18th-Century Letters of Hamburg Merchant Discovered in British Archives

A historian uncovered 2,480 preserved documents, offering rare insights into the life of Nicolaus Gottlieb Lütkens, whose archive was lost during a ship capture in 1745.

• The letters, part of a Hamburg merchant's archive, were found in the UK National Archives as part of the 'Prize Papers' project, which examines documents from ships captured by Britain between 1652 and 1815.
• The archive, lost when the merchant's ship was seized by a British privateer, includes personal and business correspondence, invoices, and notebooks from Nicolaus Gottlieb Lütkens, who lived from 1716 to 1788.
• Among the documents are love letters to Lütkens' fiancée, Ilsabe Engelhardt, in which he expresses regret over delaying their wedding due to business obligations in France.
• The letters provide an unfiltered view of Lütkens' life, as he had no opportunity to remove personal or sensitive content before the archive was lost.
• After a decade-long search, a descendant of Lütkens, now residing in London, was identified, and the family still possesses a seal matching those found on the letters.

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