NELSON, Horatio, Viscount (1758-1805). Vice-admiral.
Autograph address-panel to Edward Waller at the Circus, Exeter, dated from Plymouth Dock, 19 January 1801, with the rare signature 'Nelson'. A square piece cut out from the lower right hand corner for no evident reason as it would probably have been blank.

The original letter to which this cover belongs does not appear to be known. Letters dated 17 January 1801 [to Lord Spencer] and 20 January 1801 [to Lord St Vincent], both from Plymouth Dock, are published by Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas in the Dispatches and Letters, 1845, vol. iv, pages 274-75, but nothing between. There are no letters to Waller known to Nicolas. Colin White (The New Letters, 2005), has nothing to Edward Waller.

Nelson's signature changed with his various honours. Beginning simply as 'Horatio Nelson', written after July 1797 with the left hand, it became 'Nelson' after 1 August 1798 when he became Baron Nelson; it then changed to 'Bronte Nelson' after the king of Naples made him Duke of Bronte on 13 August 1799, altering to 'Bronte Nelson of the Nile' when Nelson discovered that his full English title included the extra words. It was in late 1800 that Nelson learned that he it was not a good idea to put his foreign title before his English one, and he decided upon 'Nelson & Bronte' [invariably with the ampersand], which is the familiar signature of his later years.
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