Skip to main content
Bonhams
Search
Previous Lot
Next Lot
A group of three letters written by Captain John Hamilton Brown, an officer serving under Cornwallis during the Third Anglo-Mysore War South India, variously Madras, Camp Vinkillyguray, and Camp Banjalore, dated February 2nd, April 19th, and September 3rd respectively(3) image 1
A group of three letters written by Captain John Hamilton Brown, an officer serving under Cornwallis during the Third Anglo-Mysore War South India, variously Madras, Camp Vinkillyguray, and Camp Banjalore, dated February 2nd, April 19th, and September 3rd respectively(3) image 2
A group of three letters written by Captain John Hamilton Brown, an officer serving under Cornwallis during the Third Anglo-Mysore War South India, variously Madras, Camp Vinkillyguray, and Camp Banjalore, dated February 2nd, April 19th, and September 3rd respectively(3) image 3
A group of three letters written by Captain John Hamilton Brown, an officer serving under Cornwallis during the Third Anglo-Mysore War South India, variously Madras, Camp Vinkillyguray, and Camp Banjalore, dated February 2nd, April 19th, and September 3rd respectively(3) image 4
A group of three letters written by Captain John Hamilton Brown, an officer serving under Cornwallis during the Third Anglo-Mysore War South India, variously Madras, Camp Vinkillyguray, and Camp Banjalore, dated February 2nd, April 19th, and September 3rd respectively(3) image 5
A group of three letters written by Captain John Hamilton Brown, an officer serving under Cornwallis during the Third Anglo-Mysore War South India, variously Madras, Camp Vinkillyguray, and Camp Banjalore, dated February 2nd, April 19th, and September 3rd respectively(3) image 6
A group of three letters written by Captain John Hamilton Brown, an officer serving under Cornwallis during the Third Anglo-Mysore War South India, variously Madras, Camp Vinkillyguray, and Camp Banjalore, dated February 2nd, April 19th, and September 3rd respectively(3) image 7
A group of three letters written by Captain John Hamilton Brown, an officer serving under Cornwallis during the Third Anglo-Mysore War South India, variously Madras, Camp Vinkillyguray, and Camp Banjalore, dated February 2nd, April 19th, and September 3rd respectively(3) image 8
Lot 147*

A group of three letters written by Captain John Hamilton Brown, an officer serving under Cornwallis during the Third Anglo-Mysore War
South India, variously Madras, Camp Vinkillyguray, and Camp Banjalore, dated February 2nd, April 19th, and September 3rd respectively
(3)

Islamic and Indian Art
22 May 2025, 11:00 BST
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £2,560 inc. premium

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our Islamic and Indian Art specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Ask about this lot

A group of three letters written by Captain John Hamilton Brown, an officer serving under Cornwallis during the Third Anglo-Mysore War
South India, variously Madras, Camp Vinkillyguray, and Camp Banjalore, dated February 2nd, April 19th, and September 3rd respectively

pen and ink on watermarked paper, folded, including an envelope dated December 29th 1795, used to send the letters from Catherine H. Browne to her uncle Robert Graham, in Dundee
190 x 227 mm.(3)

Footnotes

Provenance
Private US collection.

Excerpts from the letters include:

Tippo with a view to amuse us while he made an attack on the Pettah in order to retake it, drew up his Army on a height near our lines and began a Cannonade for several hours without doing any mischief. His Lordship held him in great contempt, without returning a single shot, and in attempting the Pettah he was beat back, had a number of his people kill'd and several standards taken. When the Breach was near practicable he made another attempt on our Camp and at a great distance began to open a number of Guns on us, which kill'd some Europeans, and a great many followers...

His Army being composed of such a numerous Cavalry, that unless he inclines it you cannot bring him to action. We were continually harass'd by him, and had many a sleepless night, however, on the night of the 21st of March the place was carried by assault, and an end put to all our fatigues. The Kheelidar or Governor, and some say twelve, others fifteen hundred were put to death. Many must have suffered, we were doing duty two days in the place after it was taken, and besides what was buried, hundreds were laying dead in the streets, which occasioned such a smell that I never spent forty eight hours so disagreeably in my life...

Captain John Hamilton Brown (d. 1792) was an officer in the 52nd Regiment of Foot. The regiment was stationed in Madras and actively participated in various important engagements during the Third Anglo-Mysore War including the Siege of Dindigul (1791); the Siege of Bangalore (1791) and the Siege of Seringapatam (1792). The second excerpt above relates to the Siege of Bangalore (5 February - 21 March 1791).

Additional information