Nelson & His World

Anna,

Royal Marines musicians of today are also expected to be proficient in a string orchestra, for receptions, dinners, etc. That obviously means some members are able to play the violin, viola or cello, which they do. Some can also play electric guitar and other more modern instruments when required. They're a versatile lot!

I would imagine this versatility would have been evident in Nelson's time, although they of course didn't have the range of instruments available today. I think the first valved instruments were introduced around 1810. That probably means that a few would probably have been able to at least play the violin for receptions etc. The instrument was also often used when the capstan was in operation, since the singing of shanties was often frowned upon in the RN, although I'm not sure a 'strad' would have been employed for that and the men would probably not have known what that was anyway! To them any such instrument would have been a 'fiddle'.

As you say the Captain Adair might seem promising, but of course you'd have to check the other officers too. No, I don't think your 'barking', as I'm sure we'd all like to know the answer to this, but your investigations could take some time! I'm sure you'll keep us posted.

Apologies for the witter and nonsense with which I have peppered this thread in the last hectic week – while being very excited about this violin, I have been frazzled by other commitments and have therefore hastily and carelessly mis-read a lot of what has been written here.

Now that I have had time to re read a little more carefully, it is obvious that all the conflicting comments such as ‘said to have been found….’, ‘was discovered unscathed…’ ‘was present at Trafalgar’…. ‘owner probably did not survive the engagement’……was never reclaimed…’ etc. are all hearsay and are not worth pursuing, without Corsby’s record of the purchase and from whom he bought the violin.

Tony posted that the ‘Violinist’ recorded in 1926 that ‘the purchase of the violin appears in the books of George Corsby of Princes Street, Leicester Square.’ This seems quite categorical – no ‘said to have been’ here, so where are those books? And what do they say exactly? No vendor’s name is mentioned – and surely it would have been in any record of transactions made by a reputable dealer? Even then, a Stradivarius was a prized instrument and provenance would have been important. ‘Bought of an officer in HMS Victory’ sounds like 18th century Dealerspeak for ‘fell off the back of a lorry’. ‘Bought of Officer X’, surely, is what it should say. And is there an accompanying note revealing the instrument’s retrieval from Victory?

The violin disappears from the record between 1805, when it was purchased by Corsby, until it was purchased by Dwight Partello in 1895. Ninety years in the dark! Tony has noted a sale of Corsby’s violins in 1867 and I found an announcement in the Times of a similar sale of violins by Corsby in 1843.

The appellation ‘Lord Nelson’ becomes attached to the instrument only in the early 1920s, soon after the article in the ‘Violinist’ appeared.

I await the Morroco book (sale kindly arranged by Fiddler in the US – thereby saving me about £30) to see if there is anything more informative there. ‘How Many Strads?’ by Ernest M. Doring published in 1947 by William Lewis, Chicago, and described as a ‘landmark’ publication, is not helpful. It mentions the story of Corsby’s acquisition but with no precise reference to his records.

I don’t think this story stands up without Corsby’s books, and a named purchaser. I’ve had a quick look at the Guildhall Library website, but there seem to be no leads there. A quick Google of ‘Tradesmen’s Records’ and other search terms yielded nothing.

By the by, but as a matter of interest, I came a cross a court case in the Queen’s Bench, 25 March 1849 in which Corsby is involved in an action against a man who didn’t pay the second instalment on the purchase of a ‘Guernerius, which had been used by Paganini’. He clearly handled the good stuff.

The Marrocco book arrived this morning and I don’t know what to make of it. Professor Marracco, a distinguished academic musicologist, decided to write this book, describing the adventures of a Stradivarius, in the voice of the instrument itself. This would be a difficult undertaking even in the hands of a skilled novelist, so one cannot say that the venture, as literature, is a success. Nor does it provide any conclusive evidence. ‘Some of the experiences that I have collected, amplified and woven into the story, are true. Other stories are largely imaginary, but they could be true. They are all plausible.’ He does give various published sources for some of the facts he uses; other ‘true incidents’ have been passed on by a variety of named contacts.

The Lord Nelson Strad, according to Marrocco’s narrative, was sold for £300 by the violinist Viotto to ‘William Charles, scion of the Duke of Northumberland’ who was ‘aboard the frigate Euryalus’, with his violin, and was subsequently ‘transferred to ‘Victory’. During the battle, the owner’s left arm was severed by a cannon ball. He returned home, and on his death two years later, the violin was taken to his parents’ home, where his sister Cynthia claimed it and played it on and off until she too died. As no one else in the immediate family could play it, the Duke decided to sell it. The purchaser, according to Marrocco, was not Corsby, but Henry Lockey Hill, a well-known dealer in stringed instruments. And the price was 150 guineas.
Lockey Hill was also a maker of violins, and they were superior to Corsby’s, apparently.


Well now, the family name of the Dukes of Northumberland is Percy, descendants of Hotspur of Agincourt. So was there a William Charles Percy aboard the Euryalus? Marracco describes him as a ‘captain’ but that can’t be right, can it? Euryalus was Blackwood’s ship. Did he transfer to Victory? Was he wounded - perhaps not in Victory but another ship?

Perhaps the experts here can confirm (or dismiss) some of the facts, at least.

Anybody fancy making a call to the present Duke of Northumberland at Alnwick Castle to ask him to riffle through the family archives to see if there is a receipt for 150 guineas from Mr Lockey Hill?

I think I can dismiss some of this tale as invention.

- there was no one, officer, seaman or marine named Percy at Trafalgar.

- there were Percy’s in the Navy however.

1. Sir Algernon P. Second son of the Duke of Northumberland, in 1805 he was a 13 year old ‘volunteer’, serving on the Tribune frigate and then the Fame 74. He lived to become an Admiral and succeeded to the title of Duke in 1847.

2. Two brothers, the grandsons of the Duke, Josceline and William Henry. In 1805 both were Lieutenants, Josceline onboard the Diadem and William H onboard the Tribune and Fame (evidently looking after young Algy…).

All of them lived to a good age, and none lost a limb as far as I can find out.

There is a link to Victory and Nelson however …. Josceline Percy had served as a Midshipman onboard the Victory between 1803 and 1804.

Coming at it from the other angle, the Duke of Northumberland does not appear to have had a son called William Charles or a daughter called Cynthia. I haven't come across the names amongst other members of the family either.

Oh, woe! I rather feared as much. Thank you, both, for the information.

However, 'scion' need not necessarily mean 'son of'. It occurs to me that he could have been the son of the Duke's married daughter, with a name other than Percy.

I am grateful to Fiddler for this information about Viotti (not Viotto), and the information confirming that Hills did handle the sale of a Stradivarius that he had owned:
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/ ... 392674.ece

It's clear that Marrocco's narrative is not wholly true; but I am curious enough to pursue this a little further. It would be intriguing to know how the story came about, if it is a fiction; or to discover any links, however tenuous, with the truth.

I think I really will have to contact the archivist at Alnwick Castle to see if he can offer some elucidation or dismiss the whole thing as a fiction. The Duke of Devonshire's archivist at Chatsworth was extremely helpful and enthusiastic about the poems written by the Duke and Duchess that I was given permission to publish in my little anthology so maybe I will receive similar help from Alnwick.

Watch this space.

Greetings all

I'm new here, but have read this post with interest.

I worked in the musical Instrument trade for over thirty years, (and only handle one Strad' in that time). However, I did come across a middle European instrument that might be of interest.

It is accompanied by a letter:

This violin was given by my father's friend, the Reverend David Scott Ferguson, minister at Banchory, Aberdeenshire. It was an heirloom in that family, as it had been taken as booty from a French frigate by an English naval officer after the battle of Trafalgar, 1805 Signed Rebecca West Russell.

There is no date.

The age, and condition of the violin fits, although I was suspicious, due to the fact that no frigates were taken at Trafalgar (although the instrument may have been looting during the "mopping up"), and the fact that Trafalgar was mentioned at all. Okay, it was a major action, but it is also a famous one; had the letter stated that the fiddle had been looted from a brig off Toulon, that I would have believed!

The Royal Marines did some research into the instrument, and proved that the family existed. The instruments is currently in South East England, if anyone is interested in learning more I can put them in touch with the current owners.

Welcome to the forum, Alaric, and many thanks for that interesting post.

The provenance may seem a little uncertain, but it makes an intriguing tale. It is interesting that two violins are reputed to have survived Trafalgar.

I have not yet got round to contacting the archivist at Alnwick - family demands are great at the moment - but I will follow it up, just out of curiosity.