Nelson (146 page)

25
. For Adye’s petition see the council minutes of St Kitts, 8/1/1785, CO 241/18.

26
. Hughes to Stephens, 25/5/1785, 20/10/1785, ADM 1/312.

27
. Nelson to Stephens, 14/11/1785, Add. MSS 34961; Nelson, ‘account of the proceedings of Captain Nelson’, 1786, William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; and the Wallis narrative in Rawson,
Letters from the Leeward Islands
, p. 53.

28
. Nelson to Adye, 12/9/1785, Monmouth MSS, E497; Ward deposition, 23/6/1786, CO 152/64.

29
. Nelson to Stephens, 14/11/1785, Add. MSS 34961.

30
. Nelson to Locker, 5/3/1786,
D&L
, 1, p. 156.

31
. The ships Collingwood sent in were the
Hazard
,
Little Tom
and
Neptune
. Wilfred Collingwood’s prize was the
St. George
. See Bush to Shirley, 30/11/1785, CO 152/64; Collingwood to Martin, 2/7/1785 and Martin to Collingwood, 3/7/1785, Add. MSS 14272.

32
. Captain’s log of the
Boreas
for 19–21 June 1785; Hughes to Stephens, 25/6/1785, ADM 1/312; Rawson,
Letters from the Leeward Islands
, p. 50.

33
. Gill and Menzies to Nelson, 22/7/1785, Add. MSS 34961.

34
. Collingwood to Niccolls, 8/10/1785, Add. MSS 14272. The ships were the
Speedwell
,
Maria
,
Lovely Fanny
and
Friendship
. See also Wilfred Collingwood’s correspondence with Grenada in 1786, enclosed in Nelson’s letters to the Admiralty, ADM 1/2223. For opinions in Barbados see the assembly meeting of 18/1/1786 (including the petition of John Brathwaite, 29/10/1785), CO 31/43.

35
. Collingwood’s letter book (Add. MSS 14272) is the best source for the case of the
Dolphin
, especially Brandford to Collingwood, 30/7/1785; Collingwood to Brandford, 29/7/1785; Collingwood to Forbes, 12/9/1785; Hughes to Collingwood, 7/10/1785; and Collingwood to Hughes, 9/10/1785. Eventually Collingwood got his expenses for prosecuting the suit, but the appeal against the judgement failed because it was not made within the stipulated time period, and the damages and costs therefore also fell upon him: see Heseltine’s letters to Collingwood in 1788, Add. MSS 14272. Also consult ADM 1/312: 499–509, 520–3, and Collingwood’s correspondence in ADM 1/1616.

36
. Sydney to Nelson, 4/8/1785, Add. MSS 34961; Sydney to Shirley, 4/8/1785, CO 152/64.

37
. Nelson to Collingwood, 28/9/1785,
D&L
, 1, p. 143; Hughes to Collingwood, 7/10/1785 (second letter of that date), Add. MSS 14272.

38
. Hughes to Stephens, 29/6/1785, ADM 1/312.

39
. Nelson, ‘account of the proceedings of Captain Nelson’, 1786, William L. Clements Library; Nelson to Suckling, 14/11/1785,
D&L
, 1, p. 144.

40
. Nelson to Sydney, 17/11/1785, CO 152/64.

41
. Sidney to Shirley, 2/6/1785, CO 152/64; Shirley to Sidney, 24/6/1785 and 1/10/1785, CO 152/64; Holloway to Stephens, 23/5/1787, ADM 1/1908.

42
. Oath of Seth Warner, 28/5/1784 and customs officers, Antigua, to collector of customs, Nevis, 3/2/1786, CO 152/64.

43
. Nelson to Sydney, 4/2/1786, CO 152/64.

44
. Shirley to Sydney, 23/7/1785, 2/10/1785, CO 152/64. Shirley’s son remained with Nelson until April of the following year when he was transferred to the
Maidstone
.

45
. Rawson,
Letters from the Leeward Islands
, p. 66; Rose to Stephens, 24/8/1785, enclosed in Hughes to Collingwood, 16/1/1786, Add. MSS 14272. Indeed, in a curious epilogue we find Hughes writing from retirement in Stoke House, near Cobham, Surrey, in 1796. Learning from Wallis, formerly of the
Boreas
, that some of the prize money was still waiting to be distributed by a ‘Mr Nesbitt’ of Nevis, he asked Nelson’s ‘kind assistance’ in getting ‘my share . . . as Commander in Chief . . .’ (Hughes to Nelson, 8/9/1796, NMM: CRK/7).

46
. Nelson, ‘account of the proceedings of Captain Nelson’, 1786, William L. Clements Library; Nelson to Locker, 5/3/1786,
D&L
, 1, p. 156.

47
. Nelson to Fanny Nisbet, 29/3/1786, 23/4/1786, Monmouth MSS, E748, E751.

48
. Council minutes of St Kitts with a petition to Shirley, 10/3/1786, CO 241/18.

49
. See for example Shirley to Sydney, 7/6/1787, 24/7/1787, CO 152/65.

50
. James S. Clarke and John McArthur,
Life and Services
, 1, p. 113.

51
. Nelson to William 12/5/1785, Add. MSS 34988. The captain’s log of the
Boreas
shows the ship anchoring in Nevis Road on 9 May 1785 and moving to St Kitts three days later. I presume this was the occasion Nelson and Fanny met.

XIV Dearest Fanny (pp. 308–37)

1
. Carola Oman,
Nelson
, p. 686, takes the birth date of 1758 from Fanny’s sarcophagus, but I prefer the baptism record in the register of Nevis (Vere Langford Oliver,
History of the Island of Antigua
, 2, p. 71). See also Oliver, 2, pp. 70–1, 301–308, and 3, pp. 443–4, and Edith M. Keate,
Nelson’s Wife
. In view of G. P. B. Naish,
Nelson’s Letters to His Wife
, and the newly discovered collection of Fanny’s letters purchased by the National Maritime Museum in 2002 a fresh biography of Lady Nelson is needed.

2
. For the Nisbets see also
Gentleman’s Magazine
(1781), p. 491; Hilda Gamlin,
Nelson’s Friendships
, 1, pp. 137–9; John A. Inglis,
The Nisbets of Carfin
, pp. 2–5; and Terry Coleman,
Nelson
, p. 72.

3
. Richard Pares,
West India Fortune
, p. 102.

4
. Pares,
West India Fortune
, p. 81; Shirley to Sydney, 12/5/1787, CO 152/65; Nelson to Suckling, 14/11/1785, 9/3/1786, Monmouth MSS, E413,
D&L
, 1, p. 160.

5
. James S. Clarke and John McArthur,
Life and Services
, 1, pp. 113–14; recollections of Lionel Goldsmid, quoted in Godfrey L. Green,
Royal Navy and Anglo-Jewry
, p. 87.

6
. William Henry to Hood, 15/3/1787,
NLTHW
, p. 58; A. M. W. Stirling, ed.,
Pages and Portraits
, 1, p. 27, and 2, p. 217; Richard Vesey Hamilton, ed.,
Sir Thomas Byam Martin
, 1, p. 67; and Elliot to his wife, 3/10/1797, NLS, 11051, p. 122.

7
. Nelson to William, 28/6/1785, Add. MSS 34988: 65.

8
. Nelson to Fanny, 19/8/1785, Monmouth MSS, E743.

9
. Nelson to Fanny, 11/9/1785, Monmouth MSS, E744.

10
. Nelson to Suckling, 14/11/1785, Monmouth MSS, E413.

11
. Nelson to Suckling, 14/11/1785, Monmouth MSS, E413. In fact, Nelson was already befriending two members of the family, descendants of William’s uncle, Robert Suckling: Maurice, midshipman of the
Boreas
, and his brother Robert of the Royal Artillery, then also in the West Indies. See Nelson to Robert Suckling, 15/4/1786, Monmouth MSS, E26.

12
. Geoffrey Rawson, ed.,
Letters from the Leeward Islands
, p. 66; accounts in Western MSS 3676, Wellcome Library, London; Nelson to the postmaster general, 10/10/1785, Add. MSS 34961.

13
. Nelson to William, 29/12/1786, Add. MSS 34988; Foley,
Nelson Centenary
, p. 25.

14
. Nelson to Fanny, 13/12/1785, Monmouth MSS, E745.

15
. Nelson to William, 1/1/1786, Add. MSS 34988.

16
. Nelson to Fanny, 3/3/1786, Monmouth MSS, E747.

17
. Nelson to Suckling, 9/3/1786, NMM: MON/1.

18
. Nelson to Fanny, 3–10/3/1786, Monmouth MSS, E747.

19
. Nelson to Fanny, 15/3/1786, 4/5/1786, Monmouth MSS, E748, E752.

20
. Nelson to Fanny, 4/5/1786, Monmouth MSS, E752.

21
. Holloway to Stephens, 23/5/1787, ADM 1/1908.

22
. Hughes to Sydney, 20/10/1785, 7/2/1786, 10/3/1786, ADM 1/312.

23
. Parry to Sydney, 28/4/1784, 22/1/1785, 19/8/1785, CO 28/60.

24
. For the
Jane and Elizabeth
see also Nelson’s letter of 12/11/1790, Add. MSS 34902.

25
. Nelson to Hughes, March 1786, Add. MSS 34961; Nelson’s narrative, beginning 1 May 1786, Add. MSS 34961; and legal papers Nelson forwarded to the Admiralty, including his journal of the affair, ADM 1/2223. The incident also runs through the published letters and dispatches in
D&L
and
NLTHW
.

26
. Brandford to Nelson, 11/4/1786, 14/4/1786, ADM 1/2223.

27
. Nelson to Parry, 15/4/1786, Add. MSS 34961. Parry may have been related to the Nisbets. A daughter of one Robert Parry married Walter Nisbet of Mount Pleasant, Josiah’s brother (Inglis,
Nisbets of Carfin
).

28
. This version of the incident comes from Nelson’s deposition before John Horsford, 28/8/1786, Nelson to Sir Charles Middleton, 28/8/1786, and Hughes to Stephens, 14/9/1786, filed in ADM 1/3682. See also the muster and pay books of the
Boreas
, ADM 36/19525 and ADM 35/242, and the ‘account of provisions, cask[s], iron hoops’, 1783–5, William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

29
. The depositions of McCormick and Mitchell, with other evidence given at the inquest, 16/4/1786, are in CO 28/60: 295–8.

30
. Hughes to captains, 21/4/1786, Add. MSS 14272.

31
. These depositions dated 22/4/1786 are in CO 28/60: 297.

32
. Attempts to apprehend Scotland between 20 and 23 April are described in Parry to Sydney, 31/5/1786, CO 28/60, with its enclosures.

33
. Sydney to Parry, 15/9/1786, CO 28/60; Nelson to Fanny, 23/4/1786, Monmouth MSS, E751. Further light might be shed on this affair by numbers of the
Barbados Mercury
, but I could not trace the relevant issues in London or Barbados.

34
.
Boreas
muster, ADM 36/10525.

35
. Deposition of Daniel Mills and Parry to Stephens, 31/5/1786, ADM 1/3682; lieutenants’ logs of the
Boreas
, NMM: ADM/L/B136; Sandys to Stephens, 11/6/1786, ADM 1/2486. The muster of the
Cyrus
contains the name of only one person taken on board at this time. ‘Richard Crapnell’, entered as a supernumerary on 16 March 1786, may have been John Scotland. See ADM 36/10381. Lieutenant John Johnson and John Callender, commander and master of the
Cyrus
, were found guilty of negligence, but the ship’s other officers were acquitted (courts martial, 22/4/1786, ADM 1/5325).

36
. Depositions of James Jameson and James Balentine, 28/8/1786, ADM 1/3682.

37
. N. A. M. Rodger,
Wooden World
, pp. 225–6. It is worth remembering that during Nelson’s lifetime the English penal code gathered in severity, and was known as ‘the bloody code’. Whereas less than twenty offences could earn the death penalty under naval discipline, the number of capital statutes in England rose from about fifty in 1688 to some two hundred by 1820. In theory, it was possible to be sentenced to hang for picking pockets of goods worth more than a shilling, for damaging Westminster or London Bridge, or impersonating a pensioner of Greenwich Hospital with a view to falsely obtaining an out-pension. Though, as at sea, there was considerable latitude in applying such statutes, and acquittals and pardons were used to spare malefactors execution in the majority of cases, the penal code still made naval discipline seem lenient. Moreover, it was not uncommon for English quarter-sessions courts to sentence women as well as men to be publicly flogged at the cart’s tail for petty larceny, or the theft of goods worth less than one shilling. The public flogging of women remained legal until 1817.

38
. Nelson to Parry, 7/10/1786, Parry to Nelson, 18/10/1786, and Nelson to Sydney, 17/1/1787, CO 152/66.

39
. Nelson to Parry, May 1786, Add. MSS 34961.

40
. Nelson affidavit, 26/6/1786,
D&L
, 1, p. 181; Nelson to Hughes, 4/5/1786 and Nelson to Parry, 1/5/1786, Add. MSS 34961.

41
. Nelson narrative, 1 May following, Add. MSS 34961; Brandford to Nelson, 20/5/1786, ADM 1/2223.

42
. Solicitors’ opinions, 2/8/1786, ADM 7/301.

43
. Council minutes of Barbados, 29/8/1786, CO 31/43.

44
. Parry to Hughes, 20/5/1786,
D&L
, 1, p. 185; Parry to Sydney, 20/7/1786, CO 28/60.

45
. Council minutes of Barbados, 4/7/1786, CO 31/43; Parry to Nepean, 22, 25/12/1787, CO 28/61; Brandford to Parry, 29/1/1787, CO 28/61; solicitors’ opinions, 5/7/1787, ADM 7/301; and legal papers in ADM 2/1062: 272, 275, 305, 427.

46
. Nelson to Suckling, 5/7/1786,
D&L
, 1, p. 186; Nelson to Locker, 27/9/1786,
D&L
, 1, p. 197; Rawson,
Letters from the Leeward Islands
, p. 72.

47
. Proctor’s bill, Nevis, 1786, and ‘an account of the difference of charges of the King’s Advocate and Proctor at Barbados’, 1786, William L. Clements Library.

48
. Nelson to Stephens, 9/2/1787, ADM 1/2223; John Sugden, ‘Lord Cochrane’, pp. 194–205. For attacks on prize courts see also ‘A Friend of the Navy’,
Appeal . . . Against a Late Rejection of the Petition of the Captains
; John Frederick Pott,
Observations on Matters of Prize
; John Frederick Pott,
Letter to Samuel Whitbread
; Lord Cochrane,
Statement Delivered by Lord Cochrane
; and J. Richard Hill,
Prizes of War
, pp. 100–2.

49
. The extortionate fees of public servants were being widely criticised at the time, partly on account of a Whig belief that the ability to offer appointments linked to lucrative fees constituted a means by which the king’s government achieved undue control of the political process. In 1785 a government ‘Commission to Enquire into the Fees, Gratuities, Perquisites and Emoluments Received in Publick Offices’ was established, reporting in 1788. Even so, it was not until 1800 that the remuneration of Admiralty clerks was shifted from its reliance upon fees and perquisites to a recognised salary structure. For the commission’s effects upon the administration of the Royal Navy see P. K. Crimmin, ‘Admiralty Relations with the Treasury’; P. K. Crimmin, ‘Financial and Clerical Establishment of the Admiralty Office’; and Bernard Pool,
Navy Board Contracts
. In addition, the extravagance of many fees was outraging public opinion, even in Antigua. John Luffman, for example, wrote in 1786 that ‘the [St Johns] custom-house is a good building near the bottom of St Mary’s Street, and the fees exacted there are enormous’, and the same year the home government began considering new legislation to introduce ‘proper regulations’ (Oliver,
History of the Island of Antigua
, 1, p. cxxix; council minutes of St Kitts, 9/8/1786, CO 241/18).