ADMIRAL SIR DAVID MILNE'S FREEDOM OF BERWICK-UPON-TWEED BESTOWAL CERTIFICATE

Name: ADMIRAL SIR DAVID MILNE'S FREEDOM OF BERWICK-UPON-TWEED BESTOWAL CERTIFICATE
SKU: WAR1022miln
Price: 750 GBP
Availability: InStock

Original 1816 vellum certificate with Mayor William Pattison's seal and sash entitled 'Borough of Berwick upon Tweed dated 28th October 1816 from the Mayor, Bailiffs and Burgers of Berwick-upon-Tweed in Guild this day assembled having taken our serious consideration the honour and great respect which are justly due from us to Sir David Milne Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath and Rear Admiral of the Blue Squadron of His Majesty's Fleet for the gallantry and zeal displayed by him as Second in Command in the late glorious Victory over the Dey of Algiers which was the happy means of putting a final period to Christian Slavery. Have thought fit to enfranchise and make him a free Burgers of this Corporation and we do accordingly order his name to be inserted on the roll of Burgherses. In testimony we have caused the seal of this Borough and Corporation in such cases and commonly called the Town's Seal to be hereunto affixed the day and year aforesaid', written in ink to reverse 'Freedom of the town of Berwick-on-Tweed'.

NOW£750.00

Description

Admiral Sir David Milne was born in Musselborough, East Lothian in 1763 and joined the Royal Navy as a 16 year-old sailor serving in the West Indies during the American War Independence. Appointed a Commander in the 1890s, Milne married the daughter of a Berwickshire baronet in 1804. As Commander of the Halifax Station, Milne was ordered to join the Algiers Expedition as Lord Exmouth's second-in-command.

The Battle of Algiers ended the slavery practices of Omar Agha, the Dey of Algiers and the Barbary states. For his conduct during the battle Milne was knighted and given the Freedom of the City of London and Berwick-upon-Tweed, becoming a political figure in Berwick in the latter years of his life, with his son Alexander Milne one of Nelson's 'Band of Brothers' and anti-slavery campaigner.