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@nicolas1844dispatches

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@nicolas1844dispatches

Nicolas, Nicholas Harris, ed. The Dispatches and Letters of Vice Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson, with notes by Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas, G.C.M.G. Vol. 1, 1777 to 1794. London: Henry Colburn, Great Marlborough Street, 1844.

Summary

The first-edition opening volume of Nicolas’s letter edition. Letters by Vice Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson; notes by Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas, G.C.M.G. The year 1844 is read on the title page of the Henry Colburn London edition (Internet Archive bub_gb_Y6UQdg0qq5cC, title-page leaf). This card licenses that 1844 first edition only. It does not license the 1845 second edition (MDCCCXLV), whose advertisement and added letters are a later printing.

Credibility Assessment

  • Type: Primary — Nelson’s own letters and dispatches, printed from originals or stated copies, with short editorial notes
  • Author expertise: Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas, G.C.M.G. (1799–1848). Antiquary and former naval lieutenant. The letters are Nelson’s; the notes are Nicolas’s
  • Peer reviewed: No (1844 commercial edition)
  • Known biases or limitations: Nicolas prints letters entire where he can and warns that Clarke and M’Arthur, and Charnock, altered texts. Some letters in this volume are still taken from Clarke and M’Arthur and are flagged as such. Nicolas’s notes identify persons; they are not a second life of Nelson. No ISBN is stated on the title page that was read. Later volumes of the set fall after 1794 and are not on this card

Key Claims and Page References

  • Title page — THE DISPATCHES AND LETTERS OF VICE ADMIRAL LORD VISCOUNT NELSON, WITH NOTES BY SIR NICHOLAS HARRIS NICOLAS, G.C.M.G. THE FIRST VOLUME. 1777 TO 1794. LONDON: HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. MDCCCXLIV. Title-page evidence: https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_Y6UQdg0qq5cC/page/n14/mode/1up
  • Preface, dated Torrington Square, 21 October 1844 — first edition, not the 1845 advertisement
  • pp. 73–74 — letter to Hood, Albemarle, 9 March 1783: Saturday landing of 167 seamen and marines at Turks’ Island; three-gun battery; withdrawal
  • pp. 334–335 — letter to Hood, Agamemnon, 22 October 1793, and log extract: chase off Sardinia; nearly four hours; one killed, six wounded
  • pp. 336–337 — later naming of the chased frigate as Melpomène; 345 men stay on the Southey chase note
  • pp. 351–352 — letters of 8 February 1794: Maginaggio; National colours struck with his own hand; Tree of Liberty cut down
  • pp. 353–354 — letter to Hood off Cabrera: French courier-boat boarded at Capraja; six men wounded
  • pp. 27–28 — letter to Locker, Badger, 13 May 1779: five men pressed from Amity Hall; two kept
  • pp. 349–350 — Journal A, 21 January 1794, and letter to Mrs. Nelson, 30 January 1794: mill near St. Fiorenzo; sixty soldiers and sixty seamen
  • p. 350 — Journal A, 6 February 1794: Centuri, four polaccas loaded with wine for Fiorenzo

Verbatim Quotes

(verbatim quotes live here only — never paste verbatim text into atomic notes)

“THE DISPATCHES AND LETTERS OF VICE ADMIRAL LORD VISCOUNT NELSON, WITH NOTES BY SIR NICHOLAS HARRIS NICOLAS, G.C.M.G. THE FIRST VOLUME. 1777 TO 1794. LONDON: HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. MDCCCXLIV.” — title page, vol. 1 (1844)

“On Saturday morning, at daylight, one hundred and sixty-seven Seamen and Marines were landed from the Ships under the command of Captain Charles Dixon.” — to Hood, 9 March 1783, vol. 1, p. 74 (1844)

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