Authors: John Sugden
49
. Drake to Nelson, 7/1/1796, and other letters in NMM: CRK/4; Eden to Drake, 21/12/1795, Add. MSS 46825.
50
. Nelson to Nepean, 26/11/1795, ADM 1/2225; Trevor to Nelson, 23/12/1795, Add. MSS 34904.
51
. Spencer to Nelson, 15/1/1796, NMM: CRK/11; Nelson letter, 6/11/1795, Add. MSS 21506: 151; Nelson to Lloyd, 29/1/1798, facsimile in the John Rylands Library, Manchester, MAM PLP78.52.1.
52
. Nelson to Fanny, 2, 7/12/1795, Monmouth MSS, E878; Jervis to Nelson, 29/9/1796, Add. MSS 31166; James Harrison,
Life
, 1, p. 140.
53
. Nelson to Jervis, 21/12/1795, NMM: CRK/14.
54
. Edmund Nelson to Nelson, 3/12/1795, Monmouth MSS, E615.
55
. Jervis to James, 28/6/1797, Add. MSS 31160.
56
. Jervis to Bowen, 23/8/1797, Add. MSS 31160.
57
. Jervis to Aylmer, 31/8/1797, Add. MSS 31160.
58
. Jedediah S. Tucker,
St Vincent
, 2, p. 390; Geoffrey Marcus,
Age of Nelson
, p. 66. More recent studies of Jervis include Evelyn Berckman,
Nelson’s Dear Lord
; the hyperbolic Charles B. Arthur,
Remaking of the English Navy
; Ruddock F. Mackay, ‘Lord St Vincent’s Early Years’; and P. K. Crimmin, ‘John Jervis’. A new biography, written by someone willing to confront a heterogeneous mass of primary material with a cool head, is needed.
59
. Fremantle to William Fremantle, CBS, D-FR/45/2/117.
60
. Jervis’s record on health was also questioned in Christopher C. Lloyd and J. L. S. Coulter,
Medicine in the Navy
.
61
. Lady Elliot to Elliot, 6/12/1795, NLS, 11072: 160.
62
. Jervis to Nelson, 13/1/1796, NMM: CRK/11; Nelson to William, 26/12/1795, Add. MSS 34988; Jervis to Spencer, 13/1/1796, 24/1/1796, Add. MSS 75799.
63
. Anne Fremantle, ed.,
Wynne Diaries
(1935–40), 2, p. 112.
64
. Trevor to Jervis, 27/1/1796, FO 67/20; Nelson to Fanny, 20/1/1796, Monmouth MSS, E883.
65
. Jervis to Trevor, 11/2/1796, Add. MSS 31166; Nelson to Fanny, 27/1/1796, Monmouth MSS, E884; Jervis to Nelson, 21/1/1796, Add. MSS 34938; Jervis to Nepean, 24/1/1796, Add. MSS 31171; Udny to Macartney, 4/1/96, Add. MSS 46825; Nelson to Drake, 27/1/1796, Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Nelson’s letter book for 1796, Monmouth MSS, E987, and the logs of the
Diadem
(ADM 51/1167),
Blanche
(ADM 51/1140),
Meleager
(ADM 51/1210), and
Peterel
(ADM 51/1137) have also been used for the 1796 campaign.
66
. Nelson to Fanny, 12/2/1796, Monmouth MSS, E885.
67
. Nelson to Fanny, 17, 28/2/1796, Monmouth MSS, E886.
68
. Nelson to Drake, 6/4/1796,
D&L
, 2, p. 142; Jervis to Nepean, 18/4/1796, ADM 1/394; Jervis to Elliot, 3/4/1796, NMM: ELL/141; Nelson to Drake, 19/4/1796, and Nelson to Jervis, 18/4/1796, both in NMM: JER/1–2a; Nelson to Drake, 19/4/1796, Monmouth MSS, E987; Nelson to Brame, 14/4/1796, SRRC, 112/16/33: 551.
69
. Jervis to Nelson, 21/3/1796, Add. MSS 31166; Add. MSS 31175: 83; Jervis to Spencer, 28/3/1796, 31/5/1796, Add. MSS 75799, 75793.
70
. Nelson to Jervis, 8/4/1796, NMM: JER/1–2a; Macartney to Drake, 10/1/1796, Add. MSS 46825; Brame to Drake, 11/4/1796, FO 28/14.
71
. The correspondence on this subject is extensive, but see Nelson to Trevor, 24/2/1796, 2/3/1796, FO 67/20; Nelson to Hamilton, 11/3/1796, NMM: JER/1–2a; Nelson to Drake, 15/3/1796, NMM: CRK/14; Hamilton to Jervis, 22/3/1796, 17/5/1796, NMM: HML/10C; Hamilton to Drake, 11, 30/4/1796, FO 28/14, FO 28/15; Hamilton to Trevor, 26/4/1796, NMM: HML/10D; Trevor to Hamilton, 13/4/1796, NMM: HML/11; Trevor to Grenville, 31/3/1796 and Brame to Trevor, 30/3/1796, FO 67/20; and correspondence in Add. MSS 31159: 43; Add. MSS 31175: 105; Add. MSS 39793: 139, 143; Add. MSS 46826: 159; and Egerton MSS 2639: 269, 283.
72
. Drake to Nelson, 6, 12, 29/3/1796, 21/4/1796, NMM: CRK/4; Jervis to Elliot, 3/4/1796, NMM: ELL/141; Jervis to Nelson, 26/4/1796, NMM: CRK/11; Acton to Hamilton, 9/4/1796, Egerton MSS 2639. Several proposals for amphibious operations off the coast appear to have been made. One, of uncertain origin, suggested that Jervis use two or three frigates, some gun launches, a few hundred soldiers and the seamen to destroy enemy batteries and supplies at Vado, Savona and Finale (memorandum, 18/6/1796, SRRC, 112/16/33: 725).
73
. Nelson to Fanny, 9/4/1796, Monmouth MSS, E890; Nelson to Drake, 6/4/1796, Monmouth MSS, E515; Nelson’s proposals to Beaulieu, April 1796, Monmouth MSS, E987; Brame memoranda, NMM: ELL/124.
74
. Brame, 11/4/1796, FO 67/21: 29; Nelson to Trevor, 11/4/1796, FO 67/21.
75
. Nelson to Trevor, 11/4/1796, Monmouth MSS, E987; Eden to Greville, 20/4/1796, FO 7/45; Nelson to Drake, 11/4/1796, FO 28/14; Trevor to Grenville, 13/4/1796, 16/4/1796, FO 67/21.
76
. Trevor to Nelson, 23/5/1796, Add. MSS 34904.
77
. Jervis to Nelson, 11/5/1796, NMM: CRK/11; Jervis to Nepean, 11/5/1796, Add. MSS 31171.
78
. Nelson to Jervis, 8/4/1796, ADM 1/394.
79
. ‘Disposition of the frigates between Toulon and Cape del Mele’, FO 67/21, p. 110; Nelson to Trevor, 19/4/1796, FO 67/21; Nelson to Drake, 19/4/1796, Add. MSS 46835.
80
. Nelson to Jervis, 25/4/1796, ADM 1/394; Nelson to Drake, 28/4/1796, Monmouth MSS, E987;
DNB
, 14, pp. 525–6; logs cited in n. 65 above.
81
. Acton to Hamilton, 3/5/1796, Egerton MSS 2639; Spencer to Nelson, 26/4/1796, 4/5/1796, NMM: CRK/11.
82
. John C. Dann, ed.,
Nagle Journal
, pp. 200–3, contains the sometimes inaccurate memories of a sailor serving aboard the
Blanche
in these raids.
83
. Nelson to Jervis, 1/6/1796, 24/6/1796, ADM 1/394; Nelson to Jervis, 2/6/1796, NMM: JER/1–2a; Nelson to Graham, 19/6/1796, Monmouth MSS, E987; Nelson draft to Genoa, 22/6/1796, NMM: CRK/14; ship’s logs; Edward P. Brenton,
Naval History
, 1, p. 337; Jervis to Coffin, 29/6/1796, Add. MSS 31159; Morriss,
Cockburn
, p. 28.
84
. Jervis to Drake, 11/5/1796, Tucker,
St Vincent
, 1, p. 181; Nelson to Jervis, 14/5/1796, Monmouth MSS, E987; Nelson to Elliot, 16/5/1796, NMM: ELL/138.
85
. Nelson to Jervis, 18/5/1796, NMM: JER/1–2a; Nelson to Drake, 14/5/1796, Monmouth MSS, E987; Drake to Nelson, 24/5/1796, NMM: CRK/4.
86
. Nelson to Jervis, 3/6/1796, NMM: JER/1–2a. James Kemble,
Idols and Invalids
, p. 133,
suggests that these symptoms indicate arteriosclerosis of the coronary arteries (producing angina) or spondylitis deformans, involving arthritis, but at thirty-eight Nelson would seem to have been young for either condition. Moreover, for many years he had complained of chest pains, which may have been related to his tropical disorders.
87
. Jervis to Nelson, 29/6/1796, Add. MSS 34938; Jervis to Nelson, 5/9/1796,
NLTHW
, p. 337.
88
. Nelson to Jervis, 5/6/1796, NMM: JER/1–2a.
89
. Nelson to Fanny, 2/8/1796, Monmouth MSS, E900; Jervis to Nepean, 22/6/1796, ADM 1/394; Jervis to Nelson, 22/5/1796, 1, 7, 8/6/1796, NMM: CRK/11 and Add. MSS 34938: 31, 32.
90
. Jervis to Spencer, 18/7/1796, Add. MSS 75793.
XXII From Flag Captain to Ship-Boy (pp. 605–34)
1
. Barbara E. Rooke, ed.,
The Friend
, 1, p. 572; Richard Holmes,
Coleridge
, chap. 1.
2
. Nelson to Jervis, 28/6/1796,
D&L
, 7, p. lxxxix. The number of transfers mentioned in Jervis to Nelson, 10/6/1796, Add. MSS 31175, is incomplete. This chapter rests heavily on the musters of the
Agamemnon
(ADM 36/11358–62) and
Captain
(ADM 36/11799).
3
. Florence Marryat,
Captain Marryat
, 1, pp. 19–20.
4
. Edward Fraser,
Sailors Nelson Led
, pp. 54–5.
5
. The quotation is from the master’s log for 10/5/1795 (ADM 52/2632). The number and severity of the floggings and the names of the offenders are sometimes given differently in the logs, making precise figures impossible. For example, two soldiers punished for fighting in October 1793 received six lashes each according to one log, and a dozen each in another. Moreover, the severity of the punishment is unrecorded for about 24 per cent of the floggings noted. See also BL: John to Ann Brock, 10/5/1793.
6
. Nelson to the Marine Society, 6/2/1793, Monmouth MSS, E328.
7
. E. G. Thomas, ‘Old Poor Law’, p. 58; R. Leslie-Melville,
Sir John Fielding
, pp. 114–25; James Stephen Taylor,
Jonas Hanway
.
8
. Minutes of the Marine Society, 21/2/1793, NMM: MSY/B/5. For a discussion of boys at sea see Michael Lewis,
Social History of the Navy
, pp. 86–90, 149–55.
9
. The register of the Marine Society, 19 to 21/2/1793, NMM: MSY/0/7, contains the names of twenty boys sent to Nelson, but one never enlisted on the
Agamemnon
, and his place was taken by another originally destined for the
Ramilles
. Of these, three were discharged before the ship left for the Mediterranean, and seventeen sailed. However, the
Agamemnon
muster (ADM 36/11358) lists three additional boys as having been acquired from the Marine Society, though only one actually sailed. One deserted and another requested a discharge in April 1793. As none of the additional boys appear on the Marine Society register, they may have been entered in the muster as charity boys by mistake. John Sugden, ‘Forgotten
Agamemnons
’, addresses these contradictions and gives fuller information. For the Marine Society training ship, see their minutes, 17/1/1793, NMM: MSY/B/5.
10
. Another two boys received two dozen lashes each for theft on 19 October 1794, but they are not identified in the logs, and may not have belonged to the Marine Society contingent.
11
. Of the seventeen Marine Society boys known to have sailed to the Mediterranean, two deserted and one, Thomas Paling, disappears from the musters in 1794, after being disrated a captain’s servant on 11 November 1794, in compliance with the new Admiralty order abolishing that rating. Other boys similarly disrated reappear on the ship’s books as ‘boys’, but Paling seems to have transferred to another ship.
12
. Brian Lavery,
Nelson’s Navy
, p. 134.
13
. BL: John to Ann Brock, 10/5/1793.
14
. Joseph Allen, ‘England’s Wooden Walls’, pp. 346–7. The quotation does not appear in the manuscript version of Allen’s interview with Wilkinson, 15/2/1840, NMM: BGY/W/3. See also Robinson to Nelson, 16/8/1805, and Romano to Nelson, 17/1/1804, Western MSS 3676, Wellcome Library, London; Archibald Johnston petition, 22/9/1802, Monmouth MSS, E122; Nelson to St Vincent, 8/9/1801,
D&L
, 4, p. 486; and ADM 107/5, p. 184 (Collett’s passing certificate). Isaac Collett was about thirteen years old when he joined the
Agamemnon
as a volunteer in November 1794. Nelson rated him midshipman, and he became a lieutenant in 1801, but died without further advancement nineteen years later.
15
. King to Nelson, 15/9/1797, 28/2/1798, Monmouth MSS, E541, and Add. MSS 24906; Add. MSS 31176: 39; and Nelson to King, 9/11/1804,
D&L
, 7, p. ccxix. Remarkably, King’s account book as a petty officer of the
Captain
has survived: BL: A. M. Broadley, ‘Nelsoniana’, p. 3, facing p. 2.
16
. The prize money accounts (Western MSS 3676, Wellcome Library, London) contain the names of some of Nelson’s closest followers. Among the literate were Sykes, Lovell, Thompson and Fearney, though the latter spelt his name phonetically, ‘Fairnie’. Cook, Cooper, Cross, Hagan and Levett signed with crosses. This paragraph also depends upon Lovell, interviewed by Allen, 1840, NMM: BGY/W/3; Matthew H. Barker,
Life of Nelson
, pp. 165–6;
D&L
, 2, p. 405; Sykes to Nelson, 27/9/1797, Add. MSS 34906; Nelson to Hannah Huddlestone, 23/9/1797, NMM: AGC/18/5; and E. H. Fairbrother, ‘John Sykes’.
17
. Villettes to Nelson, 7/7/1795, Add. MSS 34904.
18
. Nelson to Hamilton, 31/8/1794, Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
19
. Nelson to Jervis, 3/6/1796, 7/4/1796, 22/5/1796, NMM: JER/1–2a and NMM: CRK/11; Peirson to Nelson, 17/3/1797, Add. MSS 34905; Hood to Hamilton, 6/5/1794, NMM: CRK/7; and documents in Alfred Morrison, ed.,
Hamilton and Nelson Papers
, 1, p. 193, and 2, pp. 312, 332, 335, 336. Thomas Foley,
Nelson Centenary
, p. 45, identifies Peirson as the son of Marmaduke Langdale Lepinder (later Peirson) by Anne, daughter of William Robinson of Tottenham, which would make him the nephew of the William Robinson posthumously alleged to have seduced Ann Nelson. Nelson was not uncritical of Peirson. ‘I should not have approved of him for a son-in-law, although I believe him to be a very good young man,’ he told Fanny, ‘but I don’t think he will make a pleasant husband. He is too
nice
in his dress and fidgety, and has not the knack of being contented with his situation’ (Nelson to Fanny, 12/7/1797, Monmouth MSS, E935).
20
. Nelson to Jervis, 13/9/1796, Add. MSS 75799; Suckling to Nelson, 22/3/1797, Add. MSS 34988; return of service, 1817, ADM 9/6: no. 1817.
21
. Jervis to Nelson, 7/6/1796, 29/9/1796, NMM: CRK/11 and Add. MSS 31166.
22
. For Bullen see his record of service, 1817, ADM 9/2: no. 22; William O’Byrne,
Naval Biographical Dictionary
, pp. 142–3, 1391; and sources listed in chap. 1, n. 10.
23
. Andrews to Elliot, 16/3/1794, 10/11/1794, NMM: ELL/138; Nelson to Elliot, 5 and 8/4/1795, NMM: ELL/138; Nelson to Fanny, 22/6/1795, Monmouth MSS, E864.
24
. List of appointments, 1793, ADM 1/391; O’Byrne,
Naval Biographical Dictionary
, pp. 1132–3 (Cheetham). The three stand-ins, all supplied in September 1793 and lasting between two and five days, were John Hall, Mungo Weir and John Gourly. Another short-stay lieutenant aboard
Agamemnon
was James McArthur, who stood in for Noble (then a prisoner of the French) from February to April 1796.