This Mulready cover was sent to a naval Captain who was knighted, fought in the Battle of Waterloo and the Battle of Navarin and had an illustrious military record. To think that I can own an envelope that he once held in his hands is a great honour.
Beautiful example of a one penny Mulready envelope, and a fairly early usage, just over three months after it was first issued. I googled the name and believe it was addressed to Captain James Ashley Maude, who. as you say was a war hero. I have a nice early cover like this, actually, a pre-stamp cover dated in 1830, and sent to a Captain Nairn, who lived in a part of South London where I once lived (which was the reason I bought the cover). I looked him up as well and discovered that his coat is on display at the Royal Naval Museum in Greenwch.
Apparently, Captain James A. Maude delivered the ratified Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812 between the U.S. and Britain, from Washington to London. Nice historical connection.
Nice work guys. The mystery Captain is indeed James Ashley Maude. He was highly commended in the battle at the Bay of Rosas where he was apparently injured. If I am not mistaken, he held his last post in 1826 and after that I don't know what he did. Whether he was on official business in Brighton at the time when he received the cover in 1840 or holidaying is not known. If I am correct, I believe that he served at some point under William Farquhar of the EIC, who was also the assistant of Raffles, the founder of Singapore.
On that part about delivering the treaty of ghent, that is just amazing. I will research more into that.
There are three people named James Maude in the 1841 census that were old enough to be your James Maude. Two were living in Yorkshire and the other in Lancashire. They were all stated to have been born in 1786 which made them 55 years old then. Rounding of someone's age to the nearest five years was standard practice in the 1841 census.
Bobby, Thanks for narrowing the search. it's good that there were only 3 Maudes at that time, making it almost certain that we are discussing the right Maude. I believe only 1 out of the 3 would be addressed as a Captain and a Sir on the envelope, unless of course the other 2 were also military captains who had been knighted.
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Posted 01/18/2019 08:53 am
