Description:

George III of England King 1738 - 1820 George III twice signed Minorca and Gibraltar British Army ledgerwith huge signatures!

Watermarked cream paper partly lined with ledger columns and inscribed in black ink. Each side features enormous and elegant signature of George III (1738-1820) found at top, as well as signatures of three Lords of the Treasury: Charles Townshend, 1 st Baron Bayning (1728-1810), Francis Ingram-Seymour-Conway, Viscount of Beauchamp (1743-1822), and Charles Wolfran Cornwall (1735-1789) appearing at bottom. In very fine condition, with expected wear including a few minor professionally repaired tears along margins, measuring 11.25" x 16".

One side of the document provides an itemized list of salaries, or "Regulation[s] of Subsistence", to be paid to military personnel on the islands of Minorca and Gibraltar according to their rank "By His Majesty's Command". Colonels and captains were paid the highest at 18 shillings per day, while a private was paid 6 pence per day. Majors, lieutenants, ensigns, sergeants, chaplains, quartermasters, surgeons, drummers, fifers, and many more also made the list. The other side of the document provides an abstract of the total cost to the British crown to man the islands per day and per year. Each island cost about £135 to garrison per day, or about £48,000 per year, thus putting the enormous expenditure of overseeing British imperial fortifications into perspective.

Our document is not dated, but it probably dates from 1774, when our three signees served as Lord Treasurers under the North Ministry. This was towards the beginning of George III's sixty-year reign. Five years after our document was signed, while the British were distracted by the rebellion in North America, combined Spanish and French forces besieged the two islands. After several years of heavy fighting, Britain lost Minorca but clung to Gibraltar. These two Mediterranean islands would continue to serve as geopolitical flashpoints for centuries.

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June 14, 2017 10:30 AM EDT
Wilton, CT, US

University Archives

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