Letters From Guiseppe Montanaro To Lord Clarence Paget



It appears that Alfred George Montanaro's father Guiseppe had been working for the Ordnance Department in Malta for many years and he was anxious to obtain  a vacancy for his son as a Clerk in the Ordnance Department.  I assume that the post of Clerk is the equivalent of a junior commissioned officer.

WO 54/879 (Applications for vacancies of Clerk in the Ordnance Department) has the following letters written by Guiseppe Montanaro to The Right Honourable Lord Clarence Paget in an attempt to have his son Alfred employed as a Clerk in the Ordnance Department.
 

Private                Malta, Strada Mercanti,
         Valetta, 24th May 1847.
 

 My Lord,

  I hope your Lordship will have the kindness to pardon me for taking the liberty of addressing you without having had the honor of an intimate acquaintance with you during your visits to this Island, but I am sure of your sympathy in any kindness that can be done for others, and presuming that my name and family are not altogether out of your recollection having had the pleasure to meet more than once at our friends Mr. and Mrs. Carter Smith, I have the less hesitation in encroaching upon your goodness by this letter, the object of which is to lay before your Lordship, privately, the following subject upon which I am particularly interested.

  One of my sons by name "Alfred" aged 17 years who has been well educated under English tutors is anxious to obtain a Clerkship in the Ordnance Department.

  During the late war while I belonged to the Commissariat in this Station I had the immediate charge of all the Military Stores until they were transferred to the Ordnance Department; and at the time that this Island was afflicted by Plague in 1813, the stores in question, then consisting of a Depot of the greatest magnitude for the Army of Malta and Sicily, was preserved and saved from infection owing to my strict and constant attention to them, in default of which the safety of the troops would have been exposed to a great danger and the Government to a great loss, and without saying further on this lead, I beg your Lordship's perusal of the enclosed copies of official documents, and I hope that you will not consider me too presuming if I say that services rendered to that branch of Her Majesty's Army at a period of so much danger and difficulty always deserves some consideration, and I have reason to conceive that they were submitted by an influential person like your Lordship with a good word to the most noble Marquess of Anglesy I might obtain the object I have in view, and it is very probable that a vacancy may occur soon in the office here, understanding that one of the Clerks being in ill health is likely to return home, I am more induced to solicit your Lordship's favour and valuable patronage, assuring you that my family and myself shall ever retain a most grateful recollection of any kindness you may confer on us, and especially if you can obtain the appointment of junior Clerk to my said son whenever a vacancy may occur; or that he may be appointed to serve without receiving any emolument, as a time of probation, until there is a vacancy to employ him.  Permit me to intrude a little more upon your time by stating that I have been for 41 years in the service of the Government, and now belonging to the Civil Branch to which I was transferred by the late Sir Frederick Ponsonby, and that by granting my present supplication it will be a favour conferred to an old servant of Her Majesty.  Apologising for the liberty I have taken I do myself the honor to remain

Your Lordship's
Most Obedient Servant
G. Montanaro

To The Right Honourable
Lord Clarence Paget
 

 Written on the back of the letter is the following answer:

        10th June 1847
Sir,

Having submitted to the MG (Master General) your letter of 24th May I am directed to acquaint you that his Lordship has caused a note to be made of your application in favour of your son, but that the list of Candidates in this Department is so numerous that he is unable to make any promise on the subject.
 
 

In reply to this answer, Guiseppe Montanaro wrote the following letter to Lord Clarence Paget.

Private             Malta, Strada Mercanti,
        24th July 1847.
 

My Lord,

 Permit me to offer my grateful thanks for your kindness in favouring me with your letter of the 10th ultimo, and as in the application which I had the honor to address to your Lordship, under the date of the 24th May last, I referred to my services during the awful visitation of Plague in this Island, I now take leave to enclose for your perusal an extract from a Government proclamation which the late Sir Thomas Maitland, in his wisdom, found it necessary to issue owing to the great danger and difficulty of that time:  and taking advantage of your goodness I also annex a copy of an official letter from Commissary General Sir Randolph Roull, which has references to my services after the Plague while I had the charge of that extensive Branch of Service which is now attached to the Ordnance.

 Apologising for the liberty I have taken of addressing your Lordship a second time, I have the honour to remain with due regard,

Your most obedient
humble servant,
G. Montanaro.
The Right Honourable
Lord Clarence Paget
 
 

 A few years later the following letter was written.
 

Private                                        Malta, Strada Mercanti,
         Valetta, 15th March 1850.
 

My Lord,

 I hope that you will not, in your usual goodness, accuse me of impertinence if I take the liberty of addressing your Lordship again to solicit your valuable protection to the prayer which I had submitted for your consideration in a former occasion, and as I now understand that a vacancy will take place in the Ordnance office in this Island, by the retirement of one of the Clerks, Mr Cammilla, I beg leave most respectfully to renew my application for my son by name "Alfred" and recall to your kind notice my long and faithful services, especially for many years in that Branch of Her Majesty's Service which is now under the Ordnance, as shown by the documents I had submitted for your kind perusal.

 I hope your Lordship will grant me the favour of your valuable offices with the Right Honourable the Master General in consideration of my services, my large family, and the recommendation made to you on behalf of my son Alfred, by my valued friends, Lady Hamilton Chichester and Captain Hastings Henry.

 I take leave to remind your Lordship of what you promised to Lady Hamilton in your note of 2nd July 1848, namely "that in the event of a future vacancy there (Malta) I will not fail to lay Mr Montanaro's name before the Master General."

 My son is now 20 years of age, has received a liberal English Education and can go to any strict examination of English, French, Latin, Italian and the qualifications required for office duty.  I will say nothing about respectability and conduct, reference could be made to Sir Henry Bouvery, Sir Peter Stuart, and the present Governor respecting myself and all my family, and Lady Hamilton I presume has mentioned me to General ..... (I was unable to read his name. E.B.) when she was in England.  I hope you will pardon me if I say that I feel myself entitled to some consideration for my past and present services to the Government which altogether embrace a period of 43 years, and I beg to assure you that for any favor that you can confer on me on this occasion in recommending my son to your Lordship's good father, I shall ever retain a much grateful recollection.  Permit me to apologize for taking so much liberty in addressing you so freely, encouraged to do so by your kindness, and with sentiments of the greatest respect I do myself the honor to subscribe myself

My Lord
Your Lordship's
Most devoted and
obedient servant

G. Montanaro.

The Right Honourable
Lord Clarence Paget
 

Written on the bottom of that letter appears the following short note:

15 March 1850

Mr Montanaro.  Son for Clerk.

Appointed.
 
 

On several occasions Guiseppe Montanaro mentioned enclosures in his various letters.  Most of these were included in the bundle with his letters, however as time was running short I only copied his letters of application.  I will probably be able to copy these at a later date.

It appears that he had worked for the Commissariat and the Board of Ordnance in Malta for virtually all his working life.  I expect that a deeper study at the Public Record Office (PRO) will probably give light to his past duties and maybe his reputation.

The Board of Ordnance can be traced back to 1414.  At the time of Guiseppe's early employment most of the posts, including the senior ones, were held by civilians, but this was changed between 1815 and 1833.

The reference number for the Application for Clerkship is WO 54/879 and it is a cardboard box containing several bundles of similar letters.

There are several other references that may be searched for further information, but this will have to be done over a period of time at a later date.