© National Maritime Museum Cornwall
Naval presentation sword and scabbard
Artist: Rundell, Bridge & Rundell (circa 1724 - 1843)
Location: National Maritime Museum Cornwall
Date: 1814
Materials: steel & ormolu
Dimensions: blade: 75.3cm
Grant:
Amount Paid: £4,134 (Total: £9,828)
Vendor: Bonhams
Review number: 5717 (2006)
Provenance:
Private collection; Bonham's.
Description:
This sword was presented in 1814 by passengers on board the packet ship the 'Duke of Marlborough' to Mr William Macdonnell, the ship's Master. Its inscription records that it was awarded for gallant conduct under his Captain, John Bull, in action against the British Royal Navy frigate the 'Primrose' in a wartime friendly fire incident in the Bay of Biscay in March 1814. As with other swords of the Napoleonic War period it is decorated with appropriately nationalistic and heroic symbolism such as a British lion-head pommel and engravings of Neptune and the Labours of Hercules.
There is one comment on this artwork
Together with my fellow family history researchers I have been searching for this sword for almost 25 years, and am delighted to discover it safe and secure in your collection. It was presented to my gggrandfather William MacDonnell (MacDonald) precisely as recounted in the details on your website. You may be interested to know he was also presented with 10 pieces of silver plate by 'the Merchants of Lisbon' for services rendered in saving the 'Duke of Marlborough' We have in several arms of the family throughout Australia written records of the sword inscription as recorded above, and we have a rather poor photograph. Details of his award of the sword by passengers are also recorded in other official records in Australia. Captain William McD arrived in Tasmania (Van Diemens Land) in 1833 on his ship Britomart - here he used the MacDonald name in Australia. The sword remained in a direct descendant line until the last direct line owner of the sword, Agnes Eliza (nee Wilson), William's great-grandaughter died in 1951. It then remained with her widower. As they had no children and her widower was thereafter increasingly remote from the Wilsons, contact was lost, and memory and knowledge of the sword all but disappeared, except for the handwritten copies of the inscription as mentioned. Progressively over 25 years researchers have uncovered all of the details of the swords origins and history, and of the successive owners. Quite recently we have made contact with distant descendants of the widowers siblings, and we were planning to explore the location along those lines. With my discovery today of the sword in your collection our serach is now at an end. Most particularly my colleagues and I are absolutely delighted that is not only still exists but is now conserved in a secure and most appropriate location at the NMM in Falmouth where our forebear William lived and worked, on the Marlborough packet. We also know that William was Captain on at least two other ships - the Good Intent, and the Britomart (a former RN Brig). We have a great deal of information on William, his ships and his family. Some of us are now planning visits to the Falmouth Museum - I shall be there early November next. Lawrence A Wilson
2007-06-09 13:14:00
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