Nelson & His World

Discussion on the life and times of Admiral Lord Nelson
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 Post subject: Nelson's debt to John Tyson
PostPosted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 2:51 pm 
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I wonder if anyone can help with a developing theory?

On 29th Dec 1801, HN writes a 'Most private' letter to his bankers Messrs. Marsh, Page & Creed about money:

He adds that the letter is 'to be returned to me, as I consider this letter as a confidential communication to my friends.’

He relates that Mr Tyson ‘my secretary’ is arrived and that he finds himself Tyson's debtor for about £4,000.

Nelson tells MP&C that he has ordered Alexander Davison to pay Tyson the required amount, and goes on to explain that he expects around £8,000 from prizes, may win his case against St. V, and would be prepared to re-mortgage Merton if necessary, in order to discharge the debt quickly.

I'm aware that in October of that year, Tyson wrote to Nelson to tell him that utensils and seeds for the cultivation of Bronte had arrived in Malta.

I don't have any information whether Tyson was financially involved in this, and I'd originally thought the revenues from Bronte had been pledged for some time, to cover the costs of making improvements.

Therefore I would be grateful if anyone can shed light on what Tyson had supplied, that left HN so urgently wishing to repay his secretary and friend at the end of 1801.


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PostPosted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 11:10 pm 
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Nelson had also borrowed money from Tyson for the purchase of Merton.

Tyson's letter to Nelson in October, which you refer to, seems to provide some of the answers. He is in Malta, seriously ill, but about to return home, and refers to his 'cursed detention in this country' and 'the difficulties I have had to encounter in the final settlement of my accounts, a thing beyond all calculation grievous to me, and have very materially affected my health'. He also details expenditure of 1144 dollars he has incurred for charges due on the packages. He has received only £767 from a Mr Brown.

After receiving that letter, I imagine Nelson would be keen to relieve some of Tyson's problems by repaying some debts.

I believe the income from Bronte was insufficient to pay for the improvements.

In the version of the letter to Marsh, Page & Creed in Pettigrew, there is no mention of Davison paying Tyson.

£2,127 of India stock was realised in January 1802, and £2,000 repaid to Tyson in January. (Roger Knight)

_________________
Tony


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PostPosted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 11:40 pm 
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Yes: Morrison's Hamilton & Nelson Papers Vol 11 has an appendix giving details of Nelson's account with Marsh, Page and Creed. Tyson was paid £2000 by draft on 26 January 1802. The MPG accounts list 4 payments of £500 and one of £549.1s.8d to Tyson between 17 April 1799 (before the Dukedom was granted on 10 October) and the large payment on 26 January.

I have just acquired 'Nelson's Duchy' by Michael Pratt. There is no mention at all of Tyson - though the book deals with the history of the Duchy to the present day. The treatment of Nelson's involvement occupies only two chapters.


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 Post subject: Nelson's debt to Tyson
PostPosted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 9:52 pm 
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Fantastic! Many thanks for the clarification.

From what you've dug up it looks like Merton is the cause of the financial shift on this occasion.

How dispiriting it must have been to face the prospect of having to pledge Merton again so soon after the original purchase.

My enquiry actually revolves around any involvement by Tyson in the purchase of corn for the starving Maltese during the French occupation. I now have a little more information on that in a letter from Alexander Ball to Emma Hamilton in Pettigrew here:

Quote:
8th Nov 1802.

I am glad to hear the Tysons are well, have the goodness to tell honest John that I have written to the Treasury, and represented his losses by undertaking the commission of purchasing corn for the Island of Malta. I shall write to him soon.


And a portion of Sir William's regular dispatch to Grenville, dated Palermo, Jan 17, 1800 (from Gamlin / Nelson's Friendships - from which the critical page is missing!)

Quote:
... They are now amply supplied with that necessary article, and we have the promise that in future nothing that may be necessary, either for the subsistence of Comfort of the King's Troops or the poor Islanders that are fighting in the good cause at Malta, shall be denied to them by the Ports of Sicily.
I have the honor to be etc.....

"My Lords, - As I have been under the necessity of supplying instantly Captain Ball, Governor of the Island of Malta, with the sum of Eight Thousand Ounces and which I thought indispensably necessary for the King's Service, as I have fully explained to Lord Grenville in my Dispatch of this day's day and which I have begged the favour of His Lp. to communicate to your Lordships, I have this Day taken the liberty to give Mr. Abraham Gibbs Thirteen Bills on your Lordships amounting together to the sum of Four Thousand five hundred and forty Pounds fourteen shillings and nine pence, and Equivalent to the Eight Thousand Ounces furnished me by Abraham Gibbs, Esqr, to whose Order my Bills on your Lordships as I specified in the inclosed note.


And also Emma Hamilton's Memorial for a pension to the Prince Regent in 1813:

Quote:
I receiv'd the Deputies, open'd their Dispatches, and without hesitation I went down to the Port to try what could be done. I found lying there several Vessels loaded with Corn for Ragusa. I immediately purchased their cargoes, and engaged the Vessels to go with their loading and the Deputies to Malta. This Service, Sir Alexr Ball in his Letters to me, as well as to Lord Nelson, plainly states to be 'the means whereby he was enabled to preserve that important Island.' I had to borrow a considerable Sum on this occasion, which I since repaid, and with my own private money thus expended was nothing short of £5,000, a shilling of which, nor yet the Interest, have I ever yet receiv'd.


Who sent corn and who paid for it appears to be a very confusing state of affairs, and it seems that both Tyson and Emma were later looking to the Treasury for recompense.

Whether all these are different transactions, the same or a combination I don't know.

Not much information to hand, as I've just started looking, but I had wondered if all these corn purchases were connected or not.

Apologies for the mention of Alexander Davison in the middle of this. He crept in from another letter I was transcribing, and you're right Tony, there's no mention of him in either the Pettigrew or Gamlin excerpts of the letter.

Thanks again for your pointers.


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