Blanckley, Henry Stanyford (1752-1820). Original Certificate on the Printed Form of the British Chancery Office in Algiers, Appointing Lewis Tonna as Blanckley’s Secretary. Algiers: 9 October 1806.

Oblong Folio (ca. 25x39 cm). Official printed form of the British Chancery Office in Algiers, with woodcut arms at head; finished in manuscript in secretarial hand and signed by Blanckley in the right lower corner. Brown ink on laid paper. With official red wax seal on the left margin. Overall a very good document.

“We, H. S. Blanckley Esquire, His Britannic Majesty’s agent and consul general in this City and Kingdom, certify that We do constitute and appoint Lewis Tonna Esqr. Our Secretary and do hereby Order that he is to be obeyed and acknowledged as such by all and every Person whom this may concern”.

Issued at the British Chancery Office at Algiers in 1806 and signed off by the then consul general Henry Stanyford Blanckley, this document appointed Lewis Tonna as his secretary. Blanckley, an army Mayor, had taken part in the siege of Gibraltar in 1782 before a nineteen year stint as consul in the Balearic Islands. He was the British Consul General in Algiers in 1806-1812 and went on to play a role in shaping British policy towards the Barbary Coast. Lewis Hippolytus Joseph Tonna (d. 1828) later became British vice-consul in Algiers and at Bona, vice-consul for Spain and consul for the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in Liverpool. He married Blanckley’s daughter Maria, and their son Lewis Tonna (1812-1857) was a polyglot, fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and evangelical protestant campaigner.