Overall: 17cm (6.6in) x 21cm (8.2in)
Printed card with inked inscriptions and wax seal of the Dean and Chapter of St Paul’s. Ticket for the ‘Funeral of Lord Nelson / St Paul’s, Jan.1806’ to ‘Admit the bearer at the North Door’. Additionally annotated in the 19th century hand of chorister ‘J.M.’. Signed by the Right Reverend Sir George Pretyman Tomline, Bt, FRS, Bishop of Lincoln (1750-1827) in his capacity as Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral. Ticket: 7.5cm x 12cm,
Invitations to apply for tickets for the burial service Britain’s greatest naval hero were published in the London Gazette as soon as the Admiral’s body was landed at Greenwich on 23 December 1805. The Dean and Chapter of St Paul’s decided who would receive one. All were signed ‘Lincoln’ under by Pretyman’s authority. Interestingly, Pretyman was formerly tutor, friend and confidant of William Pitt the Younger who was himself only a fortnight from death (23 January 1806) - killed it is said by the shock news of Napoleon’s triumph at Austerlitz. When Pitt became Prime Minister in 1783 at the age of 24, he chose Pretyman as his special adviser. Moreover it was Pitt who appointed Pretyman Bishop of Lincoln, having overcome the opposition of George III who objected to Pretyman’s then youth.