Nelson (142 page)

In an effort to clarify the matter I submitted the data about the San Juan expedition to experts in the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, part of the University of Liverpool. H. M. Gilles, Emeritus Professor of Tropical Medicine, thought ‘a combination of malignant tertian malaria and typhoid’ a ‘reasonable possibility’ and added, ‘If I were to opt for one single diagnosis’ it would be ‘malignant tertian malaria in patients debilitated by vitamin deficiencies and under nutrition. It is now well accepted that under nutrition is a risk factor for severe malaria and subsequent death.’ Dr. Geoff Gill, Reader in Tropical Medicine, broadly agreed: ‘Though it is possible for malaria to cause all these features,’ he wrote, ‘it would be unusual; and my feeling is that there was worse than one illness . . . I would go for malaria and bacillary (bacterial) dysentery.’ For Dr Gill, too, typhoid was a possible suspect, however. On the present evidence this is, perhaps, as far as we can go.

30
. Parker to Stephens, 7, 28/4/1780, ADM 1/242;
Janus
muster, ADM 36/8720; and Dalling to Germain, 14/4/1780, CO 137/78.

31
. Polson to Kemble, 28/4/1780,
Collections
, p. 208.

32
. Polson to Kemble, 1, 12/5/1780,
Collections
, pp. 215, 220.

33
. Narrative of Sir Alexander Keith, 1780, CO 137/79: 74; proceedings of a council at Tebuppy, 1/10/1780, CO 137/79: 164; Kemble to Dalling, 19/5 to 11/6/1780, CO 137/78; information of Todd, 25/8/1780, CO 137/78: 239; Polson to Dalling, 30/4/1780, CO 137/77;
Collections
, pp. 14, 31.

34
. Forthringham to Parker, 30/4/1780, ADM 1/242.

35
.
Hinchingbroke
musters, ADM 36/9510–9511; testimony of Collingwood, 5/12/1780, CO 137/79: 194. Bullen’s log (NMM: ADM/L/H113) gives variant details of the fatalities aboard the
Hinchingbroke
.

36
. Nelson to Polson, 2/6/1780,
D&L
, 1, p. 33*; Dalling to Nelson, 13/5/1780, Add. MSS 34903. Nelson remained on good terms with the Dalling family, even after the general’s death: Louise, Lady Dalling to Nelson, 10/8/1804, NMM: CRK/14.

37
. Parker to Stephens, 20/5/1780, ADM 1/242; account of John Tyson, Add. MSS 34990: 36; Nelson to Locker, 23/1/1780,
D&L
, 1, p. 32.

38
. Dalling to Germain, 20, 21/5/1780, CO 137/77; Nelson to Paynter, 31/5/1780, Add. MSS 34988.

39
. Dalling to Germain, 29/6/1780, CO 137/77.

40
. Shaw to Kemble, 27/6/1780, Kemble papers, William L. Clements Library.

41
. See Hodgson’s narrative, CO 137/80: 322; evidence of William Dalrymple, 6/12/1780, CO 137/79:184; Moseley,
Treatise on Tropical Diseases
, p. 163.

42
. Germain to Dalling, 7/12/1780, CO 137/78. For Germain’s earlier support of the venture see, for example, his letters to Dalling dated 4 January, 1 March and 5 April 1780 (Germain papers, William L. Clements Library). As late as 1 March, with the rains and their attendant threat of disease looming, Germain urged Dalling to make ‘the most vigorous efforts’ to implement the plan and reported that three thousand reinforcements were ready to sail from England to Jamaica.

43
.
D&L
, 1, p. 7.

44
. Joseph and William Brodie Gurney,
Trial of Edward Marcus Despard
, p. 174. Clifford D. Conner has written a biography of Despard.

IX Fighting Back (pp. 176–90)

1
. The
Janus
muster (ADM 36/8720) says that Nelson’s commission was dated 22 March and that he appeared on 18 May, but I have followed the
Janus
log here (ADM 52/2359).

2
. Compare the musters of
Hinchingbroke
(ADM 36/9510–9511) with that of the
Janus
. I did not find a muster for the
Victor
.

3
. Nelson to Ross, 12/6/1780, Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth.

4
. James S. Clarke and John McArthur,
Life and Services
, 1, p. 61.

5
. Robert Wood, Archibald Bruce and James Melling, 1/9/1780, ADM 1/242; Nelson to Parker, 30/8/1780, ADM 1/242.

6
. Parker to Nelson, 1/9/1780, Add. MSS 34903; Parker to Stephens, 5/9/1780, ADM 1/242.

7
. Account of the Duke of Clarence, Add. MSS 34990: 54.

8
. M. Eyre Matcham,
Nelsons of Burnham Thorpe
, p. 106; Nelson to Fanny, 27/6/1794, Monmouth MSS, E820.

9
. Nelson to Fanny, 28/6/1794, Monmouth MSS, E821.

10
. Linda Colley,
Britons
, p. 183.

11
. Nelson to St Vincent, 23/9/1801,
D&L
, 7, p. ccxxix*; Colin White, ‘Nelson and Shakespeare’.

12
. Nelson to Ross, 1/9/1780, 12/9/1801, NMM: PST/38, and
D&L
, 4, p. 487.

13
.
Lion
muster, ADM 36/9203;
Lion
log books, ADM 51/540 and ADM 52/1847; Cornwallis to Stephens, November 1780, ADM 1/1613;
D&L
, 1, p. 8; Nelson to Cornwallis, 31/1/1799, Hist. MSS Commission,
Various Collections
, 6, p. 392.

14
. Nelson to Locker, 5/3/1781,
D&L
, 1, p. 39.

15
. R. S. Neale,
Bath
, pp. 17, 22–3.

16
. Nelson to Locker, 23/1/1781,
D&L
, 1, p. 35; Louis Hodgkin,
Nelson and Bath
, pp. 11–12.

17
. Nelson to Locker, 23/1/1781, 15/2/1781,
D&L
, 1, pp. 35, 38. For the diagnosis see
James Kemble,
Idols and Invalids
, pp. 120–22, and Anne-Marie Ewart Hills in
ND
, 7 (2000), p. 240.

18
. Nelson to Locker, 15/2/1781, 5/3/1781,
D&L
, 1, pp. 28, 39;
The Bath Chronicle
, 1/3/1781.

19
. Nelson to Locker, 15/2/1781,
D&L
, 1, p. 38.

20
. Nelson to Locker, 21/2/1781,
D&L
, 1, p. 39. For Kingsmill (formerly Brice), see
NC
, 5 (1801), pp. 189–212. He was then a senior captain, within hailing distance of achieving flag rank, and therefore a potentially useful patron. Nelson wrote to him regularly in succeeding years, but few of the letters have survived.

21
.
Illustrated London News
, 6/6/1846; notes and drawings of James Frederick King (b. 1781), whose father obtained Suckling’s house after the latter’s death in 1798: George Gater and Walter H. Godfrey,
Old St. Pancras and Kentish Town
, pp. 53–4, pl. 110. The location of the house, long since demolished, is incorrectly identified by Thomas Foley,
Nelson Centenary
, p. 16. It would seem to have been near the junction of presentday Kentish Town and Castle roads.

22
. Jenkinson to Sandwich, 12/2/1781, Add. MSS 38308; ‘Nelson’s Appointment to the Command of the
Albemarle
, 1781’.

23
. Account with Robert Winch, 5/5/1781–2/7/1781, Western MSS 3676, Wellcome Library, London.

24
. Nelson to Stephens, 23/1/1784, NMM: ADM/C/653; Accounts, 1781, 1784, Western MSS 3676, Wellcome Library, London.

25
. Nelson to William, 7/5/1781, Add. MSS 34988; James Harrison,
Life
, 1, p. 66; William Nelson’s statement, 1799, NMM: PHB/15.

26
. Nelson to William, 24/8/1781, Add. MSS 34988. These paragraphs also depend upon the logs of the
Albemarle
, ADM 51/4110 and ADM 52/2136; Hinton’s log, NMM: ADM/L/A72; and the ship’s musters, ADM 36/10081–10082.

27
.
Norfolk Chronicle
, 8/9/1781; Nelson to William, 19/10/1781, 18/12/1781, Add. MSS 34988.

28
. Nelson to Stephens, October 1781, ADM 1/2222; Hinton, passing certificate, 4/2/1779, ADM 107/7; Bromwich, return of service, 1817, ADM 9/6: no. 1800.

29
. Nelson to Locker, 21/10/1781,
D&L
, 1, p. 47. Nelson to William, 9/9/1781, 19/10/1781, Add. MSS 34988.

30
. Orders of 7, 26/9/1781 and 17/10/1781, ADM 2/111.

31
. Nelson to Admiral Robert Roddam, 22/10/1781, Add. MSS 34961; Nelson to Stephens, 3, 6 and 24/9/1781, ADM 1/2222.

32
. Nelson to William, 24/8/1781, 18/12/1781, Add. MSS 34988.

33
.
D&L
, 1, p. 8; Admiralty to Nelson, 23/10/1781, Add. MSS 34933.

X ‘The Poor
Albemarle
’ (pp. 191–227)

1
. Nelson to Locker, 22/12/1781,
D&L
, 1, p. 49. The
Albemarle
logs (Nelson’s in ADM 51/4110; Trail’s in ADM 52/2136; and Hinton’s and Bromwich’s in NMM: ADM/L/A72) are used throughout this chapter. For Bromwich’s story of the Danish midshipman see James Stanier Clarke and John McArthur,
Life and Services
, 1, p. 66.

2
. Nelson to Locker, 22/12/1781,
D&L
, 1, p. 49; Nelson to Stephens, 18/12/1781, Add. MSS 34961; and Dickson to Stephens, 20, 30/11/1781 and 8, 18/12/1781, ADM 1/1709.

3
. Nelson to Locker, 2/1/1781,
D&L
, 1, p. 52;
Albemarle
musters, ADM 36/10081–82. Those who served as midshipmen aboard the
Albemarle
during Nelson’s command were George Barlow, James Boyd, David Carnegie, George Dawson, Charles Hardy, John Hughes, George Mitchell, Alexander St Clair, John Williams and John Wright. The captain’s servants were John Cussans, Thomas Easton, William Field, James Gregory, John Goodall, Frank Lepee, Samuel Lightfolly, Dennis O’Neal, Samuel Simpkin, Henry Wilson and John Wood.

4
. Nelson to William, 25/1/1782, Add. MSS 34988; Dickson to Stephens, 21, 27/12/1781 and 5/1/1782, ADM 1/1709 and ADM 1/1710; Payne to Stephens, 15/1/1782, ADM 1/2307; Hughes to Stephens, 1–3/1/1782, ADM 1/655.

5
.
DNB
, 10, pp. 186–7.

6
. Nelson to Stephens, 31/1/1782, Add. MSS 34933; report on the
Albemarle
, 1781, ADM 95/30/24.

7
. Hughes to Nelson, 11/1/1782, Add. MSS 34961.

8
. Nelson to William, 8/2/1782, Add. MSS 34988.

9
. Nelson to Hughes, 12/1/1782, Add. MSS 34933.

10
.
Albemarle
log, 26/1/1782, ADM 51/4110; Nelson to William, 28/1/1782, Add. MSS 34988; Nelson to Stephens, 20/1/1782, ADM 1/2223; Nelson to Stephens, 31/1/1782, Add. MSS 34933.

11
. Clarke and McArthur,
Life and Services
, 1, p. 68.

12
. Nelson to William, 25/1/1782, Add. MSS 34988.

13
. Nelson to Proby, 21/1/1782, Add. MSS 34961; NMM: SAN/4, p. 15.

14
. Nelson to Locker, 5/2/1782, 2/4/1782,
D&L
, 1, pp. 56, 61.

15
. Nelson to William, 8/2/1782, Add. MSS 34988.

16
. David Cordingley,
Heroines and Harlots
, pp. 13, 14, 201.

17
. Tom Pocock,
Sailor King
, p. 71. For a discussion of this subject see N. A. M. Rodger,
Wooden World
, pp. 75–81.

18
. Bartholomew Ruspini,
Treatise on Teeth
, p. 64. For an account of mercurial treatments of venereal complaints see William Northcote,
Marine Practice of Physic and Surgery
, 2, chap. 8.

19
. Nelson to Locker, 2/4/1782,
D&L
, 1, p. 61; Nelson to his father, 8/3/1782, NMM: STW/1.

20
. Nelson to Locker, 1/6/1782,
D&L
, 1, p. 64.

21
. Nelson to Locker, 1/6/1782,
D&L
, 1, p. 64; Pringle to Stephens, 25/4/1782, ADM 1/2307;
Daedalus
log, ADM 51/224; Nelson to Worth, 1/7/1782, Add. MSS 34961.

22
. Nelson to Ross, 9/8/1783, Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth.

23
. Nelson to Locker, 19/10/1782,
D&L
, 1, p. 66.

24
. In addition to the logs and musters of the
Albemarle
see the log of the
Pandora
, ADM 51/668, and Inglis to Stephens, 10/9/1782, ADM 1/998.

25
. The logs and muster vary in details. Hinton’s seems to have Nelson taking a Cape Cod schooner on 23 August.

26
. Testimonial for Carver, 17/8/1782, in Tom Pocock,
Young Nelson in the Americas
, p. 175; Gersham Bradford, ‘Nelson in Boston Bay’. Francis William Blagdon,
Orme’s Graphic History
, p. 60, gives a variant account of the episode, based on a letter of 21 December 1805, but the details are not borne out by the ships’ logs. Some historians (for example Colin White,
Nelson Encyclopaedia
, p. 91) have also dismissed the more traditional story of Carver and the
Harmony
, which appears to have come from Bromwich (Clarke and McArthur,
Life and Services
, 1, pp. 72–3) but it is broadly confirmed by the logs and musters. Hinton’s log for 18 August, for instance, reports: ‘Brought to a schooner with stock and vegetables that came off from Plymouth on purpose to supply us.’ However, I have had to modify it. Carver’s name does not appear among the lists of Nelson’s prisoners, and he cannot have been aboard the schooner taken in July, as generally represented.

27
. For this incident see the logs for 15 August 1782; Nelson to Locker, 19/10/1782,
D&L
, 1, p. 66;
D&L
, 1, p. 8; Clarke and McArthur,
Life and Services
, 1, p. 74; Salter to Digby, 2/8/1782, ADM 1/490; and ‘Particulars Respecting the French Fleet Now on the Coast of America’, August 1782, ADM 1/490.

28
. Nelson to Locker, 19/10/1782,
D&L
, 1, p. 66. For scurvy see Christopher Lloyd and
J. L. S. Coulter,
Medicine in the Navy
. The man who died on the
Albemarle
during this period was a seaman, Robert Wild, but his death on 5 September cannot be positively linked to the scurvy.

29
. Clarke and McArthur,
Life and Services
, 1, p. 76. The story is supported by the logs and the pilot’s name appears in the muster.

30
. Mrs Harrower, daughter of James Thompson, quoted by Henry H. Miles, ‘Nelson at Quebec’, p. 271; ‘Catallus’ of 1783, J. M. Le Moine,
Picturesque Quebec
, pp. 232–3. Alexander Davison supplied an account of Nelson’s infatuation for a Canadian girl to Clarke and McArthur,
Life and Services
, 1, pp. 76–7, but did not identify her. In the 1860s local Quebec historians interested themselves in the matter and eventually agreed that the object of Nelson’s attentions was Mary Simpson. See several works by Le Moine:
Album Canadien
, pp. 57–60;
Chronicles of the St Lawrence
, p. 198;
Picturesque Quebec
, pp. 232–5; and
Historical Notes on Quebec
, pp. 85–6; and particularly the paper by Miles, cited above. Following references to
some
of this material by Walter Sichel,
Emma, Lady Hamilton
, p. 157, and Carola Oman,
Nelson
, pp. 46–7, 684–5, several biographers have alluded to Mary Simpson without making any attempt to verify or amplify the information. For the present account the original Canadian sources were re-evaluated, and additional materials examined, to correct misstatements and shed new light on Mary’s circumstances.