[William A'Court or à Court, 1st Baron Heytesbury.] Autograph Letter Signed from Naples to Charles R. Broughton of the Foreign Office

3pp., 4to. Bifolium. Addressed on reverse of second leaf to 'Charles R. Broughton Esqre | Foreign Office | London', and docketed by recipient on the same page 'Naples 22 June 1815 | Wm. Court | 12 July | A'. à Court has written 'Duplicate' in the top left-hand corner of the first page (he would have sent several copies of the letter in case one miscarried, but the fact that this is the one that was received by Broughton is evidenced by the docketing). In fair condition, on aged paper, with usual broken wafer. He has received Broughton's letter of 27 May, and itemises the substantial sums that Broughton has received for: 'One Quarter's Salary to April 1814 as Envoy to the Barbary States', 'Equipage Money for Palermo Mission' and 'By allowance to defray expenses of Special Mission'. He points out that 'my Barbary Pay ought to have ceased on the 5th. January 1814, on which day it was fixed by Mr. Hamilton & Lord Liverpool, that my Salary was to be same as that of all other Envoys to Palermo namely £5200 pr. annum.' While his salary should have been 'issued in the regular course of payment from the Treasury at this rate', he lays out financial calculations proving a shortfall of £777 15s 0d, before requesting 'that you will immediately make the necessary application to Mr. Hamilton in order to obtain a warrant for this Money, & pay the same into the hands of Messrs. Coutts', adding that 'This Sum is positively my right, & cannot be asked by me as a favor'. He continues: 'I might very well be justified in asking for some allowance for my very expensive and circuitous Journey to Palermo, & my extra-expenses there, but at present I limit myself to what is positively my due'. He suggests that the letter be submitted to Hamilton, 'who certainly will not deny the justness of my Claim'. Postscript reads: 'I cannot speak to the correctness of the account you have sent me, until I receive my Papers &c. from Palermo - the deductions appear to me to be unusually heavy'. The Oxford DNB points describes how à Court was secretary of legation at Palermo and Naples, 1801-7, and chargé d'affaires there, 1801-2 and 1803. In 1807, after Napoleon had occupied Naples, but not Sicily, he was sent as secretary to the Earl of Pembroke's special mission to Vienna. After service in Malta, in April 1813 he 'received his credentials as envoy-extraordinary to the Barbary states (Algiers, Morocco, Tripoli, and Tunis), to which he travelled in the summer and autumn of 1813. The most pressing problem was that of piracy, although he was also instructed to obtain supplies for the British army in Spain. He returned to Naples as minister-plenipotentiary in 1814'.