Manuscript testimonial for Polish revolutionaries Roch Rupniewski and Severin Dziewicki, written and signed by Polish political refugees at Portsmouth, 1835.

[Portsmouth, 11 March 1835]. Single sheet, 230 x 200 mm, mounted on the recto of a nineteenth-century album leaf, along with the envelope in which it was originally contained; manuscript in ink, with a five-line declaration written in French at the head: ‘Nous [les] sous signés cértifi[ons par la] présente que [Sls?] Roch Rupniewski et Sévérin [D]ziewicki sont des Polonais et qu’ils restent actuéllement à Portsmouth ; en foi de quoi nous méttons nos signatures. – fait à Portsmouth, le 11 de Mars 1835‘; below, in two columns, are the signatures of fourteen Polish political exiles: [Onufry] Michniewicz; [Ignacy] Wellmann; [Apoloniusz] Buchowski; [Wiktor] Ambrozewicz; [?] Paworsky; [Jan] Swidzinsky; [Franciszek] Linkowski; [Franciszek] Gasiewski; [Karol] Siemianowice; [Adam] Bacynski; [Marcin] Soroczynski; [Wojciek] Pietkowski; [Franciszek] Teklinski; [Josef] Milaskiewicz; the sheet has old fold lines, scattered foxing and light staining, with a small section of loss at the top edge (probably from where a seal was broken) resulting in a short lacuna in the first line of the French-language inscription; the accompanying envelope is inscribed ‘Certificate of Polish refugees in Portsmouth (England). Dated 11th March 1835. / J. M. Cook, St. Kilda‘.

Provenance: J. M. Cook, St. Kilda, Melbourne, Australia; autograph album compiled by Jane Emma Murphy (Balcombe) (1854-1924), of “The Briars”, Mornington (and later, St. Kilda, Melbourne), Victoria, Australia; thence by descent through the à Beckett family, Melbourne.

This unique and unusual document was prepared by a group of Polish exiles domiciled in Portsmouth, all of whom were ex-soldiers who had arrived at Portsmouth as refugees from Gdansk on the German battleship Marianne in February 1834. It would seem the document was created to act as a quasi-legal testimonial or some form of identity card for two of their Polish compatriots recently arrived in England, Roch Rupniewski (1802, Poland – 1876, Liverpool) – poet, soldier and engineer – and Severin Dziewicki (1812, Poland – 1862, Leominster). Both men were revolutionaries who had participated in the November Uprising against the Russian Empire in 1830-31. Rupniewski, Dziewicki and the soldiers from the Marianne were all ultimately granted sanctuary in Britain.

The Polish Memorial in Kingston Cemetery, Portsmouth, which was erected in 2004, records the names of all 212 Polish soldiers who arrived on the Marianne. (The names of thirteen of the signatories to the present document appear on this memorial). The English text on the Polish Memorial reads:

‘Lest we forget the kindness shown and the help given by the people of Britain’s premier naval port, Portsmouth, to 212 Polish soldiers, members of the first Polish community in Britain, who arrived in Portsmouth in February 1834, after having taken part in the November uprising against Tzarist Russian oppression, which took place in Warsaw in 1830 – 1831. The majority of those soldiers were laid to rest in this very place in a common grave. At a time when merchants of human rights joined forces in order to destroy liberty – the people of Portsmouth rallied to the aid of those who fought for that liberty.‘