The fate of Emma Bertie is told in the Musters’ family memoir in the Norfolk Record Office: HMN5/235/5.
Peter Heywood’s 1810 handwritten “last will and testament” is found in MNHL MS MD 400, and is used with the kind permission of the Manx National Heritage; Adm. 52/4196, the log of the Nereus, gives details of the day on which the will was drafted. John Makin’s profession is listed in Kent’s Directory, For the Year 1794. Cities of London and Westminster, & Borough of Southwark, available at www.londonancestor.com/kents/kents-m.htm.
Aaron Graham’s obituary is found in The Annual Biography and Obituary (1820), pp. 402-22. The story of Aaron Graham, his wife, Sarah, and her first cousin Sir Henry Tempest, although a wild digression, is too diverting to pass over. Sir Henry, having squandered his own meager fortune, set his sights upon Susannah Pritchard Lambert, the only daughter and heiress of Henry Lambert of Hope End, Hereford. Disguising himself as a female gypsy, Sir Henry met with the impressionable girl on her village green and told her that she would meet her future husband if she went at a certain hour to Colwall Church. This she did, where she met Sir Henry, now in his own guise. The subsequent marriage placed all the young woman’s property in her husband’s hands, and Sir Henry was shortly to turn both his wife and father-in-law out of their homes, while he assumed the Lambert estate. Following the court-martial, Nessy Heywood had been caught up in a whirl of social activity, and one finds her writing giddily of her recent visit to Lady Tempest, “a charming girl about my own age.” The dynamics of the dark drama being played out beneath her nose apparently entirely escaped her. Lady Tempest was eventually disowned by her dispossessed father and toward the end of her short life could be found wandering forlornly and destitute up the Holloway Road. Her death was the origin of a local legend of the “ghost of Holloway.”
Graham appears to have remained on good terms with his errant wife after she left him for Sir Henry, for he spoke warmly of her in his will, and left her his estate (PROB 11/1612, 167r-169l), as did Sir Henry (PROB 11/1613, 386l-389r). Regrettably, nothing more is known of this intriguing woman. Material relating to the life of Sir Henry was kindly provided by H. R. Tempest, and by the Hereford Record Office (Documents AE33/2; AE33/3; E27/1). I am particularly grateful to John Harnden for digging into Sir Henry’s unsavory life. Hope End was sold in 1809 to the Moulton-Barretts, formerly of Jamaica and the parents of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who evokes the estate in her poem “The Lost Bower.” The Moulton-Barretts eventually sold Hope End to antiquary Thomas Heywood.
Banks’s final years and excerpts from his will are described in Patrick O’Brian, Joseph Banks: A Life (Chicago, 1997), pp. 303ff. “[T]o leave Joseph Banks on his deathbed, with the usual remarks about his will and his funeral, and extracts from the obituaries, would not only be sad but also misleading,” O’Brian writes. “[T]here was such a fund of life there, such a zest and eager intelligent curiosity that no one who has dwelt with him long enough to write even a very small biography can leave him without wishing to show him in his vigour.”
Peter Heywood’s letter to James Clark Ross, January 25, 1829, is found in the National Library of Scotland, MS 9819, ff. 160-61r, and is quoted with their kind permission. Heywood’s notation of secret signals is found in “Seven Official orders received and given by Captain P. Heywood. 1810-1815,” in ATL, MS 56/068, and is quoted with the library’s kind permission.
Coleridge’s comments about the Duchess of St. Albans, his neighbor, are found in Earl Leslie Griggs, ed., Collected Letters of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, vol. 6, 1826-1834 (Oxford, 1971), p. 468. The comment by Heywood’s stepdaughter on Coleridge is in L’Estrange, Lady Belcher and Friends, p. 70.
For a summation of Edward Belcher’s career, see the Dictionary of National Biography (London, 1917); and Alfred Friendly, Beaufort of the Admiralty: The Life of Sir Francis Beaufort, 1774-1857 (London, 1977), p. 257. The quote regarding life on the ice being preferable to life with Belcher is from Fergus Fleming’s Barrow’s Boys (New York, 1998), p. 391. The sentiment that Belcher was an agent of the devil is found in Christopher Lloyd, Mr. Barrow of the Admiralty (London, 1970), p. 200. Edward Belcher was also the first cousin of Captain Frederick Marryat, the author of the celebrated series of sea novels (L’Estrange, Lady Belcher and Friends, pp. 100ff.).
The astonishing divorce case of Belcher v. Belcher, a great document of social history of the time, is found in Joseph Phillimore and Sir Robert J. Phillimore, A Report of the Judgment Delivered on the Sixth Day of June, 1835 by Joseph Phillimore, In the Cause of Belcher, the Wife, against Belcher, the Husband (London, 1835). This also contains correspondence between husband and wife relating to Peter Heywood. I am enormously indebted to Terry Martin for drawing my attention to this, and for the loan of his working manuscript, “There Rises Something Bitter: The Poisoned Marriage of Edward and Diana Belcher, 1830-1835.”
Belcher’s log of the Blossom, “Private Journal and remarks etc. H.M. Ship Blossom on discovery during the years 1825, 6, 7 Captn. F. W. Beechey Commander, by Edward Belcher, Supy. Lieut. & Assistant Surveyor,” MS-0158, is quoted with the kind permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library.
Heywood’s intercession for the Tahitians is found in Captains Letters “H,” Adm. 1/1953. His letter regarding the Tahitians is quoted in Tagart, A Memoir of the Late Captain Peter Heywood, pp. 285ff.
For Heywood’s last months and his death, see Diana Belcher’s letters of October 20 and 22, 1830, in Phillimore and Phillimore, Report of the Judgment. For a description of the burial and vault of Coleridge, see “Appendix A: The Death and Burial of Coleridge,” in Griggs, Collected Letters, vol. 6, pp. 991-97. Heywood’s vault is described in John Richardson, Highgate: Its History Since the Fifteenth Century (Hertfordshire, 1983), p. 109.
Peter’s remarks on the role of George Stewart were published in Barrow, Eventful History of the Mutiny, p. 85; the rumor of Christian’s return is found at pp. 233 ff.
The earliest spurious pamphlet is Letters From Mr. Fletcher Christian, Containing a Narrative of the Transactions on Board His Majesty’s Ship Bounty, Before and After the Mutiny, With His Subsequent Voyages and Travels in South America (London, 1796). This was reviewed in the True Briton, September 13, 1796; the same newspaper then disavowed the letters in a retraction published on September 23, 1796.
Bligh’s comments to Banks about Christian in a letter of September 16, 1796, are in SLNSW: the Sir Joseph Banks Electronic Archive, 58.09. Wordsworth’s letter appeared in The Weekly Entertainer, November 1796, p. 377.
For the later spurious account, see Statements of the Loss of His Majesty’s New Ship The Bounty, W. Bligh, Esq. Commander, By a Conspiracy of the Crew . . . “As communicated by Lieutenant Christian, the Ringleader, to a Relation in England” (London, c. 1809). Heywood’s reaction to the news is recorded in Tagart, A Memoir of the Late Captain Peter Heywood, p. 288.
Lebogue’s report that Edward Christian inquired after the possibility of his brother’s return is found in William Bligh, An Answer to Certain Assertions . . . (London, 1794), p. 26.
The remarkable letters regarding Fletcher Christian’s return can be found in Kenneth Curry, ed., New Letters of Robert Southey, vol. 1, 1792-1810 (New York, 1965), pp. 519 ff. Curry draws attention to the letters in both his preface and in a footnote, noting that this sighting would place the mutineer’s return to England much earlier than was usually rumored. Curry also draws attention to C. S. Wilkinson’s The Wake of the Bounty (London, 1953), which first examined the story of Christian’s return and posits the conspiracy theory that Wordsworth and Coleridge were complicit in this return—a theory untenable for the simple reason that Coleridge would not have been capable of holding such a secret. Despite the fact that Curry assiduously drew attention to the letters, they seem to have fallen beneath the radar of Bounty researchers.The letters are in the Bodleian Library, Oxford University (Robert Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, October 23, 1809, MS Eng. lett. c. 24, fols. 120-121, and October 30, 1809, MS
Eng. lett. c. 24, fol. 122), and are quoted with its kind permission.
Charles Christian’s last meeting with his brother is described in his unpublished memoir, MNHL MS 09381. Fletcher’s death by 1804 is reported in the Aberdeen Chronicle, April 15, 1815.
The Manx Daily Advertiser of December 19, 1822, reports the auction of Charles Christian’s effects in his house on Fort Street. The burial of Ann Christian is recorded on January 8, 1819; that of Charles on November 17, 1822, both in St. George’s Chapel (MNHL MS Braddan Burials 1624-1699 and 1800-1849).
Accounts of Edward Christian’s later life and his death are given in the Christian family pedigree, MNHL MS 09381/8/2; he was buried in Broxbourne Church (with a monument by Flaxman)—see Martin Faragher, “Broxbourne and the Bounty,” Herts. Countryside 33, no. 236 (1978), pp. 28-29. The story of Edward’s “native hat” is found in Anne Fremantle, Loyal Enemy (London, 1938), p. 13.
The muster of the Irresistible, Adm. 36/11349, shows William Cole with two of his sons as “servants.” Adm. 29/1 contains his pension record, including all ships on which he served. Eventually, all four sons entered the navy.
Purcell’s record of service is found in Adm. 29/5, “Carpenters 1817-1833.” The reference to his “derangement” is found in “The Last of the ‘Pandoras,’ ” United Service Magazine, September 1842, pp. 1-13. Purcell’s obituary is in Gentleman’s Magazine, June 1834, p. 668. Information about his widow, Hannah Purcell, is taken from “Tower Hamlets Cemetery Trail,” reprinted in Peter Gardner, “The Bounty Grave—Tower Hamlets,” UK Log, July 2002, p. 39.
The deaths of the widows of Fletcher Christian and Edward Young, Isabella and Susannah, are recorded in Sir Charles Lucas, ed., The Pitcairn Island Register Book (London, 1929).
Quotes about Bligh’s tyranny are found in W. C. Wentworth, A Statistical, Historical, and Political Description of The Colony of New South Wales (London, 1819), pp. 167ff.; and “The Mutiny of the Bounty,” The Edinburgh Review 4, no. 24 (January 1832), pp. 673-85. The comparison of the mutineers’ uprising with the French Revolution is found in [W. H. Smyth], “The Bounty Again!,” United Service Journal (1831), part 1, pp. 305-14.
George Tobin’s humane assessment of his former captain is found in a letter to Francis Bond, of December 15, 1817, now preserved as a copy of the privately held original in ML, Ab 60/8.
The description of entering Bligh’s tomb is given in an interview in the television documentary Bligh of the Bounty (Rolf Harris Productions, 1998).
A description of Bligh’s vault is found in two short letters in Notes and Queries, July 29, 1899, p. 97, and September 23, 1899, p. 253. Bligh’s age at death is wrongly stated in the vault; he was in fact sixty-three. St. Mary, Lambeth, is now—suitably—a museum of garden history. Although the fact that Bligh’s tomb is actually in the old churchyard is, strangely, omitted, the museum does have numerous displays about Banks and the transplantation of exotic plants from around the world. With reference to the breadfruit expeditions, a display notes that the mutiny on the Bounty occurred as a result of Bligh’s appropriation of his men’s drinking water for his plants.
SELECT BI BLIOGRAPHY
For unpublished materials, see “A Note on Sources,” page 411.
An Account of the Mutinous Seizure of the Bounty, with the Succeeding Hardships of the Crew, to which are Added Secret Anecdotes of the Otaheitean Females. London: Robert Turner, 1792.
Aitken, Robert T. Ethnology of Tubuai. Honolulu: Bernice P. Bishop Museum, 1930.
Alexander, Caroline. The Way to Xanadu. New York: Knopf, 1994.
American Seamen’s Friend Society. The Sailors’ Magazine, containing the life of Peter Heywood, Midshipman of the Bounty; Also, a sketch of the principal Mutineers of the Bounty. New York: American Seamen’s Friend Society, n.d. (1860s).
Anderson, John Eustace. A Short Account of the Mortlake Company of the Royal Putney, Roehampton and Mortlake Volunteer Corps 1803-6. Richmond, Surrey: Simpson, 1893.
The Annual Biography and Obituary, for the year———. Annual. 21 vols. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1817-1837.
Anson, George Anson, Lord. A Voyage Round the World, in the Years MDCCXL, I, II, III, IV. Edited by Richard Walter and Benjamin Robins. London: John and Paul Knapton, 1748.
Anstey, Roger. The Atlantic Slave Trade and British Abolition, 1760-1810. London: Macmillan, 1975.
Askew, John. A Guide to the Interesting Places In and Around Cockermouth, with an account of its Remarkable Men and Local Traditions. Cockermouth, Cumbria: Isaac Evening, 1866.
Aspinall, Arthur, ed. December 1783 to January 1793. Vol. 1 of The Later Correspondence of George III. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962.
Australiana Society. Narrative of the mutiny on board H. M. Ship Bounty . . . Minutes of the court martial . . . Bligh’s answer to certain assertions . . . Edward Christian’s short reply to Captain William Bligh’s answer. 1790, 1792, 1794, 1795. Facsimiles. Melbourne: Georgian House, 1952.
Bach, John, ed. The Bligh Notebook: Rough Account, Lieutenant Wm. Bligh’s Voyage in the Bounty’s Launch from the Ship to Tofua and from Thence to Timor, 28 April to 14 June 1789, with a Draft List of the Bounty Mutineers. Facsimile ed., 2 vols. North Sydney, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin in association with the National Library of Australia, 1987.
Ball, Ian M. Pitcairn: Children of the Bounty. London: Victor Gollancz, 1973.
Banks, Sir Joseph. An epistle from Mr. Banks, voyager, monster-hunter, and amoroso, to Oberea, Queen of Otaheite. Transfused by A.B.C. Esq. second professor of the Otaheite, and of every other unknown tongue. Enriched with the finest passages of the Queen’s letter to Mr. Banks. London: Jacobus Opano, n.d. (c. 1773).
Barnes and Mortlake History Society. Publication no. 30 (September 1969): 4.
Barney, Stephen, and Edward Christian. Minutes of the Proceedings of the Court-Martial held at Portsmouth, August [sic] 12, 1792, on Ten Persons Charged with Mutiny on Board His Majesty’s ship the Bounty: With an Appendix Containing a Full Account of the Real Causes and Circumstances of that Unhappy Transaction, the most material of which have hitherto been withheld from the Public. London: J. Deighton, 1794.
Barron-Wilson, Cornwell, Mrs. Memoirs of Miss Mellon, Afterwards Duchess of St. Albans. New ed. 2 vols. London: Remington, 1886.
Barrow, Sir John. The Eventful History of the Mutiny and Piratical Seizure of H.M.S. Bounty: its Causes and Consequences. London: J. Murray, 1831.
———. The Life of Richard Earl Howe, K.G., Admiral of the Fleet, and General of Marines. London: J. Murray, 1838.
———. “Recent Accounts of the Pitcairn Islanders,” Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London 3 (1833): 156-69.
Bartlett, Christine, et al. Titchfield: A History, edited by George Watts. Repr. with corrections. Titchfield, Hampshire: Titchfield History Society, 1982.
Barton, G. B., and Alexander Britton. History of New South Wales from the Records, edited by Frank Murcot Bladen. 2 vols. Sydney: Charles Potter, 1889-1894.
Basker, James G., ed. Amazing Grace: An Anthology of Poems About Slavery, 1660-1810. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002.
Baynham, Henry. From the Lower Deck: The Old Navy, 1780-1840. London: Hutchinson, 1969.
Bazely, John, obituary in “Obituary of Remarkable Persons, with Biographical Anecdotes.” Gentlemen’s Magazine 79, pt. 1 (April 1809): 389.
Beaglehole, J. C. The Life of Captain James Cook. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1974.
Beaglehole, J. C., ed. The Endeavour Journal of Joseph Banks, 1768-1771. 2 vols. Sydney: Trustees of the Public Library of New South Wales in association with Angus and Robertson, 1962.
———. The Voyage of the Endeavour, 1768-1771. Vol. 1 of The Journals of Captain James Cook on His Voyages of Discovery. Extra series xxxiv. Cambridge: Hakluyt Society for the University Press, 1955.
———. The Voyage of the Resolution and Adventure, 1772-1775. Vol. 2 of The Journals of Captain James Cook on His Voyages o
f Discovery. Extra series xxxv. Cambridge: Hakluyt Society for the University Press, 1961.
———. The Voyage of the Resolution and Discovery, 1776-1780. Vol. 3 of The Journals of Captain James Cook on His Voyages of Discovery. Extra series xxxvi. Cambridge: Hakluyt Society for the University Press, 1967.
Becke, Louis, and Walter Jeffery. The Mutineers: A Romance of Pitcairn Island. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1898.
Beechey, Frederick William. Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific and Beering’s Strait, to co-operate with the Polar Expeditions performed in His Majesty’s Ship Blossom, under the command of Captain F. W. Beechey, R.N., F.R.S. &c. in the years 1825, 26, 27, 28. 2 vols. London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1831.
Belcher, Lady Diana Jolliffe. The Mutineers of the Bounty and their Descendants in Pitcairn and Norfolk Islands. London: J. Murray, 1870.
Bennett, Frederick Debell. Narrative of a Whaling Voyage Round the Globe, from the Year 1833 to 1836: comprising sketches of Polynesia, California, the Indian Archipelago, etc.; with an account of southern whales, the sperm whale fishery, and the natural history of the climates visited . 2 vols. London: Richard Bentley, 1840.
Benson, Peter, ed. My Dearest Betsy: A Self-Portrait of William Gilpin, 1757-1848, Schoolmaster and Parson, from His Letters and Notebooks. London: D. Dobson, 1981.
The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty Page 57
