Nelson (148 page)

62
. William Henry to Nelson, 3/12/1787, NMM: STW/7.

63
. Nelson to William, 20/12/1787, NMM: BRP/6. Andrews had passed his examination for lieutenant on 4 October 1787 (ADM 107/10, p. 224) and been posted elsewhere two days later.

64
. Nelson to Stephens, 29/8/1787, 21/9/1787, 30/9/1787, ADM 1/2223; Nelson to the Navy Board, 30/9/1787, ADM 106/1290.

65
. Wallis was promoted commander on 20 January 1794 and post-captain in 1797. He died in 1808. In addition to
D&L
, 1, see Nelson to Adye, 4/9/1787, Monmouth MSS, E29.

66
. Nelson to Stephens, 18/7/1787, ADM 1/2223.

67
. Nelson to Locker, 12/8/1787,
D&L
, 1, p. 251.

68
. Hood to Stephens, 17 and 19/8/1787, NMM: Hoo/7.

69
. M. Eyre Matcham,
Nelsons of Burnham Thorpe
, p. 45.

70
. Fanny’s recollections,
NLTHW
, p. 61; Clarke and McArthur,
Life and Services
, 1, pp. 149–50.

71
. Clarke and McArthur,
Life and Services
, 1, pp. 148–9; Edwards to Nelson, 20/10/1787, Western MSS 3668, Wellcome Library, London. I have not yet confirmed this story from contemporary sources.

72
. Nelson to Ross, 6/5/1788, Add. MSS 34903.

XVI Beachcombing (pp. 373–412)

1
. Nelson to William, 20/12/1787, 3/1/1788, NMM: BRP/6 and Add. MSS 34988. Many letters for this chapter are published in
D&L
, and Add. MSS 34902, 34903 and 34988 are the most important manuscript sources. M. Eyre Matcham,
Nelsons of Burnham Thorpe
, has essential selections from the correspondence between the Reverend Edmund Nelson and his daughter, Kitty Matcham.

2
. Nelson to Long, 7/8/1793, Add. MSS 34902; Nelson to Stephens, 26/12/1788, Add. MSS 34902; and Nelson to William, 20/12/1787, NMM: BRP/6.

3
. Nelson to Stephens, 29/12/1787, ADM 1/2223.

4
. For this episode see
Gentleman’s Magazine
(1787), ii, pp. 1188–90;
Morning Chronicle
(London), 18/12/1787;
Whole Proceedings on the King’s Commission of the Peace, Oyer and Terminer, and Gaol Delivery for the City of London
; H. L. Cryer, ‘Horatio Nelson and the Murderous Cooper’ (which drew it to modern attention); M. Ramsay, ‘Nelson, Carse and Eighteenth-Century Justice’; and Chatham to Nelson, enclosing Nepean to Chatham, both 11/4/1789, Add. MSS 34903.

5
. Nelson to Locker, 27/1/1788,
D&L
, 1, p. 266.

6
. Nelson to Ross, 6/5/1788, Add. MSS 34903.

7
. Letters of Wilkinson and Higgins to Nelson and the Sick and Hurt Board, both 30/1/1788, Add. MSS 34903.

8
. Ordnance Board to Wilkinson and Higgins, 11/6/1788, and Richmond to Nelson, 27/12/1788, Add. MSS 34933.

9
. Nelson to Wilkinson and Higgins, 26/4/1788, Add. MSS 34902.

10
. Letters to Wilkinson and Higgins from the Victualling Board (30/4/1788), Sick and Hurt Board (6/5/1788) and the Ordnance Board (11/6/1788), all in Add. MSS 34903; Sick and Hurt Board to Nelson, 22/4/1788, Add. MSS 34933; Nelson, 30/4/1788, and Nelson to Sick and Hurt Board, April 1788,
D&L
, 1, pp. 271, 272.

11
. Middleton note, 2/6/1788, Add. MSS 34933: 10, and Nelson to William Henry, 2/6/1788,
D&L
, 1, p. 275.

12
. Fanny’s recollections,
NLTHW
, p. 61.

13
. James Harrison,
Life
, 1, p. 95;
Public Characters
, p. 7; and, for this and the following paragraph, Matcham,
Nelsons of Burnham Thorpe
, pp. 37, 46, 53, 57, 59, 66–7, 74, 76. In addition to the sources for family history listed in chap. 2, n. 1, see various documents in Alfred Morrison,
Hamilton and Nelson Papers
, vol. 2.

14
. Matcham,
Nelsons of Burnham Thorpe
, pp. 45, 55, 57.

15
. Marriage settlement, 20/7/1780, NMM: PHB/P/24. Thomas Foley,
Nelson Centenary
, 30.

16
. Matcham is discussed in Foley,
Nelson Centenary
, p. 25; Matcham,
Nelsons of Burnham Thorpe
, pp. 30–6; and
DNB
, 13, p. 27.

17
.
Norfolk Chronicle
, 1/3/1788, and, for Charlotte’s early years, Tom Pocock,
Nelson’s Women
, ch. 9.

18
. Matcham,
Nelsons of Burnham Thorpe
, pp. 60–1. Nelson also used his London visits to renew naval friendships by dining at the ‘Royal Naval Club of 1765’ and the ‘Navy Club of 1785’. He attended two such dinners in 1788 and one in 1789: Oliver Warner,
Nelson
, p. 47.

19
. Lady Nelson’s account,
NLTHW
, p. 61.

20
. Matcham,
Nelsons of Burnham Thorpe
, pp. 77, 79–81, 88–9, 108; Martin to Lettsom, 1801, in James Hooper,
Nelson’s Homeland
, p. 69; Nelson to Katy, 13/10/1792, NMM: MAM.

21
. Nelson to Cornwallis, 8/10/1788, NMM: COR/58;
D&L
, 1, p. 277; Chatham to Nelson, March 1789, Add. MSS 34903.

22
. Nelson to Locker, 10/9/1789,
D&L
, 1, p. 281.

23
. G. E. Mingay,
The Gentry
, p. 138. Among useful social histories of the period, I have particularly consulted John Rule,
Albion’s People
, and J. C. D. Clark,
English Society
.

24
. William Faden,
Map of Norfolk
.

25
. Harrison,
Life
, 1, pp. 97–8, and Clarke and McArthur,
Life and Services
, 1, pp. 158–60, give details of Nelson’s domestic life drawn from people close to him. See also Matcham,
Nelsons of Burnham Thorpe
, p. 63.

26
. Marsh and Creed accounts in Morrison,
Hamilton and Nelson Papers
, 2, p. 382–99, and Geoffrey Rawson, ed.,
Letters from the Leeward Islands
, pp. 67–9; Nelson and William to the Bank of England, 19/11/1788, Warren R. Dawson, ed.,
Nelson Collection
, p. 289; Nelson to William, 31/10/1792, NMM: BRP/6;
Boreas
pay book, ADM 35/242; and Nelson to Fanny, 12/3/1793, Monmouth MSS, E776.

27
. Land tax records, 1796–7, and the parish registers of Burnham Thorpe, both in the Norfolk Record Office.

28
. Matcham,
Nelsons of Burnham Thorpe
, pp. 72, 77. Maurice Nelson’s letters to Sukey date from 24 December 1793 to 3 June 1794, and were written from Exeter, Cowes and Southampton. Sukey was a short form for Susannah in the eighteenth century. Maurice asked to be remembered to Susannah/Susan and Colin (?), the former a child learning her letters and both presumably Sukey’s children. Maurice also indicated that Sukey had prevailed upon Andrews ‘to let her [Susannah] stay with you’, which suggests he was the father. The letters, filed in NMM: CRK/22, also refer to Maurice’s dealings with Horatio’s old companion, Alexander Davison. For Maurice’s appointment as a commissary see J. M. Collinge,
Navy Board Officials
, p. 125.

29
. R. C. Fiske,
Notices of Nelson
, p. 26; Matcham,
Nelsons of Burnham Thorpe
, pp. 64–5, 77, 107. I have not discovered the fate of Sophia Nelson, Suckling’s wife. She does not appear in the burials at North Elmham for that period, but as her husband was contemplating marriage to a ‘young woman . . . decently brought forward in a line of mediocrity’ in 1796 she must have died: Edmund to Nelson, 5/8/1796, Monmouth MSS, E622.

30
. Matcham,
Nelsons of Burnham Thorpe
, pp. 76–7;
NLTHW
, p. 64;
D&L
, 1, p. 290.

31
. Matcham,
Nelsons of Burnham Thorpe
, p. 86; A. M. W. Stirling, ed.,
Coke of Norfolk
, 1, p. 346; Gillian Ford, ‘Nelson References in Holkham Game Books’; Gillian Ford, ‘Coke and Nelson’;
The Poll For Knights of the Shire for the County of Norfolk
, p. 203.

32
. Matcham,
Nelsons of Burnham Thorpe
, p. 87; Nelson to Kitty, 15/12/1792, NMM: MAM; Nelson to Bolton, 23 and 30/4/1792, NMM: GIR/1; accounts with Bolton, Western MSS 3676, Wellcome Library, London; and Nelson to William, 5/2/1792, Add. MSS 34988.

33
. Nelson to Bolton, 11/12/1791, NMM: GIR/1; Nelson to William, 20/4/1792, NMM: BRP/6; and Nelson to Kate Matcham, NMM: MAM. If these references were to Kitty Crowe, she eventually married a surgeon named Helsham in 1795 (Edmund to Nelson, 5/8/1794, 5/10/1795, Monmouth MSS, E610, E613).

34
. Accounts with Bolton, Western MSS 3676, Wellcome Library; Nelson to Bolton, 11/12/1791, 23/4/1792, 30/4/1792, NMM: GIR/1; Nelson to Bolton, 7/5/1792, NMM: TRA/12; and Nelson to William, 18/11/1788, NMM: BRP/6.

35
. Nelson to Kitty, 13/10/1792, NMM: MAM; Matcham,
Nelsons of Burnham Thorpe
, p. 65; will of Mary Nelson, 6/8/1769, PROB 11/1183: 467; and
Norfolk Chronicle
, 28/7/1789.

36
. Matcham,
Nelsons of Burnham Thorpe
, p. 69, and Nelson to Bolton, 14/12/1789, NMM: GIR/1.

37
. Nelson to William, 5/2/1792, Add. MSS 34988.

38
. Cochrane devised a method to increase the rate of fire aboard the
Pallas
when double-shotting his guns, and Broke experimented with non-recoil systems for his artillery: John Sugden, ‘Lord Cochrane’, pp. 87–91; Peter Padfield,
Broke of the Shannon
; and Peter Padfield,
Guns at Sea
. For the development of fleet tactics John Creswell,
British Admirals
; Brian Tunstall and Nicholas Tracy,
Naval Warfare
; Nicholas Tracy,
Nelson’s Battles
; and Peter Le Fevre and Richard Harding, eds,
Precursors of Nelson
, are particularly recommended.

39
. Collingwood to Moutray, 10/3/1806, G. L. Newnham Collingwood, ed.,
Correspondence
, 1, p. 277.

40
. Oliver Warner, ‘Collingwood and Nelson’, p. 318.

41
. Council minutes, Antigua, 4/6/1788, CO 152/68, and Wilkinson and Higgins to Nelson, 24/4/1789, Add. MSS 34903. Documents relating to this affair are scattered through Add. MSS 34903 and 34933, only some of which were selected by Clarke and McArthur,
Life and Services
, pp. 161–7, and
D&L
, 1, pp. 278–80, 283–4. The minutes of the Navy Board are disappointing on the subject, though there are occasional references (for example, 21/1/1789 in ADM 106/2629 and 3/11/1789 and 22/12/1789 in ADM 106/2631).

42
. Nelson to Wilkinson and Higgins, 24/1/1789,
D&L
, 1, p. 278. The letters from the Victualling and Sick and Hurt Boards and Ordnance Office to Nelson are filed in Add. MSS 34933: 6, 14, 16.

43
. Richmond to Nelson, 16/1/1789, Add. MSS 34933; Alison Gilbert Olson,
The Radical Duke
, chaps 5, 6.

44
. Nelson to Wilkinson and Higgins, 28/11/1789, Add. MSS 34933; Clarke and McArthur,
Life and Services
, 1, pp. 166–7; Nelson’s sketch of his services, 1790s, NMM: STW/2; and Wilkinson petition, 27/6/1797, ADM 106/1653.

45
. Victualling Board to Nelson, 19, 23/6/1789, Add. MSS 34933. The board offered to receive observations in writing if Nelson was unable to travel to London, but it appears that he did make the journey.

46
. Nelson to Wilkinson, 7/3/1798, enclosed in Wilkinson to Hamond, 24/3/1798, ADM 106/1653;
Gentleman’s Magazine
, 61 (1791), p. 1235, and 68 (1798), p. 730.

47
. Nelson to Adye, 4/9/1787, Monmouth MSS, E29, and Venables, Buggin and Bleasdale to Nelson, 5/3/1790, ADM 1/2223. Nelson’s trip to London is revealed by a letter from 23 Norfolk Street, Strand (Nelson to Stephens, 11/2/1790, ADM 1/2223) regarding the deduction of an overpayment of £17 for his services with the
Hinchingbroke
and
Janus
. Nelson’s comparative penury is evident in his request that, since his half-pay was to be docked, he be paid for his command of the fort at Port Royal in 1779, although that service was not the strict responsibility of the Admiralty.

48
. Venables, Buggin and Bleasdale writ, 26/4/1790, enclosed in Nelson’s letter of the same date to Stephens, ADM 1/2223.

49
. Pole to Nelson, 29/4/1790, Add. MSS 34903;
D&L
, 1, p. 287. Clarke and McArthur,
Life and Services
, 1, pp. 160–1, embroidered the account of Lady Nelson (
NLTHW
, p. 61) but neither is entirely consistent with the contemporary documents.

50
. Nelson to Graham, 8/6/1790, Huntington Library, San Marino, California; Nelson, 12/11/1790, Add. MSS 34902.

51
. Nelson to William Henry, 24/6/1790, 10/12/1790, Add. MSS 34902; Nelson to Stephens, 8/5/1790, ADM 1/2223; Nelson to Graham, 8/6/1790, Huntington Library; Edmund Nelson to Nelson, 11/10/1790, NMM: BRP/5; and Edmund Nelson to Sarah Nelson, 21/10/1790, in Foley,
Nelson Centenary
, p. 26. For the international crisis itself see Paul Webb, ‘Naval Aspects of the Nootka Sound Crisis’.

52
. Hood to Nelson, 9/7/1790, J. H. Godfrey, ed., ‘Corsica, 1794’, p. 364.

53
. Suckling to Nelson, 1/10/1790, Add. MSS 34988; Nelson to Chatham, 26/9/1790, and Mulgrave to Nelson, 17/11/1790,
D&L
, 1, p. 289; Foley,
Nelson Centenary
, p. 25; and Clarence to Nelson, Add. MSS 34902: 31.

54
. Nelson, ‘Sketch’,
D&L
, 1, p. 10; Nelson to Clarence, 10/12/1792, Add. MSS 34902; Nelson to William, 5/2/1792, Add. MSS 34988.

55
. Nelson to Cornwallis, 4/4/1791, Hist. MSS Comm.,
Various Collections
, 6, p. 365; Matcham,
Nelsons of Burnham Thorpe
, p. 83.

56
. Nelson to Navy Board, 14/3/1791, ADM 106/1392, and Matcham,
Nelsons of Burnham Thorpe
, pp. 88, 90. The Trail affair is another episode missed by biographers. Nelson’s father mentions the trial without identifying it.

57
. Add. MSS 34902: 148.

58
. For these trials see HCA 1/25/138–212 (indictments); HCA 1/61, pp. 166–72 (Kimber), 173–6 (Trail) (minutes);
The Times
, 8–11/6/1792;
Norfolk Chronicle
, 9/6/1792;
Trial of Captain John Kimber
. Trail was apparently a Londoner, and his wife, who accompanied her husband aboard the
Neptune
, subsequently knew Maurice Nelson and his partner: Maurice to Sukey, 27/3/1794, NMM: CRK/22.