FRANKLIN WRITES ABOUT THE WAR IN GREECE AND KOLOKOTRONIS'S TRIAL FOR TREASON FRANKLIN (Sir John, 1786-1847, Arctic Explorer & Navigator, Lost in search of North West Passage)

Long Autograph Letter Signed to G. W. GROWE the English consul at Patras from 1815-17, telling him that he has "received very gratifying letters from my wife ... she was preparing to avail herself of the first convenient conveyance to Greece intending to come as soon as possible to Patras and be in readiness for the first Packet for England in which she hopes to be accompanied by your sister. My wife may therefore be at this time an inmate of your house or at any rate when this letter reaches you. It seems most probable she will have performed her Quarantine at Syra, vile as the accommodation of the Lazaretto is - and I sincerely pray her health & spirits may be preserved through it and the subsequent journey to England. My wife has heard of a packet being established between Marseilles and Nauplia and if it be true she thinks the going in it would be the shorter & quicker way to reach England which it may be and if I knew that fact and that the Lyons Sister did embark in it I would endeavour if possible to be at Marsellles in time to meet them. I say if possible for my movements must entirely depend upon my dear brothers living - he yet lingers and for the last week there has been but little change in him though he is reduced to be the shadow of a shade as he himself expresses his state to be - he remains most beautifully resigned - waiting the Lord's will in spirit & feeling he is a true Christian and his death bed will prove a most valuable example & comfort to his afflicted family that his life has been
through he was a man of an intellectual ... & poetic mind - it would be most trying & painful to my feelings to separate myself on any account from him while it pleases God to spare his life and the very idea, I fear, would be a death blow to him especially now that his dear wife has herself been obliged to seek rest in bed from the fatigues & anxieties of a month's care and watchfulness nearly night and day ... under present circumstances I could hardly promise to meet my wife & your sister at Marseilles nor, I am sure would the former desire me to do so. I should therefore be greatly relieved if I could now know for certainty that they had determined on coming home by the Packet. I would rather meet them at Falmouth or take care that some relative of my wife's did and I have already written to Falmouth to beg the kind attention of the Superintending Captain to their baggage on arrival if I should not be there. I have written fully to my wife in the letter committed to your kind care which I shall be obliged by your keeping for her if she be not with you or sending to her if she be in Greece, and I will write if possible another shorter one which I will thank you to send to the care of Mr. Wilkinson [British Consul] at Syra in case she should be still at that Island. I am sure I need not again solicit either the kind assistance and friendship of yourself, Mrs Crowe & family in her behalf, nor of Johnson, indeed I confidently rely on your kind attentions and that if she comes by Packet she will be as comfortably embarked as possible. I have now but little time or inclination to enter into the busy & changeable field of our Home Politicks, as far as I can gather the present Cabinet will be allowed to carry the half measures which they have proposed for the security of Ireland. Their continuance in office does not appear to be grounded on any very firm basis, and it is generally admitted they have lost a good head by the retirement of Lord Grey. The result of the trial of Colocotroni & Calliopoli is disgraceful to any mind conversant with British justice. Allowing the evidence to have been defective and the Judges to have been divided in opinion could any conscience reconcile the judgement of death upon them. The King has done wisely in commuting their punishment and I trust that one of the first acts of his assuming the Government will be the granting them pardon. As for de Wrede if he can be proved guilty & sent to the Galleys he will have richly deserved it. I am glad the other conspirators have been set free and especially Gavellas for whom I still entertain an opinion as a man ... to respect. The account of the differences in the Regency has been given in most of our papers - and it is not difficult as I fancy to conjure from what quarter the exciting cause of this quarrel has proceeded. My mind at least is made up on the point and though I can pretend to no skill that would enable me to penetrate the wily schemes of Diplomacy I yet fancy I thought before ... such scenes were likely to come to pass. I trust the Bavarian troops have been taught circumspection & the danger of treating an enemy too lightly by the transactions in Maina. I have yet to write to Capt Lyons and other friends - My books I hear arrived safe but cannot as yet be presented while the King remains at Argos ..." he ends with kind remembrances to his family, 3 sides 4to., with integral autograph address leaf signed and sealed, 21 Bedford Place, Russell Square, 31st July


Franklin and his crew left Greece in December 1833, and on his return to England was made a Knight Commander of the Guelphic order of Hanover. Franklin's wife was the accomplished traveller Lady Jane Franklin (1792-1875), whom he married in 1828. After the long absences necessitated by John's service in the Mediterranean, she accompanied him to Tasmania and became a popular philanthropist, activist and explorer. Our letter discusses Lady Franklin's quarantine in the lazaretto, or quarantine station, on the Aegean island of Syra (or Syros), one of the locations travellers between the Near East and Europe were forced to wait out a quarantine period as outbreaks of the plague were still prevalent.
The danger of treating an enemy too lightly by the transactions in Maina, (Mani), undoubtedly refers to the peninsula of Maina, which fought valiantly during the war of independence but violently insisted on retaining local control after the war. This struggle culminated in the assassination of the Greek head of state Ioannis Kapodistrias in 1831 after he ordered the imprisonment of the bey or chieftain, Petros Mavromichalis, of Maina.
Theodoros Kolokotronis (1770-1843) was a Greek general and the pre-eminent leader of the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire. After the war, Kolokotronis became a supporter of Count Ioannis Kapodistrias and a proponent of alliance with Russia. When the count was assassinated on 8th October 1831, Kolokotronis created his own administration in support of Prince Otto of Bavaria as a King of Greece. However, later he opposed the Bavarian-dominated regency during his rule. On 7th June 1834, he was charged with treason and sentenced to death though he was ultimately pardoned in 1835.
A lazaretto is a quarantine station for maritime travellers. Lazarets can be ships permanently at anchor, isolated islands, or mainland buildings. In some lazarets, postal items were also disinfected, usually by fumigation.


Item Date:  1834

Stock No:  39679     

                


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