Biddle, Clement C.

[John C. Fremont] [Joseph Bonaparte] ALS from Clement C. Biddle to Thomas Aspinwall, Consul General of the United States, London--Letter of Recommendation for Gwinn Harris Heap, 1852

[John C. Fremont] [Joseph Bonaparte] ALS from Clement C. Biddle to Thomas Aspinwall, Consul General of the United States, London--Letter of Recommendation for Gwinn Harris Heap, 1852

7 3/4 x 9 7/8 inch lined bifolium sheet with autograph letter signed, front and back only--inside is blank. Verso only contains docket. Previous folds. Very Good Condition.

Short letter of introduction filled with important personalities of the mid 19th century. Ostensibly, this is a simple letter of introduction from Clement C. Biddle introducing Gwinn Harris Heap to the Consul General of the United States in London, Thomas Aspinwell.

Clement Biddle was a prominent Philadelphia lawyer and member of the sprawling and influential Pennsylvania Biddle family who met Colonel Thomas Aspinwell in 1838 in London. Aspinwell served as Consul General for the United States from 1816-1854. They met at a dinner in Regents Park at the home of Joseph Bonaparte, former King of Spain and Naples, and elder brother of Napoleon Bonaparte. Joseph Bonaparte moved to the United States in exile and went by Count de Survilliers, or M. Bouchard. "You may remember me...it was at the hospitable mansion of the Count of Survilliers in London...where we the dined together with the Count, during the summer of 1838."

Gwinn Harris Heap was a landscape artist, writer, diplomat and western explorer from Pennsylvania. His father was the U.S. Consul to Tunis and one of Clement Biddle's "oldest and most valued friends." A year after this letter was drafted Heap joined his cousin, Lieutenant Edward F Beale on an exploration and route-finding mission from Missouri to California which resulted in the 1854 book "Central Route to the Pacific, from the Valley of the Mississippi to California" which included 13 Heap illustrations and a much sought after map. A couple years after that, Gwinn Heap played a major role in acquiring and transporting camels to the United States at the behest of Secretary of War Jefferson Davis.

The true purpose of Heaps visit to England is spelled out specifically by Biddle: "Mr. Heap sails tomorrow...in company with Colonel Fremont, from California, and will have occasion, Mr. Heap informs me, at appear at your consular office in London, in relation to important contracts and transactions connected with the Mariposas Gold Mines, in the latter country."

Heap and Fremont likely met when Gwinn Heap served as topographer for Fremont's 1848 expedition, which surveyed the Great Basin region of the western United States and was known as the “Great Reconnaissance”.

In 1847 John C. Fremont acquired the Rancho Las Mariposas, a former Spanish Land Grant and discovered gold on the property a few years later. Fremont's claim to the land was affirmed by the United States Board of Land Commissioners in 1852 (same year as this letter) but lawsuits continued, and Fremont eventually sold the property.

A name-dropping filled letter of historic significance. Item #715

Price: $275.00