Nelson (145 page)

15
. Nelson to Locker, 24/9/1784,
D&L
, 1, 110; Nelson to Cornwallis, 25/10/1784, NMM: COR/58.

16
. Nelson to Locker, 24/9/1784, 23/11/1784, 16/3/1785,
D&L
, 110, 112, 127; Nelson to Cornwallis, 25/10/1784, NMM: COR/58.

17
. Collingwood to Moutray, 17/2/1807, in G. L. Newnham Collingwood, ed.,
Correspondence
, 2, 7; Nelson to Locker, 23/11/1784,
D&L
, 1, 112. A scholarly account of Collingwood is still awaited, but the best of several popular biographies is Oliver Warner,
Life and Letters of Vice-Admiral Lord Collingwood
.

18
. Nelson to Fanny Nisbet, 13/12/1785, 19/8/1786, Monmouth MSS, E795, and
NLTHW
, 33; Nelson to Locker, 24/9/1784,
D&L
, 1, p. 110; A. M. W. Stirling, ed.,
Pages and Portraits
, 1, p. 27; letter of Thomas Luffman, 6/12/1786, Oliver,
History of the Island of Antigua
, 1, p. cxxx.

19
. Nelson to Cornwallis, 25/10/1784, NMM: COR/58.

20
. John Charnock,
Biographia Navalis
, 6, pp. 331–3; Moutray to Stephens, 13/12/1782, ADM 1/2123, and other correspondence of Moutray in ADM 1/2123–2124.

21
. Several of Pemble’s letters are filed with the captain’s in-letters in ADM 1/2307, but see also his passing certificate, 7/2/1744, ADM 107/3; the marriage registers for Belford, Berwick-upon-Tweed Record Office; and
Gentleman’s Magazine
(1784), i, pp. 475–6. Mary’s baptism has not yet been found, but her brief obituary in the
Northern Whig
for 1 June 1841 indicates that she was born in 1750 or 1751. Mary died at the Archdeaconry House at Kells, County Meath, in Ireland on 19 May 1841 in her ninety-first year, and thus appears to have been twenty-seven or twenty-eight years younger than her husband, John Moutray (1723–85).

22
. Marriage registers of Berwick-upon-Tweed, 1771, Berwick-upon-Tweed Record Office, which describes Mary as ‘of this parish’; Augustus J. C. Hare,
Life and Letters
, 1, p. 234; Christina Colvin, ed.,
Maria Edgeworth
, p. 356. I am following Edgeworth’s biographers in presuming her references were to our Mary Moutray and not the younger namesake of Favour Royal, County Tyrone. Mary was misidentified in John Armstrong Moutray, ‘Notes on the Name of Moutray’, and errors continue to be made about her in Nelson literature. Eric Bodger of Formby, Liverpool, never published his pioneering
research on the subject, but his files in the Nelson Museum, Monmouth, remain the essential starting point. See also Tom Pocock, ‘Captain Nelson and Mrs Moutray’ and ‘“My Dear Sweet Friend”’.

Fortuitously three portraits of Mary Moutray survived until recent times. A chalk and wash half-length profile, made by John Downman in 1781, was formerly in the collection of Sir Henry Ponsonby and recently published by Tom Pocock (Pocock, ‘Captain Nelson and Mrs Moutray’ and ‘“My Dear Sweet Friend”’). Sadly the other two portraits, one showing Mary when young and the other in her later years, have been lost. Some time before 1942 a Miss Colston of Ranelagh, Dublin, donated them with related papers and relics to the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin, apparently in the belief that the family line had been extinguished and another safe haven was needed. In 1942 a separate branch of the Moutray family attempted to repossess the portraits, but the Museum declined to part with them, and only allowed copies to be made. Twenty-six years later Eric Bodger, researching a book on Mary Moutray, acquired coloured photographs of both portraits from the Museum. ‘The better portrait shows her in her later years,’ he wrote, ‘and the expression is one of great humour and intelligence; it is evident that, as a girl, she would be [have been] lovely rather than beautiful’ (Bodger to Kathleen Moutray, 14/5/1968, and Moutray to Bodger, 23/1/1968, Monmouth MSS, Bodger file). Unfortunately, since 1968 the Museum appears to have lost the Colston–Moutray deposit, including the portraits, and my several efforts over a six-month period to induce a sustained search have been unsuccessful. The National Gallery of Ireland has assured me that the portraits are not in its custody, and I continue to believe that they are somewhere in the National Museum.

23
. Collingwood,
Correspondence
, 1, pp. 11–12, and 2, p. 278; and Pigot to Collingwood, 21/7/1783, Add. MSS 14272.

24
. Nelson to Locker, 24/9/1784,
D&L
, 1, p. 110; Nelson to William, 16/3/1785, 3/5/1785, Add. MSS 34988. Dorothea, the only daughter of John F. Scrivener of Suffolk, eventually married Dr J. Fisher, Bishop of Salisbury, who may have been a better catch than William Nelson.

25
. Collingwood,
Correspondence
, 1, p. 13. These portraits were first reproduced in Oliver Warner,
Portrait of Lord Nelson
. Comparing the logs of the
Boreas
and
Mediator
(ADM 51/589) it is possible to suggest when these interesting experiments were made. The two ships were both in English Harbour on 3–5 December 1784 and 7–11 March 1785. It was most likely on the latter occasion, just before Mary left Antigua, that the incident happened, though Nelson was also at English Harbour on occasions when Collingwood was at nearby St John’s: 24 December 1784–3 January 1785 and 5–9 February 1785.

26
. Nelson to William, 24/10/1784, Add. MSS 34988.

27
. Hughes to Stephens, 23/9/1784, ADM 1/312. Basic manuscript sources for this chapter are filed in CO 152/64, ADM 1/312, ADM 1/2223, Add. MSS 34961 (Nelson letter book), and Add. MSS 14272 (Collingwood papers). Useful published sources are
D&L
, vol. 1, and Rawson,
Letters from the Leeward Islands
.

28
. Certificate, 23/4/1785, Western MSS 3668. Wellcome Library, London. For personnel see the
Boreas
muster and pay book: ADM 36/10525 and ADM 35/242. Oliver was discharged to the
Union
on 1 May 1785 and Stansbury to the
Whitby
on 22 June following.

29
. Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy,
Empire Divided
, p. 246.

30
. Brian S. Kirby, ‘Nelson and American Merchantmen’, p. 139.

31
. Collingwood to Hughes, 21/8/1784, Add. MSS 14272.

32
. Nelson to Locker, 5/3/1786,
D&L
, 1, p. 156; Hughes to his officers, 12/11/1784, Add. MSS 14272. For this controversy see also Nelson’s account of his proceedings, 1786, William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

33
. Nelson to William, 20/2/1785, Add. MSS 34988. Nelson’s map (PRO: MPI 1/95) shows his frigate’s anchorage as Boreas Cove.

34
. Nelson to Hughes, 8/9/1784, Add. MSS 34961.

35
. Collingwood to Martin, 1784, Add. MSS 14272; Collingwood to Shirley, 16/12/1784, Add. MSS 14272. Collingwood’s interpretation of these two early cases was flatly contradicted by the customs house at St John’s. ‘I know of no breach of the laws of trade committed by the masters of these vessels,’ Samuel Martin, the collector of customs, informed Collingwood on 14 February 1785.

36
. Burton to Shirley, 17/12/1784, CO 152/64.

37
. Martin to Collingwood, 27/12/1784 and Shirley to Collingwood, 20/12/1784, Add. MSS 14272; Shirley to Hughes, 18/12/1784, CO 152/64.

38
. Hughes to the fleet, 30/12/1784, CO 152/64.

39
. Council minutes, St Kitts, 7, 8/1/1785, CO 241/18; Kirby, ‘Nelson and American Merchantmen’, p. 141; statement of June 1785,
D&L
, 1, p. 136; account of the proceedings of Captain Nelson, 1786, William L. Clements Library.

40
. Nelson to Hughes, 9/1/1785, Add. MSS 34961.

41
. Collingwood to Hughes, 13/1/1785, Add. MSS 14272.

42
. Nelson to Locker, 15/1/1785,
D&L
, 1, p. 113.

43
. Hughes to captains, 29/12/1784; Hughes to Moutray, 29/12/1784, ADM 1/312.

44
.
DNB
, 10, pp. 186–7.

45
. Collingwood to Hughes, 13/1/1785, Add. MSS 14272.

46
. Nelson to Hughes, 9/1/1785, Add. MSS 34961.

47
. Nelson to Sandys and Nelson to Moutray, 6/2/1785, Add. MSS 34961; Moutray to Nelson, 6/2/1785, ADM 1/312.

48
. This follows the
Boreas
log.

49
. Nelson to Locker, 5/3/1786,
D&L
, 1, p. 156.

50
. Nelson to Stephens, 17/2/1785, ADM 1/2223; Nelson to Hughes, 12/2/1785, Add. MSS 34961.

51
. Moutray to Hughes, 8/2/1785, ADM 1/312; Nelson to William, 24/10/1784, Add. MSS 34988.

52
. Hughes to Nelson, 14/2/1785, Add. MSS 34961.

53
. Nelson to Hughes, 15/2/1785 and February 1785, Add. MSS 34961; Hughes to Stephens, 14/2/1785, ADM 1/312.

54
. A photocopy of the Admiralty’s ‘instructions for John Moutray, Esq.,’ is in Monmouth MSS, Bodger file.

55
. Collingwood to his sister, 2/1/1785, E. Hughes, ed.,
Private Correspondence
, p. 16.

56
. Nelson to William, 20/2/1785, Add. MSS 34988.

57
. Nelson to William, 16/3/1785, Add. MSS 34988.

58
. Collingwood,
Correspondence
, 1, p. 13.

59
. Nelson to Locker, 16/3/1785,
D&L
, 1, p. 127.

60
. Nelson to William, 3/5/1785, Add. MSS 34988.

61
. Nelson to Collingwood, 28/9/1785,
D&L
, 1, p. 143; Moutray’s correspondence with the Admiralty in ADM 1/2124.

62
. Nelson to Fanny, 17/4/1786, Monmouth MSS, E750; marriage settlement, 21/8/1771, Monmouth MSS, Bodger file; will of John Moutray, 16/8/1779, PRO: PROB 11/136, no. 611. The properties concerned were Roxobie, Manor Place, Bowlies farm, Redcraigs and Weddergrowing in the parish of Dunfermline, Fife.

63
. Kate Moutray married De Lacey at Westbourne, Sussex, on 29 February 1806.

64
. Nelson to Fanny, 25/12/1795, Monmouth MSS, E880; photocopy of Nelson to Moutray, 22/8/1803, in Monmouth MSS, Bodger file.

65
. Collingwood to Moutray, 1/11/1808, Collingwood,
Correspondence
, 2, p. 278. See also 2, pp. 7, 366, and Collingwood to Nelson, 13/14/1797, Add. MSS 34906.

XIII Old Officers and Young Gentlemen (pp. 282–307)

1
. Shirley’s petition for a baronetcy (granted 1786), CO 152/64; address to Shirley, 1785, CO 152/64; Arthur P. Watts, ed.,
Nevis and St Christopher’s
. Coincidentally, the absentee lieutenant governor of Antigua was then Major Robert Mathews, a Canadian acquaintance of Nelson who later married Mary Simpson.

2
. Shirley to Lord North, 27/7/1783, CO 152/63; Shirley, 3/11/1781, Vere Langford Oliver,
History of the Island of Antigua
, 1, p. cxxv; Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy,
Empire Divided
, p. 197.

3
. For the pre-revolutionary trade of the West Indian islands see Richard Pares,
Yankees and Creoles
.

4
. Thomas Jarvis and Rowland Burton for the assembly, 28/7/1783, CO 152/63.

5
. John Luffman, 15/2/1787, Oliver,
History of the Island of Antigua
, 1, p. cxxxi.

6
. Burton for the assembly, 9/10/1783, CO 152/63.

7
. Shirley to Sydney, 9/2/1784, enclosing petition of St Kitts, CO 152/63; Shirley to Sydney, May and 30/7/1784, CO 152/63.

8
. Shirley to Sydney, January 1785, CO 152/64; Sydney to Shirley, 7/11/1784, CO 152/63.

9
. Shirley to Nelson, 15/1/1785, Add. MSS 34961.

10
. Shirley to Presidents of Councils, 15/1/1785, CO 152/64.

11
. Collingwood to Bennett, 15/1/1785 (two letters), Bennett to Collingwood, 15/1/1785, and other documents relating to the
Nancy
in Add. MSS 34961; Nelson to Stephens, 18/1/1785, ADM 1/2223. For the admission that Collingwood’s interpretation of the law was correct, see customs officers at St John’s, Antigua, to the collector of customs at Nevis, 3/2/1786, CO 152/64.

12
. Collingwood to Shirley, 11/1/1785, Add. MSS 14272; Nelson to Shirley, 29/1/1785, Add. MSS 34961.

13
. Nelson to Shirley, 29/1/1785, Add. MSS 34961.

14
. Shirley to Nelson, 5 and 9/2/1785, Add. MSS 34961.

15
. Nelson to Shirley, 1/3/1785, Add. MSS 34961.

16
. Shirley to Nelson, 1/3/1785, Add. MSS 34961.

17
. Nelson to Shirley, undated, Add. MSS 34961.

18
. Sydney to Shirley, 9/4/1785, CO 152/64; Parry to Sydney, 2/4/1785, CO 28/60.

19
. Nelson to William, 20/2/1785, 16/3/1785, 13/12/1785 and 29/12/1786, Add. MSS 34988;
Boreas
pay book, ADM 35/242. William’s servant, William Kirby, was also kept on the roll. Nelson’s ruse was unsuccessful, even though he visited the Navy Office on 20 December 1787 to persuade the government to pay the fictitious wages. He was told that William would not be paid from the day he sailed to England. See Nelson to William, 20/12/1787, NMM: BRP/6.

20
. Nelson to Locker, 5/3/1786,
D&L
, 1, p. 156.

21
. The case of the
Friends/Polly
can be explored in Wilfred Collingwood’s correspondence with the customs officials of St Kitts, April 1785, filed in ADM 1/312: 460–3.

22
. Nelson to Sydney, 20/3/1785,
D&L
, 1, p. 129.

23
. Martin to Collingwood, 9/5/1785, Add. MSS 14272. Collingwood had intercepted the
Pollies
, built in 1782. Martin argued the owners were ‘suffering Loyalists’ and accepted the (erroneous) view of Rowland Burton, the king’s counsel, that American ships built before 1783 should be deemed British. For this see the correspondence between Collingwood and Martin in the above letter book. In March 1785 Nelson found a Spanish ship unloading illegal cargo, but could not interest the customs in preventing it: Nelson to customs, 23/3/1785, Add. MSS 34961.

24
. Printed sources may be found in
D&L
, vol. 1 and Geoffrey Rawson, ed.,
Letters from the Leeward Islands
, but see additionally Nelson’s representation, 5/5/1785, and Nelson
to the attorney general, 2 and 3/5/1785, Add. MSS 34961; and (for this and the next paragraph) ‘List of Vessels Seized’, ADM 1/312: 464.