This letter is addressed to His Excellency
Lieutenant General Campbell, Governor of Gibraltar, from John Julius Angerstein
acting as secretary for a committee for orphan relief and sent through the
regular post from London with a red FOREIGN despatch mark but no other
markings. The letter is in very poor condition: I make the guess that it may
have been passed on at the time to one of the persons referred to in the letter
and carried around rather than filed along with the despatches which the letter
says are enclosed.
Of those who appear in the letter Mr
Keeling was the Gibraltar merchant Robert Keeling of Scottish descent best
known for issuing copper coins for local use; in his Will he mentions a
friendship with George Allardyce. Mr Allerdyce (alternative spelling) appears
in 1804 as a member of the Committee for the Preservation of Public Health
in Gibraltar set up during the Yellow Fever epidemic. Both are plausible
candidates for taking an interest in the fate of orphans, the subject of the
letter. Most of those orphans were created by the major epidemic of 1804 which
killed about a third of Gibraltar’s inhabitants, military and civilian, and by smaller outbreaks in 1810 and 1813:
The writer of this letter, John Julius
Angerstein (1735-1823), is a significant and controversial figure: his assembly
of paintings was bought for the nation at his death and formed the basis of the
present National Gallery’s collection. In the recent past much research has
been conducted, both by the National Gallery and Lloyd's of London where
Angerstein was prominent, to ascertain to what degree Angerstein’s wealth (and
that of his second wife) derived from direct or indirect involvement with the
slave trade. I provide references in my Endnotes.
Though a practising Anglican he is at pains
in this letter to emphasise that his committee wishes to provide for the relief
of all Gibraltar orphans and not just Protestant ones. He would have been
perfectly aware that Gibraltar was multi-ethnic and multi-faith in the typical
way of ports and trading posts; this one had Spain (Catholic) and Morocco (Islamic
and Sephardic Jewish) as immediate neighbours and trading partners. His own parentage (supposedly illustrious)
and upbringing remains uncertain though it is undisputed that he was born in St
Petersburg, came to England when he was fifteen, and was naturalised as a
British subject at the age of thirty-five.
He is writing this letter aged seventy-seven which may explain a couple
of slips.
*
Transcription
Addressed to: His Excellency Lieutt General Campbell &c &c &c
Gibraltar
Datelined: London 26th October
1812
Dear Sir
I had the Honor to receive your Excellencys
Letter of [blank
space not filled in] with its enclosure.
A committee of subscribers met lately; your
Letter and Mr Keeling’s of the 5th of March last were read as
were the Papers of which I enclose Copies. It appeared to the Committee that
the names of only two of the twelve children in the list furnished by Mr
Keeling are to be found in the list of Orphans in the Asylum on the 26th of
May 1805, Viz. Peter Yeoman and James Yeoman, Mr Keeling’s being a list of
Protestant Orphans only. It also appeared from the list of Subscribers at
Gibraltar (No. 2) and the list of Subscribers in London that the contribution [? should be Contributors] to the
support of the Orphans were of different religious persuasions from which
circumstance the Committee concluded that the Subscriptions were intended for
the support of the Orphans in general without any distinction with respect to
religion.
The Committee was therefore of opinion,
that that it would not be right to confine the Benefit of the Subscription to
the Orphan children of Protestant Parents only but in order to afford relief to
those Orphans Resolved that the Sum of Five Hundred Pounds be issued for their
support and that Your Excellency be requested to desire Mr Allerdyce or if not
still in Gibraltar some other Person to furnish me with the best Account he can
of the nineteen Orphans not included in Mr Keeling’s List; to inform me whether
they are in Want of support and in what manner such support can be afforded to
them. I have to request that Your Excellency will be pleased to draw yourself,
or to direct Mr Keeling to draw upon me for five hundred Pounds at sixty days
Sight, advising me by Letter of such Draft. The Committee have Met with Objects
which they have relieved here.
I have the Honor to be Your Excellencys Very faithfull Hum [ble] Servt J J Angerstein
References
Wikipedia:
John Julius Angerstein (1735 – 22 January 1823) was a London
businessman and Lloyd's underwriter, a patron of the fine arts and a collector.
Twist,
Anthony F Widening circles in
finance, philanthropy and the arts. A study of the life of John Julius
Angerstein 1735-1823. Doctoral thesis, University of Amsterdam 2002
A
summary of research into Angerstein and slavery can be found on the UCL Legacies
of British Slavery website at ucl.ac.uk
The
table of deaths is taken from J.D.Gilpin’s
Account of an Epidemic Fever which Occurred at Gibraltar in the Years
1804, 1810, and 1813. (1814).
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