![[WEST INDIES] LILLINGSTON, LUKE. Reflections on Mr Burchet's memoirs. or, Remarks on his account of Captain Wilmot's expedition to the West-Indies. By Coll. Luke Lillingston, commander in chief of the land forces, in that expedition.](/sites/default/files/styles/auction_slider/public/images/lots/951/1557951.jpg?itok=QKKe_daf)
Lot Details
Lot 314
[WEST INDIES] LILLINGSTON, LUKE. Reflections on Mr Burchet's memoirs. or, Remarks on his account of Captain Wilmot's expedition to the West-Indies. By Coll. Luke Lillingston, commander in chief of the land forces, in that expedition.
London: Printed and sold by the booksellers of London and Westminster, 1704. One of two issues (the other published by John Nutt), both identical in the eccentric pagination and likely simultaneous. Period speckled calf, all edges sprinkled red. 7 3/8 x 4 1/2 inches (18.75 x 11.25 cm); [18], 90, 95-171, [1] pp., correct and complete thus. Neatly rebacked, a very clean copy internally. Bookplate of William Trumbull.
Wilmot commanded an expedition against the French settlements in Hispaniola in the the West Indies. In conjunction with the Spanish forces, his squadron attacked and took Port de la Paix, in the process winning a booty valued at 200,000 pounds, though they did not dislodge the French from Jamaica. Wilmot and Lillingston, the colonel who commanded the twelve hundred troops used in the operation, quarelled in the aftermath and though Wilmot died on the return voyage, Lillingston fiercely criticized his conduct upon his return to England. In 1703 Josiah Burchett, the Secretary of the Admiralty, published his Memoirs of Transactions at Sea during the War with France which defended Wilmot against Lillingston's attack, based on Admiralty records, whereupon Lillingston published the present work as a rejoinder. The reaction to this (and to Burchett's level-headed response), together with a general lack of attention to his military duties, ultimately resulted in his dismissal from the army in 1708. This work does contain a great deal of information on the campaign, as well as many further calumnies on the dead Wilmot. The book is rare in commerce, and we note no copy at auction since 1991.
C The Collection of Jay I. Kislak sold to benefit the Kislak Family Foundation
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