BIB_ID
388029
Accession number
MA 1269.39
Creator
Molesworth, William John, 1763-1815.
Display Date
1780 Aug. 18.
Credit line
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1899.
Description
1 item (4 p.) ; 23.3 cm
Notes
The first two and a half pages, before the start of the letter, contain the "Extract of a Letter from Castle Townsend" to which he refers in the letter. It recounts a naval battle in the waters near to Castle Townsend that resulted in the capture of the French ship the Comte d'Artois.
Volume 12 (MA 1269) of a 33-volume collection of the correspondence of Sir James Pulteney, his family and distinguished contemporaries. (MA 487, MA 297 and MA 1260-1290). The arrangement of the collection is alphabetical by the author of the letter. Items in the collection have been described individually in separate catalog records; see collection level record for more information (MA 1269.1-63).
Volume 12 (MA 1269) of a 33-volume collection of the correspondence of Sir James Pulteney, his family and distinguished contemporaries. (MA 487, MA 297 and MA 1260-1290). The arrangement of the collection is alphabetical by the author of the letter. Items in the collection have been described individually in separate catalog records; see collection level record for more information (MA 1269.1-63).
Provenance
Purchased from the Ford Collection of Manuscripts.
Summary
Concerning a naval battle of August 13, 1780 in which the HMS Bienfaisant and other ships captured the French Man-of-War, Comte d'Artois; fulfilling a promise made in a previous letter to give him an account of the capture "which Colonel Townsend who owns & lives at Castle Townsend received this day from his Brother [possibly Henry Townsend], written on the Spot from whence he viewed the Fleet & Battle. This Extract the Colonel has been so good as to let me copy from His Brothers letter;" adding that he knows Captain M[a]cBride "a County of Antrim man, he had great superiority of Fire over the Enemy as you have seen. Some time since offered a 74 gun ship but refused it unless they would let him shift his own Crew thither who were all his own Countrymen & Acquaintances, but as this was not permitted he remained in the [HMS] Bienfaisant & his crew have proved their Alertness, when 104 men were killed & wounded in the Enemy's Ship and 11 only on our Ships, one of which bore but an inconsiderable part in the Action."
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