An American at Waterloo: The DeLanceys, Wellington and Hudson Lowe

Colonel Sir William Howe DeLancey, KCB (1778 - 1815)
Born into a wealthy New York Loyalist family, originally French Huguenots from Caen, Colonel DeLancey was named after William Howe, Commander in Chief of the British forces in America, who resigned in the year DeLancey was born, and to some extent became a scapegoat for defeat.

After the War the Delancey family property was sequestrated, and most moved to Beverley in Yorkshire. William entered the army in 1892, obtained his commission at 15, and served with distinction during the Peninsular War. Throughout his military career he was known by colleagues as “The American”.

Colonel DeLancey was highly regarded by Wellington who refused to accept command in the Belgian campaign against Napoleon unless he could appoint him in place of Hudson Lowe, whom he disliked. Wellington's unwillingness to have Hudson Lowe was made clear by Major-General Sir H. Torrens in a letter to Earl Bathurst, the Secretary of War,

I shall communicate fully with the Commander-in-Chief upon the Duke of Wellington's wishes respecting his Staff ... As you were somewhat anxious about Sir Hudson Lowe, I must apprise you that he will not do for the Duke." (1)

DeLancey was duly appointed deputy quartermaster-general of the army in Belgium. Sir Hudson Lowe was was offered command of the British troops in Genoa and then, whilst in the south of France in August 1815 was appointed to be Napoleon's gaoler on St Helena.

On meeting Sir Hudson Lowe for the first time Napoleon was horrified, and described his appointment as an insult. Maybe he was right!

DeLancey was seriously wounded at Waterloo whilst talking to Wellington. He was nursed by Magdalen, his bride of a few weeks, who was believed to be the inspiration for the character, “Lucy Ashton” in Sir Walter Scott's 1819 novel, The Bride of Lammermoor. He died of his wounds a little over a week later, a serious loss to His Majesty's service, and to me, said Wellington.

A few months later, shortly before embarking for St Helena, Sir Hudson Lowe married his widowed sister, Susan DeLancey Johnson. (2) Whilst on St Helena she became generally unpopular with all who come in contact with her, drank too much, made Sir Hudson's life a misery, and as was the lot of married women in those days, bore children at fairly regular intervals: Hudson (1816), Clara Maria Susanna (1818) and Edward William Howe de Lancey Lowe (1820). She died in Hertford Street, Mayfair, London, on 22 August 1832.

The Lowes' third child, Edward William Howe de Lancey Lowe, named after the uncle who had perished after Waterloo, was himself to have a distinguished military career. He married a daughter of Basil Jackson, who had been on Wellington's staff at Waterloo, had accompanied Hudson Lowe to St Helena, acted as his spy at Longwood, and in a combination of amatory and espionage pursuits had followed Albine de Montholon to Brussels when she left St Helena in 1819.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Major-General Sir H. Torrens to Earl Bathurst, Secretary for War, dated Ghent, 8th April 1815, quoted in introduction p. 11 to A Week at Waterloo in 1815, Lady De Lancey's Narrative , Edited by Major R.R. Ward, London 1906,
2. Lady Lowe's first husband, William Johnson had died in 1811. He too came from a New York loyalist family which had relocated to Canada. Lorenzo Sabine, Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution Volume 2, pp 574-582.

Napoleon, Science and the Egyptian Campaign

Hels's blog is entitled "ART and ARCHITECTURE, mainly", so although I follow it I have not included a permanent link here.

Her latest blog, posted tomorrow (she is in Australia!), is well worth reading by anyone interested in Napoleon's remarkable career.

It references work published some time ago by the International Napoleonic Society about L' Institut d’Égypte which Napoleon set up to carry out research during his military campaign. It is a fascinating blog about a scientific project that is not well known, planned let us remind ourselves when Napoleon was still less than 30 years old.

It reminded me again of the inadequacy of the labels that his detractors in particular have used to describe Napoleon. He was a very complex man, which is perhaps partly the source of his fascination for contemporaries and generations since, but for all that he was a product of the times in which he lived: enlightened despotism, revolution, and above all a child of the Enlightenment.

Endemics of St Helena

Trochetiopsis ebenus

Michel has recently put two interesting posts on M. Dancoisne-Martineau - artiste peintre.

One contains beautiful paintings of the endemics of St Helena.

The other contains his artistic imagining of an extinct ebony Dombeya Melanoxylon described in some detail in his memoirs by Dr Antommarchi, who attended Napoleon in his final months on St Helena.


Dombeya Melanoxylon
The plant also caught the eye of former Governor Alexander Beatson, who said it was a native of the barren rocks near the sea on the south side of the island, not far from Sandy Bay.

"I saw it in two gardens only, where it had in many years grown to the height of only 2-3 feet, with many longer branches spreading flat on the ground, well decorated with abundance of foliage and large beautiful flowers."(1)

Apparently dried fragments of Dombeya Melanoxylon, brought back to England by Captain Cook, are preserved in the collections at Kew.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Major-General Alexander Beatson.Tracts Relative To The Island Of St. Helena Written During A Residence Of Five Years 1816 p 307

The Archambault Brothers: A Postscript

I have recently been contacted by Wade Krawczyk from Australia who has in his possession a pair of silk stockings which were evidently sold by Napoleon Archambault who attested that they once belonged to the Emperor Napoleon and were brought from St Helena by Joseph Archambault when he left in 1816.

The stockings have a crown woven into them



and were accompanied by a descriptive card, presumably printed for an auction or an exhibition.



The accompanying letter, written in Philadelphia in February 1894, signed by Napoleon and Achille Archambault and countersigned by a lawyer, also claims that the stockings had at some point been shown to distinguished personages including Joseph Bonaparte and General Bertrand.


The letter is legible if you click on it, but here is a trancription of the body of it:

Napoleon B. and Achille Lucian Archambault swore out an affidavit on Feb. 3, 1894 before Notary Public Harry J. Franz in which they attested: This is to certify that our father Joseph Archambault accompanied Napoleon Bonaparte to St. Helena, and was subsequently sent away with three others to the Cape of Good Hope. When he left he was presented by the Emperor with several souvenirs, among then a pair of fine, long white silk stockings with a crown wrought in the side. They are in a state of excellent preservation. The stockings have never been out of our possession, since they were given to our father in the year 1815, and have consequently been in our family nearly eighty years. They have been frequently shown to distinguished persons, among them Joseph Bonaparte and General Bertrand. We consider these stockings a valuable addition to any collection of Napoleon relics. Napoleon B. Archambault 3032 Girard Avenue Achille Lucian Archambault 426 So. 40th St."

My thanks to Wade for sharing these.

Madame Colin: A Tribute

Alix Colin, née Olivier, (1891-1942)
On Michel's blog I have recently read the moving story of Madame Colin, wife of one of the former curators of the French Properties on St Helena. I feel it is well worth retelling in English.

Born in Haut Provence in May 1891, Alix Olivier married Georges Colin, a retired soldier, in December 1915. In early 1917 the couple and their 4 month old daughter set out for St Helena from the United Kingdom on the Alivinck Castle. A few days later, on March 17th, between the Scilly Isles and Brittany, their ship was torpedoed. Nine days adrift in a life boat until landing on the north west coast of Spain, they suffered the loss of their baby daughter, Madame Colin's contraction of gangrene, and the consequent partial amputation of her legs.

The couple spent the next two years in Ferrol, where Alix had artificial limbs fitted and also gave birth to a son, Charles. The family finally left Spain for St Helena in October 1919, and on the island, in 1921, Alix gave birth to a daughter, France, attended by Dr Arnold. A second son, Pierre, was born whilst they were on leave in Toulon in 1928.

During the second World War the family had to spend time away from the island in the Cape for treatment for Madame Colin's breast cancer, but they returned to St Helena and she died, at Longwood in November 1942, in her 52nd year, in fact at almost the same age as Napoleon.


She was buried on St Helena, the island she loved and in which she had found happiness.