Apr 08, 2014 - Sale 2344

Sale 2344 - Lot 192

Price Realized: $ 4,096
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(NAVY.) Fanning, Nathaniel. The hero of the Bonhomme Richard struggles to escape poverty. 7 Autograph Letters Signed from Nathaniel Fanning as United States Navy lieutenant to his wife Elizabeth in New York, plus a later related note; various sizes and conditions, some worn at folds, a seal tear causing loss of a few words in the first letter. Charleston, SC and elsewhere, 1804-05, 1841
Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

Nathaniel Fanning (1755-1805) of Stonington, CT was one of the naval heroes of the Continental Army. Serving under John Paul Jones, he led the Bonhomme Richard's boarding party which captured the HMS Serapis. Under Jones, he helped capture several British prize vessels. However, postwar life was cruel to Fanning. The new federal government was slow to pay the prize claims, and Fanning fell into debt (as evidence by a small clipped insolvency notice which accompanies this collection). These letters were written from Fanning to his wife Elizabeth Smith Fanning (1763-1840) just as his fortunes appeared to be improving. Fast approaching fifty years of age with an eight-year-old daughter to care for, he had finally been appointed as lieutenant in the United States Navy, and was to command a gunboat being built in Charleston, SC. He reported frequently to his wife on the progress of construction and his plans to move the family down to South Carolina. In one letter, he reflected that "we have, you know, experienced for some time past all the horrors attached to a state of abject poverty" (22 January 1805), while in another he added that "the clouds of adversity are disappearing farst & the sunshine of prosperity is beginning to send its mild influence upon the heads of our little family" (20 January 1805). This good fortune was soon ended by the yellow fever, which killed him in September of that year. He was still waiting for his John Paul Jones prize money.
That money did come, many decades later, after Elizabeth's death. Accompanying this correspondence is a much later letter from Nathaniel's brother, the well-known Pacific explorer Edmund Fanning (1769-1841), writing to Nathaniel's grandson Nathan Smith (1826-1911). He announces that he has sent a separate envelope which "contains the Paul Jones prize money," and adds as a postscript "Nathan, say to your parents that I could not prevail on government to allow the interest." A poignant and revealing look at the family life of a storied Continental Navy hero.