Nelson

by John Sugden

  11. Harrison, Life, pp. 8–9.

  12. Matcham, Nelsons of Burnham Thorpe, pp. 46, 50. A silhouette of Edmund Nelson, done by Charles Rosenberg about 1800 or 1801, forms a frontispiece to this volume. For reproductions of two other portraits, the best by William Beechey, see Hilda Gamlin, Nelson’s Friendships, 1, pp. 164, 303.

  13. Matcham, Nelsons of Burnham Thorpe, pp. 26, 39, 55, 81.

  14. Will of Ann Suckling, 10/12/1767, PRO: PROB 11/936, no. 80.

  15. James S. Clarke and J. McArthur, Life and Services, 1, p. 14; William to Nelson, 3/5/1802, 19/10/1802, Alfred Morrison, Hamilton and Nelson Papers, 2, pp. 188, 199.

  16. Matcham, Nelsons of Burnham Thorpe, pp. 18, 134.

  17. Nelson to Elliot, 8/10/1803, D&L, 5, p. 237; Nelson to Allott, 14/5/1804, D&L, 6, p. 18.

  18. In the 1840s Captain George Manby, inventor of the life preserver, claimed to have been a schoolfellow of Nelson at Downham Market in Norfolk (United Service Journal [1841], pt 1, p. 560; Thomas Joseph Pettigrew, Memoirs, 1, pp. 2–3). But the Nelsons were clear about the education of Horatio and William (Fiske, Notices of Nelson, p. 7; Nelson memorandum, NMM: STW/2; Nelson’s ‘Sketch of My Life’, 1799, D&L, 1, p. 1), and by the time Manby (born November 1765) went to his school Nelson was at North Walsham, or perhaps even with his first ship. Manby’s claim was clearly bogus. He was frank about the shock he felt at Nelson’s death and his admiration for the admiral in his unpublished recollections (Add. MSS 29893), but made no claim to have been at school with him at that time. ‘It was Nelson I had fixed upon as my model’ he said. He and the admiral had been born ‘in the same district of that county, West Norfolk’. In later life Manby became obsessed with Nelson, turning part of his house into a Nelson museum, and it was apparently then that his story about being a schoolfellow was created. See the judicious discussion by Bob Brister, Ronald Cansdale and Jim Hargreaves in ND, 7 (2001–2), pp. 559–60, 632–4, and Kenneth Walthew, From Rock and Tempest.

  19. Goulty, ‘Lord Nelson and the Goulty Connection’. Foley, Nelson Centenary, p. 15, suggests that Nelson stayed with a maternal great aunt, Sarah Henley, but the Goultys are far more likely candidates.

  20. Details of Norwich school are supplied by H. W. Saunders, History of Norwich Grammar School, and Richard Harries, Paul Cattermole and Peter Mackintosh, History of Norwich School.

  21. C. R. Forder, Paston Grammar School; Nelson to Bulwer, 7/5/1801, Bulwer papers, Norfolk Record Office, MF/RO/334/1, 3; Nelson to William, 14/4/1777, Add. MSS 34988.

  22. Clarke and McArthur, Life and Services, 1, pp. 15–16.

  23. W. Loads, ‘Reminiscences of a Pastonian of 1864’. Loads was a great-grandson of Mrs Crosswell, formerly ‘Miss Gaze’, and could ‘just recollect . . . a very old lady wearing a “cross-over”’. Although one would ordinarily dismiss such a late tradition, the story is borne out by the school records (Forder, Paston Grammar School, p. 91) and the parish registers of North Walsham, copies of which are filed in the Norfolk Record Office. These last establish the existence of the Gaze family in North Walsham. Elizabeth married John Crosswell on 14 September 1773 and bore him ten children between 1773 and 1795. See also Clarke and McArthur, Life and Services, 1, p. 16.

  24. Hanson to Nelson, 29/9/1802, ‘Nelsoniana’, Norfolk Record Office, MC20/48; Ron C. Fiske, ‘Nelson, Levett Hanson, and the Order of St Joachim’.

  25. Forder, Paston Grammar School, pp. 86–7.

  26. Pettigrew, Memoirs, 1, p. 3; Haggard to The Times, 16/2/1895, ND, 8 (2003), p. 125; letter of Ella D. Maddison Green, 5/11/1897, Paston School papers, Norfolk Record Office, MC20/27.

  27. Edmund Nelson briefly details the fortunes of his children in his ‘Family Historicall Register’. For Ann’s apprenticeship see the Goldsmiths’ Company Apprentice Book 8, Goldsmiths’ Hall, London, p. 268.

  28. Clarke and McArthur, Life and Services, 1, pp. 13–15. I attempted to locate the reference to Suckling’s appointment to the Raisonable in the Norfolk Chronicle but the relevant issues are missing both in Norwich and London.

  29. Several family statements, including Nelson’s, have him joining the Raisonable on 1 January 1771. ‘Horace Nelson’ of Wells was indeed rated midshipman on the books of the ship from 1 January, but he was not marked as actually present until the musters of March/April 1771 (muster, ADM 36/7669, and pay book, ADM 33/676). That Nelson returned to the Paston school after the Christmas holidays and left about March or April also seems clear from the accounts of William Nelson and Levett Hanson given above. Further evidence comes from James Harrison, Life, 1, p. 12, who stated that Nelson joined the Raisonable at Sheerness. This would place the event after 15 March, when the vessel moved from Chatham to Sheerness (Raisonable log, ADM 51/763).

  30. Nelson to William, 20/2/1777, 14/4/1777, Add. MSS 34988; Nelson to Crowe, D&L, 4, p. 447; and Nelson to his father, 28/5/1779, Foley, Nelson Centenary, p. 19.

  III Captain Suckling’s Nephew (pp. 48–62)

  1. W. S. Lewis et al., eds., Walpole’s Correspondence, 24, pp. 178, 209; Nelson to Collingwood, 28/9/1785, D&L, 1, p. 143.

  2. Logs of the Raisonable, ADM 51/763 and ADM 52/1937.

  3. The stories gained from different informants by James Harrison, Life, 1, p. 12, and James S. Clarke and John McArthur, Life and Services, 1, p. 16, are broadly compatible, although the former authority has Nelson joining his ship at Sheerness and the latter at Chatham.

  4. Raisonable muster, ADM 36/7669; Raisonable pay book, ADM 33/676; Nelson to William, 20/2/1777, Add. MSS 34988; D&L, 1, pp. 46, 49, 56. Boyles later transferred to Sir Thomas Rich’s frigate, Enterprize, serving as midshipman and master’s mate in the Mediterranean. He lived to return to the Raisonable as her captain. Boyles died on 9 November 1816, leaving a widow, Mary, née Hawker. See ‘Biographical Memoir of the Late Charles Boyles’.

  5. Triumph muster, ADM 36/7688; Nicholas Tracy, ‘Falklands Island Crisis of 1770’.

  6. N. A. M. Rodger, Wooden World, p. 29. This is the finest general account of the eighteenth-century navy, but for naval administration see Daniel A. Baugh, British Naval Administration, an exceptionally comprehensive and well-written monograph. Michael Lewis, A Social History of the Navy, though sometimes inaccurate, offered insights into many previously neglected themes. Brian Lavery’s Nelson’s Navy is a comprehensive introduction to the navy at the time of the French revolutionary and Napoleonic wars.

  7. In addition to the above see N. A. M. Rodger, ‘Lieutenants’ Sea-Time and Age’.

  8. Suckling to Stephens, 24/11/1771, 1/12/1771, ADM 1/2481; Thomas Foley, Nelson Centenary, pp. 9, 11; NC, 14 (1805), p. 265; and David Syrett, ‘Nelson’s Uncle’.

  9. Suckling to Stephens, 27/6/1771, ADM 1/2481.

  10. For Townshend see DNB, 19, pp. 1048–50.

  11. Suckling (4 May 1726–17 July 1778) became a lieutenant on 8 March 1745, a commander on 3 January 1754 and a post-captain on 2 December 1755. For his ‘passing certificate’ see ADM 6/86, p. 101.

  12. Ron C. Fiske, Notices of Nelson, pp. 28–9; Ron C. Fiske, ‘A New View of Woodton Hall, Norfolk’; and (for Suckling’s London house) Suckling to Sharpe, 29/5/1776, in BL: A. M. Broadley, ‘Nelsoniana’, 1, facing p. 6.

  13. Will of Maurice Suckling, 3/8/1774, PRO: PROB 11/1044, no. 302.

  14. Triumph logs, ADM 51/1015 and ADM 52/2052, and NMM: ADM/L/T268.

  15. Fiske, Notices of Nelson, p. 7; Nelson memorandum, c. 1796, NMM: STW/2; D&L, 1, p. 2; Clarke and McArthur, Life and Services, 1, p. 17; Dreadnought muster, ADM 36/5403. Neither Nelson nor his father, who refer to the trip on the merchantman, name the ship concerned, but she can be identified from New Lloyds List, 26, 30/7/1771, 31/12/1771; Lloyds List, 10 and 21/7/1772; and the Public Advertiser, 30/12/1771. A search through the shipping news in the newspapers at Colindale and in the Burney collection at the British Library failed to reveal additional information. Few papers carried extensive port news, and some that did, such as the Public Ledger and the Morning Chronicle, are now missing strategic issues
. The Public Advertiser, which is reasonably complete, yielded only one reference to the Mary Ann. Two maiden daughters of John Rathbone were later said to have run a boarding school in Kensington: Notes and Queries, 4th series, 10 (1872), p. 269.

  16. Nelson’s seasickness: Nelson to Davison, 13/1/1804, D&L, 5, p. 370.

  17. Triumph pay book, ADM 33/696.

  18. Triumph muster, ADM 36/7689–7690.

  19. Kentish Gazette, 21/7/1772, 1/8/1772; D&L, 1, p. 2.

  20. Triumph muster, ADM 36/7689–90; D&L, 6, p. 381.

  21. In addition to the musters see Richards to Suckling, 5/12/1770, ADM 1/2481. The succeeding quotation about midshipmen is from Nelson to Churchey, 20/10/1802, MM, 28 (1942), p. 319.

  22. D&L, 1, p. 2.

  23. Suckling to Stephens, 9 and 18/8/1772, and 14, 15, 18/10/1772, ADM 1/2482; Triumph logs, ADM 51/1015 and ADM 52/2052.

  24. Court martial of Edward Smith, 14/1/1773, ADM 1/5306.

  IV Northward Ho! (pp. 63–81)

  1. The best secondary account of the Phipps expedition is Ann Savours, ‘“A Very Interesting Point in Geography”’.

  2. Phipps, A Voyage Towards the North Pole, p. 11; Lutwidge to Stephens, 3/1/1774, ADM 1/2053.

  3. D&L, 1, p. 2; Suckling to Stephens, 11, 28/7/1771, ADM 1/2481; Lutwidge to Stephens, 28/7/1771, ADM 1/2053.

  4. Triumph pay book, ADM 33/696; Carcass muster, ADM 36/7567; Carcass log, ADM 51/167.

  5. My reconstruction of the voyage rests upon a fresh examination of all the primary sources. For the Racehorse these include Phipps, Voyage Towards the North Pole, and the manuscript upon which it was based in BL: King’s 224; the ship’s logs, ADM 51/757 and ADM 52/1416; and Thomas Floyd’s narrative published by Albert H. Markham, ed., Northward. The view from the Carcass comes from the captain’s log, ADM 51/167; Lutwidge’s journal, ADM 55/12, which replicates the material in the captain’s log; two logs of the master, James Allen, ADM 52/1639[7] and ADM 52/1639[8]; and the anonymous diary published as Journal of a Voyage Undertaken. Interesting views and charts of the expedition, some if not all produced by Philippe d’Auvergne, can be found in the William L. Clements Library, the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

  6. For d’Auvergne see ‘Biographical Memoir of Philippe d’Auvergne’; G. R. Balleine, The Tragedy of Philippe d’Auvergne; and Ann Savours, ‘The Younger Cleverley and the Arctic, 1773–74’.

  7. The issue of slops: Carcass pay book, ADM 33/509.

  8. Markham, Northward, p. 125.

  9. Journal of a Voyage Undertaken, p. 35; Markham, Northward, pp. 126–7, 130, 141.

  10. BL: King’s 224, pp. 27–8; Markham, Northward, pp. 133–5.

  11. Journal of a Voyage Undertaken, p. 42.

  12. Journal of a Voyage Undertaken, pp. 44–6.

  13. Journal of a Voyage Undertaken, pp. 60–2; master’s log of the Carcass, ADM 52/1639 [7].

  14. Journal of a Voyage Undertaken, pp. 62–3.

  15. Phipps, Voyage Towards the North Pole, pp. 59, 173, and BL: King’s 224, pp. 41–2, have the incident occurring on 30 July, as the Racehorse boat was returning from reconnoitring the island, but Floyd, who was in the party, says it happened on the outward journey on the 29th (Markham, Northward, pp. 181–4). The master’s log of the Racehorse for 30/7/1773 (ADM 52/1416) mentions the boat returning at 4.00 a.m. on 30 July, but none of the Carcass logs refers to the incident. See also James Harrison, Life, 1, p. 2.

  16. Carcass log, 31/7/1773, ADM 51/167.

  17. The first plate, by Edward Orme and dated 20/2/1806, was published in Francis William Blagdon, Orme’s Graphic History, facing p. 7. In 1808 another engraving by W. H. Worthington, after a painting by W. Bromley, was published.

  18. James Allen’s log, 4/8/1773, ADM 52/1639[7].

  19. ‘Biographical Memoir of the Right Honourable Lord Nelson’, p. 161.

  20. James S. Clarke and John McArthur, Life and Services, 1, pp. 1, 21–2. Lutwidge was presumably satisfied with this final account because he was privy to the proofs of the book: see the 1809 edition, The Life of Admiral Lord Nelson, 1, p. 8 in the list of subscribers.

  21. D&L, 1, p. 3.

  22. The master’s logs of the Carcass state that the ship’s second and third lieutenants commanded the hauling lines, but the anonymous diarist from the same vessel (Journal of a Voyage Undertaken) has First Lieutenant Baird at the head of the enterprise. Several details in this account, while colourful, are at variance to the picture presented by the ships’ logs. Charts of the voyage are also contradictory at this point. Thus d’Auvergne’s chart has the course turning first southeast and then west on 7 and 8 August, while the ‘Plan of the North East Lands and Seven Islands’ shows the ships proceeding northeast before turning west (William L. Clements Library).

  23. Journal of a Voyage Undertaken, pp. 81–3; Markham, Northward, p. 203.

  24. Phipps, Voyage Towards the North Pole, p. 72.

  25. Markham, Northward, p. 221.

  26. Journal of a Voyage Undertaken, pp. 93–4; Carcass log, 12/9/1773, ADM 51/167.

  27. Markham, Northward, pp. 223–8.

  28. Hughes’s passing certificate, 2/3/1780, ADM 107/8. He was confirmed as a lieutenant fifteen days later.

  29. The watch is now in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.

  30. Nelson’s deductions were: 1s. 8d. for slops, 5s. 9d. to the Chatham Chest (a naval charity founded in Elizabethan times), and 2s. 11d. to the hospital (Carcass pay book, ADM 33/509).

  V East Indies Adventure (pp. 82–106)

  1. Farmer to Stephens, 31/8/1773, 12/9/1773, ADM 1/1789; John Charnock, Biographical Memoirs, pp. 16–21; DNB, 6, pp. 1074–5. For details of individual ships see David Lyon, Sailing Navy List.

  2. Triumph pay book, ADM 33/696; Seahorse pay book, ADM 34/749; court martial of George Farmer, 21/2/1776, ADM 1/5307. The extent of such frauds in aid of sea time is difficult to gauge. Michael Lewis, Social History of the Navy, exaggerated their prevalence, but N. A. M. Rodger, ‘Lieutenants’ Sea-Time and Age’, may have defended the navy too strongly. Certainly he erred (p. 271) in denying that Lord Cochrane had gained fictitious sea time before joining his uncle’s ship, the Hind: John Sugden, ‘Lord Cochrane’, pp. 37–8; Brian Vale, Cochrane, the Unhappy Hero, forthcoming.

  3. Bentham to Kee, 28/10/1773, Notes and Queries, 4th series, 10 (1872), p. 269.

  4. For the personnel see Seahorse pay book, ADM 34/749, and James S. Clarke and John McArthur, Life and Services, 1. p. 22.

  5. D&L, 1, p. 3. On Pole see NC, 21 (1809), pp. 265–95.

  6. Details of the voyage of the Seahorse depend primarily upon the logs of Farmer (ADM 51/883), Surridge (ADM 52/1991) and the lieutenants (NMM: ADM/L/S222–23). For Nelson’s positive memories of the period see his letters to William, 28/1/1782, 19/3/1784, Add. MSS 34988.

  7. Hughes to Stephens, 2/11/1773, ADM 1/164; Farmer to Stephens, 14/10/1773, ADM 1/1789; Seahorse pay book, ADM 34/749.

  8. Captain’s log, 5/12/1774, ADM 51/883, and master’s log, 13/1/1774, ADM 52/1991.

  9. Muster of the Tweed, ADM 36/7523; Surridge’s passing certificate, 10/9/1777, ADM 107/7; Steel’s Navy Lists; Pitcairn-Jones, ‘Sea Officers’ Lists, 1660–1815’, PRO. We are indebted to Admiral S. W. Roskill for suggesting the importance of Surridge in his introduction to Russell Grenfell, Horatio Nelson.

  10. Nelson to Cornwallis, 13/10/1788, Hist. MSS Commission, Various Collections, 6, p. 341; Clarke and McArthur, Life and Services, 1, p. 23.

  11. Master’s log, 17/1/1774, ADM 52/1991; Farmer report, 12/3/1774, ADM 1/164.

  12. Floggings were entered in ships’ logs, although often haphazardly.

  13. Court martial of Drummond, 30/5/1774, ADM 1/5306.

  14. The pay book records changes in personnel, but see also Hughes to Stephens, 12/3/1774, ADM 1/164.

  15. Master’s log, 6/5/1774, ADM 52/1991.

  16. Hughes to Stephens, 1/4/1775, 2/7/1775, ADM 1/164.

  17. Captain’s log, 19–20/2/1775, ADM 51/883.

&nbs
p; 18. Hughes to Stephens, 11/10/1775, 22/3/1775, ADM 1/164.

  19. Court martial of Henery, 19/2/1776, ADM 1/5307.

  20. Seahorse pay book, ADM 34/749; Clarke and McArthur, Life and Services, 1, pp. 22–3; Cornelia Knight, Autobiography, 2, p. 286.

  21. Clarke and McArthur, Life and Services, 1, 23.

  22. Court martial of Henery, 19/2/1776, ADM 1/5307. For Keeling, as for Sullivan, the Seahorse was a first ship. He was rated master’s mate, but was described in the courtmartial record as midshipman.

  23. Court martial of Farmer, 21/2/1776, ADM 1/5307.

  24. Clarke and McArthur, Life and Services, 1, pp. 22–3; Ron C. Fiske, Notices of Nelson, p. 7; D&L, 1, pp. 3–4; Christopher Lloyd and J. L. S. Coulter, Medicine and the Navy, pp. 329–47.

  25. James Bond and William Tennant of the East India Company and William Perry, Claud Lernoult, Jos. Davies and James Anderson of the Navy signed sick certificates for Clerke, Fortescue and Evans in February and March 1776, enclosed in Hughes to Stephens, 22/3/1776, ADM 1/164.

  26. Pigott and Randall to Stephens, 30/8/1776, ADM 1/2303; Dolphin muster, ADM 36/7583; Dolphin pay book, ADM 33/635; D&L, 1, pp. 3–4. Pigott was a lieutenant in 1771, a post-captain in 1776 and a full admiral in 1810. He died in 1822.

  27. Correspondence in ADM 1/2490; Gentleman’s Magazine (1819), ii, p. 570. Nelson’s connections put him on fast-track promotion, and he soon overtook Surridge in rank. Indeed, in 1780 Nelson and Surridge almost shared a ship again, the former as captain and the latter as lieutenant. Surridge was appointed third lieutenant of the Janus frigate, then on the Jamaica station, on 24 October 1779. Unfortunately he went down with an ‘obstinate intermittent [fever] and dysenteric complaints’ and was hospitalised at Port Royal before being discharged from the ship on 17 January so that he could recover at home (Janus muster, ADM 36/8720; certificate by Deans, Macnamara and Collingwood, 12/1/1780, enclosed in Parker to Stephens, 7/4/1780, ADM 1/242). A few months later Nelson was appointed captain of the Janus, but he too was invalided to England. It would have been an outstanding partnership. Surridge remained an admirer of Nelson, and attended his funeral in 1806. He left a widow, Mary, who died aged 89 at Ashling House, near Hambledon, Hampshire, on 15 March 1841: Nautical Magazine, 10 (1841), p. 287.