An important and unpublished archive of papers relating to the career of Francis Godolphin Bond RN (1765-1839), nephew to William Bligh, distinguished sailor and First Lieutenant to Bligh on the Second Breadfruit Voyage on HMS Providence.

An important and unpublished archive of papers relating to the career of Francis Godolphin Bond RN (1765-1839), nephew to William Bligh, distinguished sailor and First Lieutenant to Bligh on the Second Breadfruit Voyage on HMS Providence.

A major family archive, it includes the full consecutive series of his commissions as Lieutenant from 1782 through 1797, including his 1791 commission to HMS Providence; numerous family letters including one from his sister-in-law Mary welcoming him home on his return in 1793; probate for his 1839 will; legal documents relating to his inheritance (with Bligh) of the Thorne estate; various memorabilia including a photograph of Sophia, surely one of very few photographs that could exist of someone connected with Bligh; and a silhouette believed to be that of Bond himself (although it shows some differences with the silhouette reproduced by Mackaness).

Although Bond served with active distinction, finishing his career as a Rear-Admiral, it is because of his affiliation with Bligh (in particular a suite of extant letters relating to the voyage of HMS Providence) that he is mainly remembered. Bligh actively requested that Bond be assigned to him on the Second Breadfruit Voyage, and lobbied unsuccessfully for Bond's advancement on his return. His famously terse but admiring comment about Bond was the succinct "a very active and Zealous officer and is much liked by every person who knows him". Bond was not quite as complimentary about his captain, writing in 1792 that "our relation had the credit of being a tyrant in his last expedition… the chief part of his conduct must have arisen from the fury of an ungovernable temper". Bligh named a section of the Barrier Reef "Bond's Reef", and regularly mentions Bond in his logbooks.

This archive gives a wonderful picture of Bond from youth to old age, affording a surprisingly thorough portrait of this important figure's life and career. The contents were studied by George Mackaness, and the archive includes some correspondence between him and Sir Lionel Bond (1884-1961), a senior officer in the British army who was studying his family's genealogy. Mackaness wrote the standard work on Bond, making use of original letters: "Some Correspondence of Captain William Bligh, R.N., with John and Francis Godolphin Bond 1776-1811", (1949), and used Bond manuscripts for his "Fresh light on Bligh being some unpublished correspondence of Captain William Bligh, R.N. and Lieutenant Francis Godolphin Bond, R.N. with Lieutenant Bond's manuscript notes made on the voyage of H.M.S. 'Providence' 1791-1795", (1953).

A schedule of the very substantial contents of the archive is available on request.