Captain Sir Rupert George (1749-1823) British Naval Officer during the American Revolution, Commodore of the Royal Navy's North America Station (1792-1794) and Chairman of the British Transport Service from 1792-1817.
Two autograph letters signed, folio, 4 and 3 pages, 28th February and 14th May 1811, Transport Office (Westminster, London) to Samuel Whitbread MP for Bedford.

The letters concern matters such as 'discussing the cases of various prisoners of war during the Napoleonic period' including a French officer from the Army of St. Domingo, deploring the French treatment of English prisoners of war in France, suggesting that it is the generosity of the English in allowing French prisoners to return home which keeps English prisoners in France 'remaining in hopeless captivity'.

Sir Rupert, son of Dennis George, was born on 16th January 1749 in Dublin, Ireland. He married Margaret Cohen on 30th June 1782 and had a daughter, Charlotte, in 1792 in England and a son, Rupert Dennis, in 1796 in Dublin. He had another daughter, Louisa Sarah Ware, from a different relationship, who was born in 1762 in Nova Scotia and died on the 22nd March 1835 in Cheltenham.

Sir Rupert captained the HMS Vulture Sloop of War during the American war, later the Amphritie frigate (1781) and subsequently the Charlestown on the coast of America. Later commands included the Thebe and the Hussar. HMS Vulture was a 16-gun warship with a crew of 125 men. She served during both the American Revolutionary War and the French Revolutionary War. HMS Vulture is perhaps best known for being the warship to which Benedict Arnold fled on the Hudson River in 1780 after unsuccessfully trying to betray the Continental Army's fortress at West Point, New York, to the British. He turned the Fort over to the British in exchange for money, maintained communications with British spies, and eventually defected to the British. HMS Amphrititie was a 24-gun ship of war with a complement of 160 crew. During the American Revolution in the economic war, she made many captures, both French and American privateers. On the 30th of January 1794, Amphritite was wrecked after striking an uncharted submerged shoal whilst entering Leghorn Harbour.

In 1795, Sir Rupert was nominated a commissioner of the Transport Board and later became its Chairman. The 'Transport Board' was the British Royal Navy organisation for transporting supplies and military. It originated in the need to transport the British Army to Ireland in 1689 to meet the Jacobite invasion of Ireland. During the war of American Independence and other military situations, the Board was responsible for the hiring and appropriating of ships and vessels for the conveyance of troops and baggage, victualling, ordnance, naval and military stores of all kinds, convicts and stores to Australia and other miscellaneous service such as the provision of stores to the British Empire Colonies. 1817, the Transport Board was abolished, and the Board of Admiralty took over its functions. In 1809, Sir George Rupert was created a baronet for services in the Royal Navy and for being the First Commissioner for Conducting the Transport Service. The George Baronetcy was of Park Place in the County of Middlesex and St. Stephen's Green in the County of Dublin. The title became extinct on the death of the second baronet, who was Sir George's son.

Sold together with a selection of photocopied research papers.

Condition Report

One letter has ripped at the fold and is now in two pieces, with some staining and discolouration.

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