, England]' 'Ewart' [Sir John Spencer Ewart, while a Sandhurst cadet], with coloured manuscript map and four other field sketches by him; with sketches by 'Sterling' and 'Gordon'.

Author: 
Lieut-Gen. Sir John Spencer Ewart (1861-1930), KCB, Adjutant-General to the Forces in the British Army [Frimley, Surrey; Yorktown House; Aldershot; Sandhurst]
Publication details: 
Report on War Office 'Form 33'. Ewart's four additional sketches dated 1880 and 1881, the other material undated.
£280.00

The collection, deriving from the Ewart family papers, is in good condition, on aged paper, with fraying to the extremities of the report. Sir John Spencer Ewart, son of General Sir John Alexander Ewart, Colonel of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, entered Sandhurst in 1880, and left the following year, with the sword of honour, to join the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders. (For more information about Ewart and his father, who also obtained 'special distinction' at Sandhurst, see their entries in the Oxford DNB.) ONE. Manuscript 'Report'.

Autograph Letter Signed to Colonel Alexander Ross, Aide-de-camp to the Earl of Cornwallis.

Author: 
Patrick MacDowall-Crichton, 6th Earl of Dumfries
Publication details: 
31 March 1786; Edinburgh.
£100.00

Scottish nobleman (1726-1803). Ross (1742-1827; DNB), with Dundas, negotiated the surrender of Yorktown on Cornwallis's behalf. Two pages, quarto. Text entirely legible, but in poor condition, on stained, discoloured paper frayed at edges. Competently repaired with archival tape. Some loss to second leaf of bifoliate caused by breaking of seal. Unusually entertaining request in favour of his nephew, Lieut McCulloch of Bengal.

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