SMITH PETITIONS FOR A CURACY ON BEHALF OF A NAVAL CHAPLAIN WHO HE HAD SERVED WITH IN THE NEAR EAST SMITH (Sir William Sidney, 1764-1840, Admiral )

Fine Autograph Letter Signed to "Dear Sir", HRH the Duke of CUMBERLAND telling him that "The Chaplain late of the Tigre who was with me in the Levant (the Reverend David Lloyd) having applied to me to use my good offices towards his obtaining the living of Binfield near Windsor which has been asked of the Chancellor for him. I consider I cannot serve him better than by begging the favour of your Royal Highness to let the King know that Mr Lloyd is a man of exemplary conduct & morals, assiduous & correct in the exercise of his professional duties with a regular classical education; he took his degrees at Oxford and has had an opportunity which rarely can occur of comparing the evidences of the Christian religion contained in Holy Writ with those of tradition and local circumstances in the Holy land during the military operations in Syria & Egypt. I am persuaded more need not be said to induce his Majesty to think favourably of Mr Lloyd, I have thought it incumbent on me to say this much in his favour from my knowledge of his merits & fitness for the situation in every respect, he is unprovided for in his profession at present and I trust my anxious desire to see a fellow labourer better employed than he can be at present in a country curacy will plead my excuse for this intrusion on your Royal Highness ...", 4 sides 4to., Upper Seymour Street, London, 19th August small piece removed from a blank part of the second sheet

Sir Sidney had a remarkable career, his exploits including firing the French ammunition stores at Toulon, (1793), escaping from Paris in 1798 after two years as prisoner of war in the Temple, by means of forged documents, and the great defence of St. John of Acre against Napoleon in 1799.
The French ship Tigre (1793), a 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. She took part in the Battle of Groix where she was captured by the British, and recommissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Tigre.
HMS Levant was a 28-gun sixth-rate frigate of the Coventry class, which saw Royal Navy service against France in the Seven Years' War, and against France, Spain and the American colonies during the American Revolutionary War.
Ernst August, Duke of Cumberland (1771-1851) was the 5th son of George III and became King of Hanover on the death of his brother William IV.
Smith was interested in new and unusual methods of warfare. In 1804 and 1805, he worked with the American inventor Robert Fulton on his plans to develop torpedoes and mines to destroy the French invasion fleet gathering off the French and Belgian coasts. However, an attempt to use the new weapons combined with Congreve rockets in an attack on Boulogne was foiled by bad weather and the French gunboats that came out to threaten the attackers. Despite this setback, suggestions were made that the rockets, mines and torpedoes be used against the Combined French and Spanish Fleet in Cádiz. This was not necessary as the combined fleet sailed to defeat at the Battle of Trafalgar in October 1805.

Item Date:  1804

Stock No:  41576      £775

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