Services rendered - Waterloo again

Letter sent to the Chancellor of the Military Order of William located in the Hague on the 12th of May 1832. A circular Amsterdam postmark in red has been used to date stamp the piece 

Pandemic or War?

When you're keeping up with the news on TV or read the papers the last couple of weeks I’m often left wondering if we are about to enter a new dawn of humanity or if we will rather see the end of it. The new corona virus COVID-19 has paralyzed the globalized world of which we’ve grown so fond in the last decades. The virus makes us feel vulnerable and small again. At least, that’s what I deduce from all the live coverage of the onslaught and the prospects of a global economic crisis which will dwarf the 1930s Depression. Yet, at the same time this absolute shelling of fearsome facts feels a bit obsolete. Out of all threats, a virus which attacks the homo sapiens is probably our most predictable enemy in our digital age. Although invisible and absolutely terrifying in the weeks after its first appearance, research and plain facts are already perfectly able to model and compute the growth rate, fatality rate, contamination rate etc.  An enemy which behaves itself as your most humble servant. An enemy which nevertheless increases exponentially when we take not enough heed. A difficult situation for sure but one which we could easily overcome by following simple rules and staying focused. If you think this COVID-19 pandemic is awful (fatality rate = < 1%) you should not even contemplate comparing it with the devastation destruction and randomness of war. The letter which I will discuss today reminds us of one. 

Contents of the letter (page I)

Begging letter

I stumbled upon a rather elegantly written letter which dates from 1832. I was intrigued by the almost calligraphic writing a couple of months ago but found it difficult to fold it open because of its unusual folding. Of course, the last thing I wanted was to ruin the paper. A week ago though the letter caught my attention again and this time I just had to open it. Its contents were rather cheerless. 

~

[in zwarte inkt] ? den 13 mei 1832 N28144

[in potlood] aan dit verzoek zal op de voorgestelde wijze niet kunnen worden voldaan

Amsterdam den 6e Mei 1832

Zijn Exellentie !

In afwachting dat UED mijn verzoek niet van de hand zal wijze zoo neeme ik de vrijheid mij langs dezen weg tot UED te begeven om de volgende reden namelijk! Ik ben door een zware ziekte in de behoefte van geld geraakt Alzoo heeft iemand mij zoo gunstig geweest om mij te helpen met ƒ34 waarvoor ik hem dan mij acte van Ridders Pensioen in pand moest geven ervoor [?] 5 centen van de gelden maar toen ik nu met dit laatste kwartaal kwam om te tekenen heeft diezelfde persoon de onheusheid gehad mijne acte aan een ander te verpanden en kan dus geen geld ontvangen dit is dan ook de reden als dat mijn acte de vita niet behoorlijkertijd daar is. In de hoop als dat UED mij na zoo goedgunstig belieft te zijn om mij een klein bewijs over te zenden opdat ik dan zelf persoonlijk zulks aan den weledele Bicker kan vertoonen om mij zelven te betalen dan blijf ik UED ten hoogsten verpligt en zal met die persoon een overeenkomst zien te treffen op een zegeltje om hem dan alle vierendeels jaars een zeker gedeelte van mijn pensioen aftestaan om niet mijn schuld te geraken en dan zoodan mijne acte terug te krijgen. 

In afwachting dat UED mij hierin als het u belieft wel zal te gemackd kom [?]

Zoo blijf ik met alle onderdanigheid

UED DW Dienaar

P. Lasance

~

[in black ink] ? 13 May 1832 N28144

[in pencil] this request cannot be complied with in the proposed manner

His Excellency !

Pending my request which I hope Your Right Honourable won’t deny, I take the opportunity to address Your Right Honourable because of the following matter. Due to a severe illness I’m in the need of money. Somebody was so kind to help me with a sum of ƒ34 for which I had to put my Soldiers Pension as collateral. However, in this last quarter, when I returned to this person to sign, it came to light he unfairly put my pension as collateral for another person which makes it impossible to receive any money. This is the reason why my certificate of life cannot duly arrive on time. Pending my hope that Your Right Honourable will send me some evidence after you have proven to be so auspicious, so that I can personally prove Mr Bicker to pay me, I will remain indebted to Your Right Honourable. I will try to reach an agreement with this person to cede him a certain part of my pension every quarter in order not to be in debt and to return my act. 

Pending that your honorable if you please will accommodate in this matter

I remain forever in your service, 

Your Right Honourable devoted servant

P. Lasance

~

Source of philatelic material

I've warned you: the contents picture a rather sobering message. Especially the apparent denial of the request (in pencil) made me feel sorry. Before we return to P. Lasance, I've to speak about prephilately first. How could historical documents end up in private collections? 

The academic approach to philately can only exist by plenty of material available for research. When looking for items which were sent pre-1900, you’ll come to realize that the material often originates from old archives (ranging from personal family documents to big firm archives). Sometimes these archives have been plundered for the sake of the philatelists – with hindsight a rather disgusting ‘side-effect' of the increasing popularity of the hobby –, but in most cases the material was acquired by dealers or auctions houses because the firm filed for bankruptcy or an archive would have to get rid of it anyway. In the latter case the archive deemed certain papers of insufficient interest to preserve for future generations. When interest in philately developed probably 100.000s of folded letters (or address sheets only) were saved and ended up in private hands. 

I think that this particular letter originates from a cleared archive. Somebody went through the files of the Kanselarij der Militaire Willemsorde (Military Order of William) because I could find dozens of other similar items online for sale: all addressed to general Janssens who functioned as chancellor of the order between its establishment in 1815 and his death in 1838. 

Contents of the letter (page II)

The life of P. Las(s)ance 

The poor bloke who wrote this letter had fallen gravely ill and is begging for a document which was denied by the chancellor of this Military Order of William. I took me some moments to realize that the man really hoped, begged almost, that his request which he had so carefully wrote, folded and sealed the letter would be honoured. It might have been his last resort. 

I already imagined how an old man, probably crippled at the time of writing, would spend his last days on this earth hoping for a miracle to happen since some rude person had taken advantage of his soldiers pension. Soldiers pension? Slowly some pieces of the jigsaw came together. P. Lasance was apparently entitled to be paid a soldiers pension and he asked the chancellor of some prestigious Dutch order for a certificate of life. He most certainly must have been a knight then. 

So I started my search. The Military Order of William was established by king Willem I in 1815 after the battles of Quatre-Bras and Waterloo. The sole recipients of the decoration (4 ranks) fought in these battles. When P. Lasance begged for proof of his identity the year was 1832. Until that time the order had only been rewarded to generals, corporals, soldiers and so forth who fought in the Waterloo campaign and in a now almost completely forgotten colonial war on Java (Java war 1825-1830). This letter was therefore likely to have been written by a Waterloo veteran! What a find! 

Register entry of P. Lassance

Next stop was the website of the Dutch Ministry of Defence. I knew that they maintained a databank in which you could browse through all decorated soldiers of the Netherlands. I typed Lasance – no results. I typed La sance – no results. I typed La Saints – no results. You can imagine that I started to panic now – what if this bloke just tried to fool the chancellor? – based on the denied request this possibility looked more likely by the second. 

I tried several more combinations of letters – Lassance did it. What a relief. But what a sobering message – again. 

P. Lassance Military Order of William 4th Class Awarded on the 17th of August 1815 on grounds of services rendered in the Battle of Waterloo the 18th of June 1815 in his function as fusilier of the Infantry Battalion of the 13th line.

Birth: 1797
Death: April 10 1833

Less than a year after P. Lassance had his request denied he died. Even in 1833 it was quite uncommon that men died in their 30s after having survived childhood and in Lassance’s case even a terrible battle. I haven’t found details whether he died of the disease he wrote about in his letter or something else. No single file in the Amsterdam archives seems to refer to this particular P. Lassance (or Lasance), but I would like to be proven wrong someday. 

Back of the cover with an incomplete strike of the  circular 's-Gravenhage arrival mark. 

Waterloo

Apart from his last troublesome months and his year of birth we know nothing about P. Lassance other than his apparently remarkable services in the Battle of Waterloo. 30.000 Dutchmen fought there but only 1004 knighthoods were awarded. Alas the register doesn’t mention which remarkable feat led him to be decorated. His fought as a foot soldier in the 13th line (637 men) of the 2nd Brigade of the Netherlands 3rd division under command of general baron Chassé. His interventions at Waterloo came at a pivotal moment when Napoleon sent his imperial guard to attack British troops stationed in front of Chassé. Because Chassé acted quickly with a strong counterattack in response (1st brigade under command of colonel Detmers) Napoleons actions were rendered futile at this particular point in the battle. The coalition held their line. Unfortunately I haven’t found any details on the activities of the 2nd Brigade in which Lassance fought. The 13th line most likely supported the 1st Brigade which stood in the line of fire.

General D.H. Chassé portrayed by Jan Willem Pieneman in
1832 wearing his decorations of the Military Order of William

Click here to read more about the Battle of Waterloo.   

Parcel label to Montenegro retrouvé

Dutch parcel card attached to a can of butter sent to the Grand Hotel in Cetinje in May 1913.The parcel card is franked with 1x 1g and 1x 25c Wilhelmina Fur collar stamps. This was the correct rate for 1 parcel weighing up to 5 kg. For a single parcel/package weighing 2-5 kg to Montenegro you would have to pay ƒ1.25g between 1904 and 1914.  

In a previous post I described a Dutch parcel label which was sent to Montenegro in late 1913. Since Dutch parcel labels to odd destinations during this period remain scarce, I surely didn't expect that the piece above would turn up. I couldn't believe my eyes at first! Obviously, I had to buy the item to add to my growing collection of Dutch parcel labels sorted on destination.

It's highly likely more parcel labels to Montengro survived, since I guess the archives of the Montenegrin Post were sold/stolen at some moment in time. Parcel labels were (meant to be) stored by postal service after they had delivered the actual package(s).

The other parcel label in my collection is a bit more spectacular, as three packages were involved instead of one. Nevertheless, the one above is in a better shape as it is still complete (the coupon strip wasn't cut from the piece) and it looks 'cleaner' than the one below. Please compare the two items yourself.

Dutch parcel card attached to three packages sent to Cetinje in November 1913, then the capital of Montenegro. The parcel card is franked with 3 x 1g, 50c and 25c Wilhelmina Fur collar. This was the correct rate for 3 parcels weighing up to 5 kg. For a single parcel/package weighing  2-5 kg to Montenegro you would have to pay ƒ1.25g between 1904 and 1914. So 3x 1.25 makes the correctly applied postage of 3.75g.          

Vouko Vouletich alias Vuko Vuletic

Photograph of Vuko Vuletic

The parcel is addressed to Vouko Vouletitch. I did some initial Google searches on his name, but unfortunately found nothing. I changed his name to Vouko Vouletic but still my search was in vain. Apparently this man had been lost in the maze of history: probably his name ha donly survived in some old and dusty Montenegrin census record. 

O boy, I was wrong. 

Although my attempts to trace him were useless, one Greek paper mentioned him. The article concerns the diplomatic relations between Greece and Montenegro before its disputed annexation by Serbia in 1918. Vouletitch was mentioned in this paper as a Montenegrin businessman of considerable status, since he could claim 1000K from his government. Not your ordinary salesman type, but rather a wealthy entrepreneur.     

I contacted the Montenegrin library to ask for help. Who was this mysterious man? Within a day they replied by sending my a link to a report (in Serbian nonetheless), but they spelled his name as Vuko Vuletic. This spelling changed my search totally.

When googling on Vuko Vuletic you'll find that this man was in charge of the restaurant in the Lokanda Hotel. This was the first hotel to be established in Cetinje and therefore the sender probably referred to it as the 'Grand Hotel'. Mr Vuletic was head of the kitchen there since 1892. The hotel itself could accommodate 100 guests and services were provided in 6 languages (including English!). A severe earthquake ruined the historical building in 1979 upon which it was demolished. The hotel featured on a recent Montenegrin stamp (see below).

''150 years hotel Lokanda in Cetinje" - Montenegrin stamp issued in 2014

To be continued...

Frisian Knighthood

Cover sent from Leeuwarden and addressed to a member of the Frisian Knighthood in The Hague bearing the first Dutch date cancel type (type I) reading LEEUWARDEN 14 MEI.

This printed cover sheet could have contained quite some heavy papers since the rate was 30 cents. Alas, the contents have been removed from their cover at some point in history, and therefore we cannot really deduce what the Frisian Knighthood shared with the addressee. Robert van Breugel esq. received the letter in the latter half of the 1820s or early 1830s, as the first recorded use of this Leeuwarden postmark dates from 1829. Moreover, because Robert van Breugel is still being addressed as Jonkhr. (Jonkheer) here, the letter cannot be younger than the 1st of June 1833 when his title was upgraded to 'baron'.

Robert van Breugel Douglas in his function as corporal
of the Frisian Volunteer Force of 1815

Robert van Breugel Douglas as member of the Dutch Council of State, engraving made by J.H. Hoffmeister (1823-1904)

Robert van Breugel Douglas (1791-1873) as his full name goes was a member of the Dutch Council of State between 1842 and 1862. This body advises the Dutch government and States General on numerous topics and consists out of members of the Dutch royal family and crown-appointed members. So Baron van Breugel Douglas was a very eminent figure indeed. His mother was a member of the Scottish gentry and his father was granted the title of 'baron' in 1826. In 1821 he married jonkvrouwe Louisa Albertina Glinstra van Sminia (1799-1837). I think we should place this letter in her context as she is the only Frisian connection to Robert van Breugel.

Van Breugel studied Roman and Contemporary Law in Leiden and became lawyer in The Hague in the early 1810s. In this politically unstable times he probably met dame Glinstra van Sminia and subsequently he joined the Frisian Knighthood in 1811 (he even became the Chairman of the organisation at some point). Since Van Breugel was very interested in Dutch gentry, especially due to his own ancestry, he advocated in 1867 that the Dutch nobility wasn't abolished in 1795, but that it had rather ceased to exist. Only in 1956 professor W.F. Prins proved him wrong... Moreover, Van Breugel addressed the issue that British nobility couldn't be incorporated in the Dutch nobility under Dutch law of 1867. A major flaw in reasoning, he argued, because foreign nobility could be incorporated in British nobility. 

Wax seal of the Frisian Knighthood on the back of the cover

Netherlands 1939: Dutch express letter by train

Apart from my interest in retrieving information about senders and addressees, contents and messages, I occasionally include covers / postcards in my collection because the postal rate or postal markings intrigue me. The cover below is such an example:

This letter was sent to the 'Dutch agricultural head office' by making use of the Dutch express service. Voermans & Backx had to pay 10c extra to make this a valid express letter. The label 'Spoedbestelling / Exprès / Spoedbestelling' was hence applied which made the PTT aware that this was a special delivery. In these days - and today still - the service was provided for by a separate agency of the postal service, which meant that 'ordinary' postmen weren't allowed to process the item.  

If you carefully read the address of the sender (Voermans & Backx) you might notice that this company which traded in agricultural products was situated alongside the 'Stationsstraat', Dutch for Station Road in Roosendaal. The combination of this address and the unorthodox cancel made me flip the cover: 

A third stamp is glued to the back flap of the cover! And it is no ordinary one:  

It turns out to be a so-called 'Railway stamp', a type of stamp which was used by various countries in the world to pay the cost of the conveyance of a postal item by train. A steam locomotive adorns the stamp and the text reads: Nederlandse Spoorwegen: the Dutch Railways (NS). 

The marvelous book about Dutch express delivery by Arie Zonjee and Ot Louw (2013) devotes a chapter to the Dutch Rail Express Service:

From 1924 onwards the Dutch Railways (NS) made it possible to send express items by train. In order to do so, the sender had to pay the standard PTT Express fee of 10c + and an extra Train Express fee of 10c. The Dutch Railways produced their own stamps in order to comply with this service. The guard on the train took care for the items during the ride. The (Railway) stamps were to be cancelled with a NS cancel of the local luggage center from which the items were being sent. 

The example above was cancelled at Roosendaal Station on the 4th of May 1939 and arrived in The Hague the same day between 1 and 2 p.m. 

Why did the sender chose to sent this particular cover by train instead of the ordinary service? Maybe this was the fastest way to get the letter from a to b. I doubt this, as the ordinary express service would be almost as fast. Maybe the station was easier to reach than the main post office of Roosendaal. Quite possible, but - then again - most railway stations had a PTT office as well... Oh well, it makes a fine example of a Dutch train cover after all!