Item #304979 Treasury document signed remitting £250 to Messrs. George and Edward Noble. Alexander John Ball, Sir.

Treasury document signed remitting £250 to Messrs. George and Edward Noble.

Malta: January 7, 1804.

Price: $200.00


About the item

4-1/8 x 9-1/2 in. Very good, ms annotations in ink on verso.

Item #304979

Ball had been more or less constantly involved in Maltese affairs since 1798. At the time of this document he was "the island's civil commissioner and de facto governor from 1803 until his death.... Ball's period of rule witnessed the establishment of a civil service and banking and insurance systems, together with significant improvements to the island's infrastructure. One of his final initiatives was the appointment of the first Maltese bishop, Ferdinando Mattei, a move which confirmed British control while ensuring good relations with the Vatican and the Sicilian monarchy. Ball was not only a fine seaman and an efficient captain but (what was rarer in his profession) a man of wide culture, humanity, and judgement: qualities he fully displayed in his demanding position in Malta and for which he was praised by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, his one-time secretary on the island" (ODNB).