Two signatures, same person

I'm sure that there are many examples of differing signatures, indeed the Duke of Wellington sometimes signed 'Wellington' and other times simply signed 'W', but the most interesting one I have in my collection is this one, Sir William Gosset. As can be seen in the bottom example he signed his name very clearly and precisely in 1820 when he was MP for Truro, but by 1836 when he was Serjeant-at-Arms to the Speaker of the House of Commons he was dashing off a much simplified and harder to decipher signature, presumably he was busier by then!

Major General Sir William Gosset 1782-1848 - MP for Truro 1820 - 1826

Deciphered at last!

For a long time I had in my collection a free front with the same signature as the one pictured below and was unable to figure out what it was. Eventually I gave up and sold it, but now having seen this example on ebay it all becomes clear, what looked to me like 'Burnley' it turns out is actually 'Beverley' and the identity of the signatory is revealed!

George Percy, 5th Duke of Northumberland PC (22 June 1778 – 22 August 1867), and known as The Earl of Beverley between 1830 and 1865.

Civil Servants

There is a category of free fronts that is often overlooked, with most being associated with MPs, peers or bishops and that is civil servants, so I have presented here a few examples just to show that this category of free fronts is actually more common than might be supposed.

Robert William Hay (1786 - 1861) - From 1812 to 1824 Private Secretary to Viscount Melville and from 1825 to 1836 the first Permanent Secretary of the Colonial Office.

Sir William Knighton (1776 - 1836) - Private Secretary to the King (George IV) and keeper of the Privy Purse from 1822 to 1830 (saved the king from bankrupcy).

Sir John Barrow FRS, FRGS (1764 - 1848) - Second Secretary to the Admiralty for from 1804 to 1806 and from 1807 to 1845 (promoter of Arctic voyages of discovery).

By George!

It's difficult enough identifying signatures on free fronts, but when there are two army officers of the same name, who are MP's at the same time it's doubly so. Often wishful thinking seems to take precedence over accuracy, as in the case of this example where the original collector has got it wrong, annotating the front with the name of the more famous Sir George Anson, MP for Lichfield at the time, when in point of fact and after much research I can confirm that the signature is in fact that of Major-General George Anson, MP for South Staffordshire, who despite being less well known, at a young age fought at Waterloo with the 3rd (Scots) Guards and went on to become in 1856 Commander-in-Chief in India.

Major-General George Anson - MP for South Staffordshire 1837 -1853

Back to front

Sometimes a wrapper will be re-used as paper was an expensive commodity back then and when it is it can be very useful in helping to decipher the signature. The name and address of the recipient will be on one side and the signature will be on the other as with this example here:

Rear Admiral, later Admiral of the Fleet Sir William Parker then Second Naval Lord, later First Naval Lord.

Similar Signatures

There are a number of free fronts which are commonly mistaken for one another, none more so than the following two examples. When viewed in isolation it can be seen how they could be confused but when seen together as below there are a number of marked differences.

General Sir James Willoughby Gordon, Quarter-Master General to the Forces 1811 - 1851 - MP for Launceston 1829 - 1831

Vice-Admiral William Gordon - MP for Aberdeenshire 1820 -1854

On close inspection the 'J' which precedes the 'W' on  Sir James Willoughby Gordon's signature (top) makes a third vertical line preceding the 'Gordon' part of the signature whereas in the case of William Gordon (bottom) there are only two such vertical lines. Other giveaways include the heavy underlining of  Sir James Willoughby Gordon's signature as well as elsewhere on the envelope front (top). Another giveaway is if William Gordon's front is sent from Aberdeen, although this example is sent from London a great many examples that I've seen are addressed from Aberdeen. Usually the dates of course are another key clue in correctly identifying the signature, however in this case the two men were in office at the same time as one another for a very long time, from 1820 to 1851 in fact. Clearly though an example prior to 1820 is likely to be that of Sir James Willoughby Gordon and similarly one dated after 1851 couldn't be his.

Introduction & Aims

Welcome to my blog dedicated to the deciphering of signatures from free fronts, also known as free franks. Free front is the term given to the front of an envelope to which the privilege of free postage was given, which was cut out and collected mainly by Victorian ladies and pasted into albums. The reason they were so collectable was because in order to use the privilege those who were entitled to it had to address, date and most importantly sign the envelope, usually in the bottom left corner. The people who were entitled to  the privilege were either peers with a seat in the House of Lords, members of parliament, bishops or holders of high office in government, including the army and the navy.

In more recent times collectors have fallen into two groups, those like myself who collect the signatures as autographs and the stamp collectors who are more interested in the franks and the postal history. Although the privilege began as early as the 17th century, it is from the first four decades of the 19th century that most of the fronts come, the privilege ending with the introduction of the universal 1d post in January of 1840.

I personally was originally drawn to free fronts due to my interest in the Napoleonic Wars and with so many of the senior officers of both the army and the navy also being MP's, peers or officials, I realised it was possible to amass quite a large collection of fronts with the signatures of veterans of for example, Waterloo or Trafalgar. With so many people being entitled to the free franking privilege over so long a period of time it was necessary to specialise in order to have a manageable and affordable collection.

It's not just the signature though, much of my interest is in deciphering the signature and researching the biography of not just the sender but also the recipient, as this is often an interesting reflection on the relationships of the people. For example I have a front from the Duke of Wellington to Sir David Wilkie, the artist who painted the Dukes portrait.

My aim with this website is to carry a database of deciphered signatures, which I hope to continuously update, to point out some commonly seen errors and to hopefully generate some interest and debate from like minded people.

Martyn