Rev Boys, Napoleon and the Death Mask at Bonhams

I have generally tried to steer clear of the claims and counter claims made over the various death masks of Napoleon, at least until Bonhams kindly sent me a listing of such a mask to be sold on June 19th on behalf of the family of Rev Boys. It is claimed that two such masks were acquired by Rev Boys, apparently from the painter Rubidge who was on St Helena when Napoleon died. One mask, the Sankey mask, named after Rev Boys' daughter, is currently on deposit in Oxford, the other is now being auctioned.

The provenance of the Boys' masks is based on analysis of two handwritten notes apparently both by Rev Boys but written at different times. No other evidence supports the claims made in those notes. Rubidge, credited with taking the casts, died in 1827, before the existence of the two masks came to light. (1)

Given this lack of supporting evidence a few nagging doubts come into my mind.

I wonder why the Rev Boys did not write both notes at the same time?

It seems strange that no word about the masks' existence came out at the time, amidst so much controversy between Dr Burton and the Bertrands over the disappearance of the front part of Burton's original mould. Surely the Rev Boys would have heard about the court case in London and would have provided any evidence in his possession to see that justice was done?

It is also strange that both masks appear to have been made of plaster superior to any known to be available on St Helena at the time.

Finally I wonder how Dr Boys managed to secure two masks, a little greedy for a man of the cloth, when others with stronger claims got none? The implicit suggestion in the Bonhams' catalogue of Boys' closeness to Longwood because of a mutual hostility to Hudson Lowe, set the alarm bells ringing.

Rev Mr Boys and Napoleon

Kent Cottage, former home of the Boys family on St Helena

The existence of various Boys family mementoes from St Helena has been known for well over a century, but the claims made about these artifacts are not supported by historical evidence.(2) It is disappointing therefore to find the claims repeated in the Bonhams catalogue to give an impression that Boys was close to Napoleon.

Thus we read that Rev Boys " is said to have been the first Englishman granted an audience with the exiled Emperor on his arrival on the island as well as being invited to play chess with him afterwards " and that Boys took the "armchair in which Napoleon is said to have used on his visits (and absent-mindedly scarred with his penknife while absorbed in conversation), as well as two walking sticks .. ". Elsewhere the catalogue suggests, in a rather circular argument, that in view of the mementoes that Boys took back with him it is unlikely that the two met only once! (3)

In fact there is no evidence that Napoleon ever met Rev Boys, and even Chaplin, the source cited by Bonhams and others, actually says that "Mr Boys was brought into contact with Napoleon on one occasion only", the well known case of the snuff box given for officiating at Cipriani's funeral. In fact Napoleon probably never saw either the snuff box or Rev Boys. The snuff box was purchased in Jamestown and O'Meara acted as intermediary between Longwood and Rev Boys. Chaplin's careful choice of words, "brought into contact with" does not indicate that the two actually met, and indeed there is no evidence that they ever did.(4)

So once again we fall back on the evidence of the two Boys' notes accompanying the two masks. That is all we have. I am no more qualified to judge the claims or counter claims than I was when I last touched on the subject in a previous blog in October 2009. I am though a little alarmed at a circular argument which seems to imply that because Boys got all those mementoes he must have been close to Longwood, and because he was close to Longwood then he was well positioned to get the death masks with the connivance of members of the household. I also wonder what was in it for Rubidge.

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1. The first note accompanying the Sankey mask, dated in 1862, affirms that the mask was "taken from the Face of Napoleon Buonaparte as he lay dead at Longwod (sic) St Helena, by Mr Rubidge .. ". The mask currently up for auction has a note apparently written earlier, maybe in the 1820's: "This Cast was taken from the Face of Napoleon Buonaparte as he lay dead at Longwood St Helena 7th May 1821 which I do hereby certify/ R. Boys M.A. Sen.r Chaplain/ By Rubidge".

2. Michel Martineau recounts how in 1929 Dr Leonard Boys of Aldeburgh wrote to The Times, mentioning the two death masks, and also claimed that Boys acquired a silver tea and coffee service belonging to Napoleon, a cane Napoleon used, an armchair, a lock of his hair and some tunic buttons. Michel Martineau pointed out that all the Emperor's personal effects were carefully packed in suitcases and left the island with the French party. "Doctor Boys ignored, or feigned to ignore, that after the death of Napoleon there was no sale of relics nor of silver belonging to the Emperor. All that was sold was that part of the furniture that belonged to the East India Company." Michel Martineau, Chroniques de Sainte-Hélène Atlantique Sud pp 136-7

3. The Bonhams catalogue quotes J.&J.A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigenses (1922-54) on Boys, "Said to have been the first man Napoleon spoke to on landing there, and with whom he played chess and who left him an armchair and a walking stick - still cherished possessions of the family."

4. Arnold Chaplin, A St Helena Who's Who (London 1919). The 1914 edition doesn't even mention Napoleon in connection with Boys, it simply says: "Mr. Boys was brought into contact with Longwood on one occasion only."

* Bonhams Napoleon Death Mask * Bonhams Napoleon Death Mask * Bonhams Napoleon Death Mask * Bonhams *

Longwood House: Billiard Room sans Billiard Table

The Billiard Room at Longwood 2013

Earlier this year the staff at Longwood House were busy crating 36 pieces of furniture to be sent to Paris. There the furniture will be restored under the direction of M. Amaël Gohier, and in 2016 will go on display at Les Invalides in an exhibition that it is hoped will promote St Helena tourism.

Napoleon's Billiard Table

Apart from the bath, the most notable piece no longer on display is the billiard table used by Napoleon for laying out maps and papers rather than for playing billiards. Like all the original furniture at Longwood, the billiard table was made in England and shipped out for Napoleon. (1)

The ultimate aim of the work taking place at Longwood, which includes the rebuilding of the Generals' Quarters, is to recreate the house as it was when Napoleon died, ready for the bicentenary in 1821.

M. Amaël Gohier, furniture restorer, relaxing on RMS St Helena, March 2013

So, on its return to Longwood the famous table will be placed not in the billiard room at the front but to the rear of the building, where it was used by the servants in the later stages of Napoleon's captivity. With the airport hopefully operational, 5th May 2021 should be a momentous day in St Helena's calendar.

During his stay on St Helena the Parisian based restorer, Amaël Gohier, also ran a furniture restoration course for a number of Saints. It is hoped that in future there will be local people with the necessary skills to restore the old furniture which remains on the island in public and in private hands.

Longwood House Furniture at Tilbury Docks, May 2013

Michel Martineau's blog indicates that the Longwood furniture arrived undamaged in London. It has had a long circuitous journey, from St Helena to Ascension, back to St Helena, then to Cape Town, and there transferred to another ship and taken to Tilbury. Hopefully it is now safely in Paris.

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1. Claims at Highclere Castle, the famous Downton Abbey in the ITV series, that it has a French made desk used by Napoleon at Longwood seems to be without any foundation.

Beryl Bainbridge: Napoleon and Me

Napoleon Dancing at 42 Albert St, Camden Town, to the Strains of the Gramophone, 1967

On returning from St Helena I just managed to catch an interesting exhibition at the Liverpool Museum of paintings by Beryl Bainbridge, one of Britain's most successful post war novelists.

Apparently the Liverpool born writer was also a prolific painter, and fascinated by Napoleon, particularly by the contrast between his exile on St Helena and his previous public life in Europe as victorious soldier, Consul and Emperor. I suspect though that her vivid imagination may have somewhat exaggerated the amorous possibilities that Longwood House afforded him!

Pride of place in the exhibition, and the front cover of a new book on Bainbridge by Psiche Hughes, is a portrait of Napoleon dancing to a gramophone record with a naked lady, presumably Bainbridge herself, at her home in Camden.

Another shows one of the men in her life in the guise of a bearded Napoleon, apparently seated on a horse.

Napoleon On a Horse

Another shows a lover Don McKinley as a young Napoleon. To the left of Napoleon is a cut off face of Beryl Bainbridge herself and to the right a view of the Lancashire countryside presumably from the farmhouse close to Ramsbottom in which they lived.

Napoleon When Young

Another, which one journal claims was in the exhibition, but which I do not recall, and for which I can find no image (photography was not allowed), is entitled "Napoleon and Friend Retreating from Ramsbottom", which, at the risk of offending a few readers, seems like a good place to retreat from.

Also displayed were pictures of Scott of Antarctica, the Titanic and, most interesting to me, of Dr Johnson, including one of Johnson and his cat Hodge again set in her own house in Camden. Dr Johnson was one of Bainbridge's later passions and the subject of her novel “According to Queeney", which tells the story of his unrequited love for Mrs Thrale.

A quirky, apparently light hearted exhibition, with Adolf Hitler making a cameo appearance in a Titanic picture, there was an underlying more serious theme to Beryl's painting. I was interested by the comment of her daughter JoJo Davies, speaking about the portrayal of Dr Johnson: I love this painting. .. That look of disappointment on his face. Disappointment was a big theme in her novels, though not conscious I don’t think. Reading that I thought again of the Titanic and Scott of Antarctica, and despite the erotic imaginings, of Napoleon on St Helena. Interestingly though, in reviewing what was a very small exhibition, neither the Guardian nor the Telegraph thought Napoleon or Dr Johnson worth a mention.

Return to Maldivia: Happy Ending or Anti-Climax?

Upper Jamestown Valley: Once the site of the Maldivia Gardens

Few of my blogs have attracted as much interest as those on Maldivia. With great anticipation and no little emotion I returned in January this year,

The upper Jamestown Valley: looking west

trying to imagine what those Maldivians who landed on St Helena in 1735 must have made of this place: a fertile valley in the shadow of rather threatening, barren rock, down which cattle were apparently once driven to be slaughtered.

I also went to work in the archives, trying to unlock the mystery of the Maldivians who according to legend created the beautiful gardens named after them. Failing to find any trace of them in registers of births or deaths, and on the verge of giving up, I found in Letters to England 1727-1737 the letter of 31st April 1735 from which the original printed extract compiled by Governor Janisch had come. The letter recorded the arrival of the Drake from Bengal under the command of Captain Pelly, then reported the arrival of the seven Maldivians,

Extract from letter to England, 31st April 1735

but contained a couple of lines which Janisch had omitted.

Captn Pelly at the distance of 150 Leagues from Land took up a Boat with Ten Blacks in her belonging to of the Maldivee Islands called who were drove out to sea & near perishing having no more Provisions or Water left when he see them than about Ten pounds of Rice & Three Gallons of Water three of the Ten died on board the other Seven Vizt. 5 men one boy & one Woman he hath left here & wee shall keep them at Work for their Living till we hear from Honours how they Shall be sent back to their own Country ..

The subsequent letter of 5th July 1735 complained of a lack of labour on the island:

.. wee have not had any Slaves from the West Coast & you have but forty one Working Blacks of Your own and the few we get of the Inhabitants at the low rate of 9d a day are not sufficient .. we have Weakened Ouselves by frequent Draughts of Blacks Sent to Bencoolen in & since the time of Govr. Johnson ..

Then, and surprisingly in view of this, it concluded:

Wee desire your Honours will give us directions how we shall Send those Blacks to their own Country whom Capt. Pelly miraculously Saved at Sea they belong to the Maldive Islands & are Seven in Number.

In view of the great shortage of labout on the island I assumed that that was the last that would be heard of the matter, and then I came across the letter of 16th April 1736.

The Blacks Capt. Pelly left here desire to return to their native Country & Capt. Crompton carried them to Bencolen wee treated them well & they seem highly pleased with their kind Usage which we hope will be of service to such of our Countrymen who trade among them.

So the Honourable East India Company for once acted in keeping with its name, and the Maldivians were presumably returned to the Maldive Islands. What a story they must have been able to tell when they eventually got there.

In reflecting on this saga I have to say in my defence that as far as I know nobody else has ever suggested that the Maldivians were returned to their own country. One of the leading inhabitants on St Helena who is very knowledgeable about the history of the island told me that his understanding was they had not lived very long after their arrival on St Helena. It also strikes me that we have no documentary evidence that they actually created what came to be known as the Maldivia Gardens (usually spelt in the archives as Maldavia incidentally), but we must assume that the name is proof enough. Quite how much impact seven people would have made in no more than a year is difficult to judge, but I would doubt if you could create a garden in such a short space of time. Anyway the name remains, and those seven have left a permanent imprint on the island.

I am left with strange and very mixed feelings about this whole business. Had Governor Janisch printed the whole extract it is unlikely that I would have ever made some good friends on the Maldive Islands, but neither would I have appeared on television spouting what I can now only describe as utter nonsense! Apologies are definitely in order.

Funeral of "the Late Emperor of France" - St Helena Records

Entry in St James Church Records, St Helena (click to enlarge)

On my recent visit to St Helena I spent many hours in the archives in the basement of the Castle. Quite unexpectedly I came across this entry for Napoleon's funeral in the church records, presumably in the handwriting of the formidable if somewhat eccentric Rev. Boys. The records show that a number of other funerals took place on the surrounding days, among them those of a few soldiers.

The full entry for Napoleon's funeral reads:

Napoleon Buonaparte, late Emperor of France, he died on the 5th Instant at the old House at Longwood and was interred on Mr Richard Torbett's Estate

I was rather impressed with this. Any reference to Napoleon's imperial title was a major issue with Sir Hudson Lowe until the very end, and the British Government had never recognised Napoleon as Emperor of Elba, let alone of France. Only a few days earlier Lowe had refused the request that the simple inscription "Napoleon" should be carved on the tombstone.

Michel Martineau was less impressed than I. He tells me that Hudson Lowe's authority on St Helena ended with the burial of Napoleon. Even so, it would have been easy for Boys to have avoided any potential controversy by referring to the deceased by the officially approved title of "General Bonapart", and this he chose not to do.