Lord Nelson’s marriage record is found rotting in vicar’s study

ADMIRAL Lord Nelson’s marriage record, a hugely valuable historic document, has been found rotting away on a Caribbean island.

The 109-page document, which records the naval hero’s 1787 marriage to Fanny Nisbet on the island of Nevis, was found in very poor condition on a shelf in the study of Canon Dr Alson Percival, a local vicar.

The 1805 Club, which preserves Navy artefacts and graves, was alerted to it by a retired US naval officer who saw the record when he was married on the island.

It took British experts a year to persuade Caribbean authorities that the record, which was damaged by heat and humidity, needed urgent work.

John Wills, a retired Royal Navy captain who took experts from the University of York to view the document, said: “Canon Percival was concerned he would never see it again. The bishop’s legal adviser took a risk on his behalf.

“It is pretty decrepit and very fragile. If it had fallen off the shelf it would have been ruined.”

Experts will dismantle the record, which covers marriages from 1729 to 1825, page by page and repair it in a process expected to take 18 months.

Each page will be digitised before the record, now carefully encased in a climate-controlled cabinet, is returned to Canon Percival.