Autograph letter signed by Evan Nepean HMS Kite, French Revolutionary Wars 1798

“French ships have got out from Dunkirk” - an Admiralty letter on the redeployment of HMS Kite, French Revolutionary Wars, 1798.

NEPEAN, Evan (1751-1822), Secretary to the Board of the Admiralty. Autograph letter signed to Secretary of State for War, Henry Dundas concerning HMS Kite, French ships escaping Dunkirk and an Elbe convoy, Admiralty, 29 November 1798.

Single folded sheet, written on two pages in ink and signed by Evan Nepean, to the Right Hon. Henry Dundas. Light age toning and folds, with minor edge wear and a short split to the centre fold, otherwise very good.

Written from the Admiralty during the French Revolutionary Wars, Nepean explains to Henry Dundas why HMS Kite had not been sent to a foreign station as originally intended. Intelligence had reached the Admiralty that French vessels had escaped from Dunkirk, forcing Lord Spencer, First Lord of the Admiralty, to divert Kite to reinforce a convoy bound for the Elbe: "Lord Spencer intended to have sent the Kite to a foreign station about a month ago, but in consequence of some intelligence which reached us of some ships having got out from Dunkirk, he was put to the necessity of ordering her to reinforce the Convoy to the Elbe."

Nepean adds that Kite had since returned and was refitting at the Nore, and would be sent abroad when a vessel of her class was next required for foreign service. He concludes by informing Dundas that Spencer had also seen his separate requests concerning "Brown & Grant" and would attend to them when able.

Sir Evan Nepean was Secretary to the Board of Admiralty from 1795 to 1804 and occupied a central administrative role in Britain's naval war against Revolutionary France. Before joining the Admiralty he had been involved in government intelligence work, and his surviving papers include extensive wartime and secret-service correspondence. The recipient, Henry Dundas, was one of William Pitt the Younger's principal ministers and Secretary of State for War during this period. George John Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer, served as First Lord of the Admiralty from 1794 to 1801 and presided over the Navy during the victories of St Vincent, Camperdown and the Nile.

The letter gives a first-hand example of the Admiralty's response to intelligence concerning French naval movements: a vessel intended for overseas service was instead retained to protect British and allied commerce in northern European waters. The reference to "Brown" is almost certainly also about HMS Kite, whose commander, Captain William Brown, had been murdered at Sheerness shortly before the letter was written, having been shot by another male at a house he had been frequenting when on shore leave.