Nelson & His World

Tycho, I have no explanation for those Latin verb tenses on instrument labels; good question! I have a call in to the luthier and will post what he has to say about this.

Gretchen

Many thanks, Fiddler.

I too have been in touch with Lyon & Healy to ask if there is anything in their archive about the Lord Nelson Violin. Watch this space!

I did some Googling on fecit vs faciebat. It appears that in certain trades and contexts these terms are interchangeable and lose the implications of the difference in tense. In printmaking and engraving nomenclature fecit, faciebat, fect., fac., fec., f. are all the equivalent of made, made by or did. Here's a site that suggests Michelangelo should have used FECIT instead of FACIEBAT in "signing" the Pieta because the letters are too squooshed in. http://100swallows.wordpress.com/2009/0 ... sterpiece/

Boyd Jacklin the luthier was kind enough to return my call and confirmed that in violin making fecit, me fecit, fece, faciebat, etc.,are all understood to mean the same thing: made or made by. He suggests that this might be because printers and instrument makers were tradesmen and probably not scholars. (Luthiers would have purchased their labels in quantity from the printer.) They may even have been a bit clumsy in the writing of their own language or dialect. Boyd told me of an existing letter written by Stradivari himself and fraught with bad grammar.

I haven't given up hope that the mysterious Strad is a "witness." Perhaps there are more documents from Corsby's shop waiting to be rediscovered. Maybe descendants of Victory's officers have family lore to offer or long forgotten dispatch boxes in their basements...
The next question is - where is the violin now? Does "Patch" or his family still have it, more than 40 years after that Sotheby's auction? Has it been privately sold since then?

Tycho, it pains me to say I believe Nelson primarily meant the musical fiddlers in that famous bit of invective, although I think the additional meaning is quite implicit. I'll let you know why, when I answer your "Fiddlers and Poets" thread...


Gretchen

Fiddler:

Many thanks for following up the fecit/faciebat query. I was also wondering if 'faciebat/was making...' was some kind of indicator that Stradivarius had passed on the work for completion to his workshop i.e. 'S. was making....until someone else took over and finished it'. Too complicated!

Ah, Corsby! I wonder if his records are lurking in some unfrequented archive? I think the Guildhall Library has all sorts of records of 18th century tradesmen - upholders, booksellers, musical instrument makers etc. Does anyone have any idea of any other locations for tracking down such records?

No reply from Lyon & Healy yet.

When I have time, I'd also like to find the whereabouts of the Nelson violin today...but, Fiddler, that's your department, I think!

The LNS in color. Type "page 11" in the "search text" box and Enter.
http://www.cozio.com/DDFiles/DocumentDi ... =1#search=""

The instrument would almost certainly have had a new neck grafted on at some point and this does appear to me to be the case in this picture. So there should have been some documentation of that by whoever did the work. Corsby, maybe...

Thanks for that, Fiddler.

Well, I'm getting quite hopeful again. If the officer survived Trafalgar and collected his violin after the battle, (unscathed? Or maybe needing a new neck?) then he would have simply taken it home. This is very different from a violin having been 'found'.

I think Corsby is a likely trail to follow. I am up to my ears at the moment but it would be interesting eventually to locate contemporary tradesmen's record books wherever they might be.

Also, the names of all the officers aboard Victory are known, so, if the story is true, the violin must have belonged to one of the survivors, which limits the search a little bit. (Nobody called Harington, I suppose? More about his music in due course when I get my head above the water.)

A further thought occurs to me: even in Nelson's time, a Strad was a prized instrument, and expensive to buy, even it it did not command the astronomical sums such an instrument would today. It is likely therefore, that the owner would have been relatively well-heeled, and not dependent entirely on his naval salary. This might narrow the search still further.

Can anyone supply a list of the officers in Victory who survived the battle? Would it be possible to establish any background details for any of them that might indicate a well-lined purse?

I am not at all sure that the violin “coming into the possession of the naval officer on Lord Nelson’s flagship” means that the officer owned the violin. That may be the reason for his anonymity!

Oops, that's what comes of making posts when you're in a hurry and have other things on your mind!

Wouldn't it still be useful, though, to know which officers in Victory survived Trafalgar? If the story is true, one of their number acquired the violin, even if it wasn't originally his.

Wouldn't it still be useful, though, to know which officers in Victory survived Trafalgar? If the story is true, one of their number acquired the violin, even if it wasn't originally his.


The following officers survived from Victory:

Captain Thomas Masterman Hardy (d. 1839)

Lieutenants:
John Quilliam (d.1839)
Edward Williams (d.1843)
Andrew King (d.1835)
John Yule (d.1840)
George Miller Bligh (d.1834)
John Pasco (d.1853)
George Brown (d.1856)
Alexander Hills (d.1809)

Master Thomas Atkinson (d. 1836)

Lieutenants Royal Marines:
James Godwin Peake (d.1809)
Lewis Roteley (d.1861)
Lewis Buckle Reeves (d.1861)

Killed in action:
Lieutenant William Alexander Ram
Captain Charles William Adair R.M.

In addition there were 20 Midshipmen and 7 Masters Mates

These were:
John Carslake
William Rivers
George Augustus Westphal
Robert Cutts Barton
Richard Bulkeley
Festing Horatio Grindall
Henry Cary
Thomas Thresher
John Felton
Richard Francis Roberts
James Sibbald
Oliver Pickin
Daniel Salter
Philip Thorez
David Ogilvie
John Lyons
James Pond
James Robertson Walker
John Pollard
Daniel Harrington

William Chasman
Thomas Lowton Robins
Charles Chapell
Samuel Spencer
William Henry Symons
Thomas Goble
James Green

Anna,

Methinks you might have your work cut out - and for quite a while, if you wish to pursue it! The violin, too, might very well and for whatever reason, have belonged to one of the officers further 'down the ladder.'

Many thanks P-N, for that (long) list!

Kester: yes, I was just wondering whether it's a bit mad to get so excited over this violin, and whether the story has enough 'ballast' to make it worth pursuing. It just seems so strange that a reputable company should suddenly pluck this association with Nelson out of thin air with no substance to it whatsoever. It may be that the story has become embroidered over the years (like my 'aristocratic' Irish ancestor!), but if there is a link with 'Victory' and Trafalgar, however tenuous, it would be nice to find it.

Were many of Victory's officers killed at Trafalgar? If there are only a few, it might be possible to hazard a guess at the owner - someone fairly well-heeled?

I'd be sorry to give up on this without a bit more exploration. But if anyone thinks I'm barking, and thinks I should stop, please say so!

Were many of Victory's officers killed at Trafalgar? If there are only a few, it might be possible to hazard a guess at the owner - someone fairly well-heeled?


Killed were:

Lieutenant William Alexander Ram. He was a 21 year old Irishman from County Wexford. His father was the local M.P. and Colonel of the local Militia.

Captain Charles William Adair, Royal Marines. An 29 year old Ulsterman, from County Antrim. His uncle was Captain William Prowse, who was also present at Trafalgar, commanding the frigate Sirius. His elder brother was also in the Royal Marines, and reached the rank of General. Two later Adair's also served in the RMs to reach General rank, and were knighted (General Sir Charles Adair and General Sir William Adair).

Midshipman Alexander Palmer. 22 years old from London.
Midshipman Robert Smith, 19 years old, from Watford

Many thanks for that, P-N.

Lt. Ram's family would have been quite well-off, I think, since M.P.s then were not paid and needed to have a sizeable private income.

But the Adairs look even more promising - the fiddle plays a large part in Irish culture. And they were Marines. I nearly asked about this in an earlier post as the marines provided music on board ship and I wondered if there might have been a fiddler among them - either as a private enthusiast or as part of the band. Military bands nowadays have woodwind as well as brass and drums; did they also have a string section in Nelson's day, I wonder?