A letter from Lord Edward FitzGerald to his sister Lucy dated December 31, 1796, reporting that a fleet from the First French Republic had left the coast comes up at Bonhams sale of Fine Books and Manuscripts in London on March 27. The fleet had left Brest that November with 15,000 soldiers, aiming to land at Bantry Bay and assist the planned rising of the United Irishmen under the command of FitzGerald.Atrocious weather prevented a French landing and the fleet limped back to port in January. The letter is guarded as the family avoided overt political commentary for their own protection. It is estimated at 700-900. A first edition of Edward Morgan’s journal of the movement of the French Fleet in Bantry Bay, inscribed to Lord Bantry, is estimated at 2,300-3,500.
