Sir Thomas Reade - "the noisiest filibuster of them all" (Walter Runciman)

Reade, Sir Thomas, (1782-1849). Deputy Adjutant-General in St. Helena.

The only son of William Reade, a surgeon of Congleton Cheshire, and Hannah, his second wife.

His mother died when he was two and his father when he was eleven. He was articled to a Congleton Attorney, but ran away and enlisted at the age of 16 (1799). Within a few days he received a commission, probably purchased by a member of his family.

He served in Holland, Egypt, Malta, Naples, Sicily, Spain, in the almost forgotten campaign in America (1814), and finally under the command of Hudson Lowe in Genoa. He was knighted in 1815 at the age of 33.


St Helena and The Captivity of Napoleon

Reade was a faithful supporter of the policies of Sir Hudson Lowe towards Napoleon, and indeed, as Arnold Chaplin commented, "he often thought Lowe too lenient in his administration." Apparently Lady Lowe, not the most supportive of wives perhaps, frequently referred to him as "the real Governor."

Among his many tasks was that of monitoring the letters between Dr Verling and Mme. Betrand. Chaplin was critical of his and the British Government's conduct in this matter:

But although the British officials in St. Helena rightly blamed O'Meara for making Madame de Montholon's illness the occasion of jokes in letters to Sir Thomas Reade, they did not, apparently, see any indelicacy in Sir Thomas reading and commenting on gynaecological details concerning Madame Bertrand's illness.(1)

Sir Thomas appears to have met Napoleon only three times: April 17th, May 27th, and October 4th, 1816. He is most probably better remembered for a most famous failed meeting when in September 1819 he turned up at Longwood demanding proof that the reclusive ex-Emperor was indeed still in residence. In one of the most absurd episodes among many contenders, Sir Thomas banged on the door bellowing at the top of his voice, "Come out, Napoleon Bonaparte. We want Napoleon Bonaparte." Suffice it to say that Sir Thomas failed to carry out the implied threat to break the door down, and retreated without having seen the Emperor.

On an earlier occasion Napoleon refused to see Sir Thomas Strange with the riposte, "Tell the Governor that those who have gone down to the tomb receive no visits, and take care that the judge be made acquaintance with my answer."
The redoubtable Sir Thomas Reade responded,

If I were Governor, I would bring that dog of a Frenchman to his senses; I would isolate him from all his friends, who are no better than himself; then I would deprive him of his books. He is in fact nothing but a miserable outlaw, and I would treat him as such. By G--! it would be a great mercy to the King of France to rid him of such a fellow altogether. It was a piece of great cowardice not to have sent him at once to a court martial instead of sending him here." (2)

The generally negative picture of Sir Thomas which emerges from reading Chaplin, Runciman and Watson is confirmed by Gorrequer's diaries, to which they did not have access. Gorrequer clearly disliked him greatly, and gave him the nickname Nincumpoop, which requires no elaboration. The following extracts, absent from the best known narratives of the captivity and, allowing for Gorrequer's prejudices, do not show Sir Thomas in a very favourable light.

"His encouraging Mach to persevere in sending felucca [the ship] to Ethiopia in the present state of its crew, and the consequences notwithstanding his advice of the contrary. But even the lives of men were of no consequence to him, Nincumpoop, as long as he could only carry his point and show his influence over Mach. That fellow did not care a damn about men's lives to attain his object. His telling such downright lies the preceding evening about Major B------" (3)

"Ninny [Reade] wrote to Mach: 'My opinion is still that he [Napoleon] will get better.' Though Medico 20th [Dr. Arnott], the great oracle, had the preceding day reported him dangerously ill. His opinion, indeed!" (4)

"Sultana and Ninny endeavoured to make the public believe the followers were delighted at Bony's death, affecting to say they were delighted." (5)

"Tresorier of ship coming home told Ego that he never heard a man so abused as he heard Ninny; he seemed to have made an immense number of enemies; he had been at a party of 8 or 9 persons, every one of whom had some heavy complaint against him, and who seemed to be exasperated against him; so bad indeed that he at last took Ninny's part." (6)

Albert Benhamou probably summed it up nicely in a comment made on one of my recent blogs: "Hudson Lowe was feared at St Helena, while Thomas Reade was hated."

Postscript

A bachelor during his time on St Helena, it appears that he fathered a child by a slave. This was not unusual among the leading families on St Helena, as we know from the efforts of the Rev Boys to shame them by entering the names of the fathers of such children in the church baptismal records,

The child, a boy named John, lived only a few months.


On September 8th 1824 Sir Thomas married Agnes Clogg of Longsight Lodge, Manchester in the Collegiate Church (now Manchester Cathedral). He was in the same year appointed His Britannic Majesty's Agent and Consul-General in the Regency of Tunis, a post he held until his death in Tunisia in 1849. A memorial was erected to him in Congleton Church.

During his time in Tunisia he became involved in the excavation and study of Carthage and other Roman antiquities, and he assembled a valuable collection of objects.
Presumably Sir Thomas would have become acquainted with the Bey's Palace:

"On the walls were portraits of Napoleon and paintings of his battles. On his book shelves figured a book on Napoleon’s reign the Bey had ordered to be translated into Arabic." (7)

One wonders what he made of that.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Chaplin, A St Helena Whos Who London 1919, pp 97, 117-118. To another scholar of the Captivity, George Leo de St. M. Watson, he was simply "..an undistinguished Captain in a foot regiment (via the Lancashire Militia), pitchforked for the time being into a local Lieutenant-Colonelcy .." Polish Exile with Napoleon p 32. Watson also commented that "everybody at St. Helena was 'on the make' .. Lowe was the exception : he entertained too freely. But his D.A.G. made up for it. Reade had a talent for stepping into snug little berths - like that of 'Vendue Master" (whatever it may be) at £300 a year in October 1818 - when their occupants were invalided home; and he was never averse from huckstering in horseflesh and the like. " pp 67-8, and finally he commented ironically on Reade's unpopularity: "Alarm House, where Reade cultivated rurally that prime Doric way which made him such a favourite with English and French alike" p. 32
2. Hazlitt, commenting on a similar speech by Sir Thomas was scathing: "Oaths, malignity, meanness, abuse, right, and duty are blended in as fine a confusion as one would wish. Such were the persons sent out to represent the boasted heroism and generosity of the English nation and government!" Hazlitt, Life of Napoleon Vol IV, 2nd Edition, p. 261
3 28th August 1818, Gorrequer p. 87
4. 27th April 1821,Gorrequer p. 226
5. Gorrequer p. 260
6. Gorrequer p. 262
7. Abolition of Slavery in Tunisia

Congleton: Salix Babylonica, St Helena and Sir Thomas Reade

Homefield, Sir Thomas's House in Congleton (left, foreground), behind it is St Peter's church

"all around them the once-trodden ways have vanished, while those who thronged their ways, and even the memory of those who thronged those trodden ways, are dead" - Proust, Remembrance of Things Past




And so, in dreadful weather, at the end of our tour of the Napoleonic associations in the North West of England, we arrived in Congleton, birth place of Sir Thomas Reade, whose splendid memorial in Congleton Church (click to enlarge image) indicates how his widow wished him to be remembered.

Modern scholars might question whether Sir Thomas was quite as instrumental in ridding Tunisia of slavery as the memorial claims.


Sir Thomas's widow, Agnes Clogg (1804-1867) of Manchester.

The eighteenth century Anglican church of St Peter's, its internal layout and furnishing reminiscent of Congregational and Lutheran churches I have visited, contains a number of memorials to the Reade family, obviously of some importance in Congleton, and Sir Thomas's mother, who died in his childhood, is buried in a family vault beneath the church floor.

Sir Thomas Reade (1782- 1849).

The portrait, previously shown in black and white, is in the keeping of a descendant.

My thanks to Sue Dale for allowing me to copy her image of it.

Since our visit Albert has published a comprehensive and very fair account of the life of Sir Thomas which perhaps, taken in isolation, might suggest an importance in the annals of the British Empire that is I think not strictly merited!




Salix Babylonica

Willow tree, formerly within the boundary of Sir Thomas's garden, now in the grounds of Burns Garages in Congleton.


Sir Thomas's garden, now somehat reduced in size

Local legend has it that the willow was grown from a cutting brought back by Sir Thomas Reade from the site of Napoleon's grave on St Helena.

Since our visit a local expert has now confirmed that the tree is indeed a salix babylonica, very rare in the United Kingdom, taken presumably from Asia by the Honourable East India Company to St Helena, where it now no longer exists.

Albert has informed me that as well as in France other trees claiming to have been rooted from St Helena cuttings exist in New Zealand, and formerly even in the Duke of Wellington's garden at Grafton in Kent.


Plaque in New Zealand attesting to trees taken from St Helena cuttings brought by François Le Lievre who arrived in New Zealand in 1838 aboard a whaling ship

There was also such a tree in Kirkconnel Hall, Dumfries (close to Lockerbie), the house of Dr Arnott, with whom we began our tour of the northwest. This tree had to be destroyed to make way for a new road, but the owner of the house, now a hotel, took a cutting and has planted it in his garden.


KirkConnel Hall Hotel, formerly the home of Dr Arnott, somewhat extended since he lived there.
With all the cuttings taken from it, it is no wonder perhaps that the original tree on St Helena no longer exists.

All that remains to satisy the most sceptical is for a comparison of the DNA of all the trees claimed to have descended from cuttings of the one at Sane Valley on St Helena! For my part I am as satisfied as I need to be that local legend is correct, and that for whatever reason, the intrepid Sir Thomas, a Loyalist to the last, brought a cutting from Sane Valley, the site of the grave of Napoleon, that "miserable outlaw" whom he affected to despise.

My thanks again to Sue Dale and Albert Benhamou for providing so much information and for leading me to a place I might never have visited. Despite the weather it was a fascinating end to our tour.

Theft from Briars Melbourne - Postscript

Sterling Silver Inkwell (Inset with three Gold Napoleons), Garrard and Co. London 1821-1822

Since publishing an account of the robbery from the Dame Mabel Brookes Napoleonic Collection, I have had further information from Sue Dale, who grew up in Australia about 15 miles from the Briars and knows it very well. Sue, who now lives in Congleton, has also visited St Helena, and is currently researching the life of Sir Thomas Reade who was born in Congleton in 1782.

Sue is particularly distressed by the theft of the silver inkwell, which has connections with Thomas Reade and Congleton and, in a curious way, with the Briars on St Helena. The inscription on the base of the inkwell reads:

These Napoleons, presented to Mrs Egerton by Sir Thomas Reade, Lieut. Gov. of St Helena, were found in the pocket of Napoleon Buonaparte after his death there, 5 May 1821

Now whether these gold coins were actually in Napoleon's pocket, and if so how Sir Thomas Reade came by them, is another matter! So far Sue is unable to trace who Mrs Egerton was, but it is a distinguished family name in Cheshire, and perhaps Garrard and Co will still have records of the commission.

What is to me even more interesting though is how it came to be in the hands of Dame Mabel Brookes: according to the 2010 catalogue it was presented to her on the occasion of receiving the Légion d'honneur. Dame Mabel, the great grand-daughter of William Balcombe, received that award in 1960 for saving the Briars Pavilion on St Helena and handing it over to the French nation. Apparently she visited St Helena in 1957 and the transfer was completed some two years later, at an extortionate price. One cannot begin to imagine the difficulties she would have encountered in making this purchase and transfer. It makes it all the more sad that this item, connecting the Briars in Melbourne with the original Briars on St Helena, has now been stolen. I do hope that it and the other items are recovered.

Gorrequer's Diary

Major Gideon Gorrequer (1781-1841), aide-de-camp and acting military secretary to Hudson Lowe on St Helena.

Gorrequer met Lowe whilst serving in Sicily and the Ionian Isles, and was asked to accompany him to St Helena, for which his fluency in French and Italian was an ideal qualification. He arrived with Lowe in 1816, and remained until after Napoleon's death. A lifelong bachelor, we know little of Gorrequer's private life. Along with Denzil Ibbetson he ran the amateur dramatics on the island during the captivity.

Of Huguenot stock, Gorrequer joined the army at 16 as an Ensign, and was promoted to Lieutenant (1897), Captain (1804), and Brevet Major (1814).

One of the gripes that comes over in his diary was the lack of appreciation of his hard work, his feeling that Ibbetson and others were more highly regarded for doing much less, and his suspicion that Lowe, encouraged by Sir Thomas Reade, was not throwing his weight behind Gorrequer's further preferment.

Gorrequer was however, finally promoted to Lt Col in 1826, possibly because of his agreement to support Lowe in the case against O'Meara that never actually came to court.

For many years his papers, including his diary were locked away in the Court of Chancery, where they remained until 1958.

It is doubtful if Gorrequer ever intended his diary to be read by others. He was always very cautious abut expressing his opinions, and would never talk about his experiences on St Helena afterwards, but a number of people on the island, including Lowe and Sir Thomas Reade, probably suspected that he was, as Mrs Thatcher might have put it, "not one of us".

One conversation with Lowe and Lady Lowe about Napoleon on 10th June 1818 might well have raised Lowe's suspicions:

"Donna [Lady Lowe] pitying the situation of B. [Bonaparte] and saying he really was to be pitied, contrasting his former situation with his present, and Sir H. [Lowe] saying he deserved more contempt than pity which gave rise to a lengthened reasoning between them. Both looked at me alternatively, as they spoke, and as if engaging me in conversation. I observed that something must be allowed for the personal feelings of a man who (as he said, trusting to the generosity of the British nation and expecting a refuge in England) had delivered himself into the hands of the English and instead of an abode in England, had found himself fixed at St. Helena. " (1)

A rash comment for the normally guarded Gorrequer, who was well aware of the suspicion that fell on those who were thought to have any sympathy for the inhabitants of Longwood:

"When Madame Shrug [Madame Bertrand] sent the list, his observation that C-ns and Pear_n [Cairns and Pearson] were objectionable characters to visit there. No man in the Island had any business to have any opinion but himself about the people of Longwood, and much less on his own actions or duties here."

Gorrequer was himself instructed to tear a leaf out of a book sent for Napoleon by a future Prime Minister because of something that he, Lord John Russell, had written on it. (2)

One of the interesting features of the diary is the use of nicknames, which are today a feature of St Helena, but were presumably used by Gorrequer to disguise identities in case anyone accidentally read his scribblings. Amongst the often humorous names he used were

Mach. - (Machiavelli) - Hudson Lowe
Constipation - Colonel Charles Nicol
Denzil Periwinkle - Denzil Ibbetson
Nincumpoop, Ninny - Sir Thomas Reade (also other names)
Old Brick and Mortar - Major Anthony Emmet (3)
Saul Sapiens - Saul Solomon
Shrug - Count Bertrand
Sultana or Donna - Lady Howe
German /Teutonic - William Janisch, clerk to Lowe
Neighbour or Vicino - Napoleon
Weeping Willie - Sir William Doveton
Veritas - Count Montholon
Yam Maggiore Long Shanks - Major Hodson (nicknamed Hercules by Napoleon).

Since the publication of Gorrequer's diary it has been virtually impossible to mount a serious defense of Sir Hudson Lowe. Gorrequer's own remarkably modern sounding conclusion on Mach (Machiavelli) as Gorrequer usually referred to him, has been recently quoted by Dr Howard, and is worth repeating:

" Mach is but a machine - he is just what his nature and circumstances have made him. He slogs the machine which he cannot control. If he is corrupt, it is because he has been corrupted. If he is unamiable it is because he has been marked and spitefully treated. Give him a different education, place him in other circumstances, and treat him with as much gratefulness and generosity as he has experienced of harshness, and he would be altogether a diferent nature. A man who would be anxious to be loved rather than feared; and instead of having the accusation of being a man who was satisfied to spread around him anguish and despair, one who has an instinct for kindness." (4)

Less well noted was Gorrequer's comment about Lowe's "contempt of men generally held clever". (5) This was consistent with his refusal to admit that Napoleon had any qualities above the ordinary,

"He frequently said he did not consider our Neighbour [Napoleon] as a man of superior mind or talent, or a man of judgement. He pretended to hold him quite cheap." (6)

and with his refusal to acknowledge to an incredulous Lord Byron at Holland House in 1815, that Napoleon had any special talent as a military leader. Some have claimed that Sir Hudson Lowe certainly regarded himself at least as Napoleon's equal, and Gorrequer noted how he looked for any confirmatory evidence of his beliefs however fragile such evidence was: "Mach's readiness and eagerness to hear any little nonsense to the prejudice of our Neighbour and Shrug and his wife without desiring, or trying to analyse it for fear it might be found false - and communicating such stuff to Big Wigs." (7)

If Sir Hudson Lowe comes out badly in Gorrequer's diary, so also does Lady Lowe, whom Gorrequer detested, and so does Sir Thomas Reade, perhaps the real eminence grise of St Helena. Those are issues for another day.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. St Helena During Napoleon's Exile, Gorrequer's Diary , James Kemble (London 1969), p. 67
2. [End of 1819?] Gorrequer p. 153
3. Emmet was in charge of the construction of New Longwood House.
4. Gorrequer p. 267
5. 20 July 1818, Gorrequer p. 70
6 6th May 1821, Gorrequer p. 233
7. 14 Feb 1819 Gorrequer p. 116

Napoleon: The North West Tour

It hardly needs to be said that Napoleon never visited Manchester or the North West, although two of his nephews did, accompanied by a famous actress! (1) That aside, last weekend Albert Benhamou travelled north for his first visit, and accompanied me on a two day tour to explore what the region has to offer.

First stop was the Fusilier Museum at Bury, not far from the famous market.

Albert Benhamou at the Fusilier Museum.










Here we were met by Paul Dalton, a knowledgeable, friendly member of the museum staff who kindly showed us the very important items in the collection that are associated with the 20th Regiment and Napoleon's captivity on St Helena.

This proved to be a very exciting start to our trip, particularly because of the opportunity to examine the famous three volumes of Coxe's Life of Marlborough , which Napoleon wished to give to the 20th Regiment in the last few weeks of his life, a gesture that was to cause so much trouble for its recipients.

More on this and other items held in this excellent museum will hopefully follow in the next few days.

From Bury, and after a pleasant and rather too leisurely lunch in the Palace Hotel at Buxton, next on our list was Chatsworth, strictly perhaps not in the North West, but an easy drive from Manchester. The main reason for our visit was to look at the amazing collection of Canova sculptures assembled by the 6th Duke of Devonshire.



There is of course so much else to see at Chatsworth, even if you have been before, and for most people it would repay a full day to explore all that it has to offer.

William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire (1790-1858).

The Bachelor Duke, son of the now very famous Lady Georgiana Spencer, and a man whom one feels it would have been a pleasure to get to know.

A friend of the Czar of Russia and of members of the Bonaparte family; he entertained Queen Victoria and the Duke of Wellington at Chatsworth.

As it happens Chatsworth is currently holding an exhibition to commemorate the life of the 6th Duke, so this was an added bonus.


On day two we got up early and were first visitors at the Lady Lever Art Gallery at Port Sunlight, a place which I have blogged about some time ago. Here Lord Lever, a life long admirer of Napoleon, displayed his large collection of Napoleon memorabilia, not all of which turned out to be genuine!




Finally we made it to Congleton, a town rather off the tourist map and an unlikely place for Napoleonic associations, which happens to be the birthplace of Sir Thomas Reade.

Here we were kindly entertained to lunch by Sue Dale, a member of the Friends of St Helena whose husband once served on the island and knew Gilbert Martineau.

Among other things we were fascinated to be shown an impressive willow tree now in the grounds of a local garage, which local legend claims to have an association with Sir Thomas, St Helena and the captivity of Napoleon.



It really was a fascinating two days, which we both thoroughly enjoyed. I will try to provide a more detailed account of each location in the next week or so.

-----------------------------------------------------------
Notes

1. Louis Napoleon in fact made more than one visit to the area, including a stay at Arley Hall in 1847-1848, where the Emperor Room commemorates his stay. The story that he lived in Southport and was so impressed by Lord Street that he modelled Paris on it when he became Emperor seems to be fanciful at best. He arrived in London having escaped from the prison at Ham, and there he lived, albeit with a number of trips around the country, until he went to France after the 1848 Revolutions.

Faithful Servants of Napoleon: The Archambault Brothers Part 2

Card Steuben, Mort de Napoléon Ier à Sainte-Hélène, le 5 mai 1821
Achille Archambault highlighted
Achille Thomas L'Union Archambault was born at Fontainebleau in 1792. His parents never married and he took his mother's family name. His father was Genevieve Agathe Songeux, a native of Fontainebleau, who appears to have taken little part in the life of Achille or of his younger brother Olivier.

When their mother died in 1799, the Archambault brothers were put in the charge of l'hospice du Mont Pierreux at Fontainebleau where their widowed grandmother was living. Their grandfather had been a postillon, and not surprisingly perhaps they followed in his footsteps. Both brothers were fortunate to find positions in the Imperial stables around 1807, and it was at St Cloud that they learned the trade that was to take them as footmen into the service of the Emperor, and finally into exile on St Helena. Achille was present on Elba and at Waterloo. It is not clear whether his younger brother was also there.

Whilst the younger Archambault was forced to leave St Helena in 1816, Achille stayed until the end. Following this separation the two brothers followed totally different paths, and did not meet again for 40 years.

On St Helena Achille was under employed for much of the time because of the determination of the Emperor not to go outside the small area in which he was allowed without being accompanied by an English officer. Achille, like many of the servants and the English attached to Longwood drank and engaged in rowdy behaviour. In September, 1818, when the Emperor's horses, Dolly and Regent, were racing at Deadwood, a certain half-mad and drunken piqueur of Napoleon, who turned out to be Achille, rode down the course. He was horsewhipped by the steward who did not know that he was one of Napoleon's servants. (1) Napoleon saw the whole incident from his vantage point at Bertrand's cottage, and later reprimanded Achille.

Whilst on St Helena Achille formed a relationship with a black girl, Mary Ann Foss. Napoleon refused permission for him to marry her, and finally, to the surprise of Montholon and others who knew his determination and his fiery temparament, Achille relented, perhaps fearing expulsion from the island, but he continued to cohabit with her.

In 1820 as a result of the decision of the Governor to extend the area in which Napoleon could travel, Achille found his services were frequently required by the Emperor. He also acquired a new horse for Napoleon, "King George", from Lord Somerset. The horse was renamed "Sheikh", after one of Napoleon's old horses used during his military campaigns.

In October 1820, Napoleon made his last outing outside the environs of Longwood, to visit Sir William Doveton at Sandy Bay, and when he was unable to complete the return journey on horseback it was Achille Archambault who was summoned to bring the caleche which transported him from Hutts Gate back to Longwood.

When Napoleon died Achille assisted at the autopsy, and according to Sir Thomas Reade was the only one of Napoleon's followers present who was visibly upset by the occasion. At Napoleon's funeral he walked behind the cortege holding "Sheikh" by the bridle .

Returning to France, he settled in Sannois in the Val d'Oise. In 1822 he married Julienne Clarisse Boursier and they had two daughters, Euphraise Clarisse and Josephine Esther.

After the 1830 Revolution he was helped by General Gourgaud to get a job as an usher at the Tuileries.

In 1840 he accompanied some of his former companions on the expedition back to St Helena to return Napoleon's body to France. On this occasion his old lover Mary Ann Foss, accompanied by her husband, met some of his associates. It is uncertain whether Achille himself met her.

Along with other Longwood servants he received the Legion of Honour in 1851.

He was paid the remainder of Napoleon's legacy by Louis Napoleon in 1855.

He died and was buried at Sannois in 1858, almost two years after meeting his younger brother whom he had not seen since 1816.




I must acknowledge again my debt to Albert Benhamou. Much of the material here has with his permission derived from Les Frères Archambault on his web site.

-----------------------------------------
1. Events of a military life: being recollections after service in the Peninsular war, invasion of France, the East Indies, St. Helena, Canada, and elsewhere, Henry Walter,(1846) pp 26-27.

St. Helena 1821: The Malingering Ex-Emperor

Mme Betrand visiting Napoleon, from Inside Longwood

Reading the introduction to Thomas Keneally's excellent novel Napoleon's Last Island, reminded me how Sir Hudson Lowe, Sir Thomas Reade and Government supporters in England refused to believe that Napoleon was ill. They were convinced that it was a plot to try and engineer his return to Europe, and that he would be miraculously cured once he were put on a ship away from the island.

On March 30th Lowe called at Longwood and said that Napoleon had not been seen for 12 days.

"If it should be necessary the door of his room will be battered down and an entry made by force."

When it was pointed out that this would kill Napoleon, Lowe answered, "No matter, I would have it done." (1) Shortly after Napoleon agreed to see Dr Arnott, the British physician, and even he claimed, surely influenced by Plantation House, that Napoleon's problems were largely psychological. By mid-April though Arnott was coming round to the view that Napoleon was dangerously ill, and he himself began to lose the trust of Lowe. (2)

The Morning Post, in an article published 25 days after Napoleon's death, provides an insight into the mindset of the Government and its supporters:

The information respecting BONAPARTE's dangerous illness is deemed extremely doubtful in those quarters to which we should be most most inclined to look for correct intelligence. Several modes of obtaining the release of the EX-EMPEROR have in vain been tried; and a rumour that he is likely to expire would afford topics for a new brief in the hands of his interested and mischievous agents. Already do we see his name chalked on many of the walls of the metropolis; and we should not much wonder if endeavours were used to instigate public meetings upon the subject of his great merits and distresses! - At all events, we are quite sure, from what we already witness, that if this rumour continues in circulation, there will be a great deal of insidious writing upon the subject." (3)

Perhaps the most surprising passage is the section I have put in bold: further evidence of the support for Napoleon so often overlooked by historians. Apparently when the news of Napoleon's death finally reached England in July, placards appeared in the streets urging people to go into mourning.(4)
-----------------------------------------------------------
1. Napoleon at St. Helena, Memoirs of General Bertrand Grand Marshall of the Palace (Cassell 1953) p. 134
2. Bertrand p. 161
3. Morning Post, 30th May 1821
4. Cobbett's Political Register, July 14th 1821. Apparently a "discredited" report of Napoleon's death reached England by mid June. Leicester Chronicle, 16th June 1821

English Honour and the Captivity of Napoleon

An English Gentleman

England in the Regency period was a highly ordered society. Gentlemanly conduct was the ideal to which all in power aspired. Half a century earlier Dr Johnson had defined being a gentleman in terms of "nobility of soul, magnanimity, and a scorn of meanness." Gentlemanly conduct also encompassed ideas of never taking unfair advantage and of conducting oneself towards your enemy as if he might one day become your friend. (1)

The treatment of Napoleon after his surrender was clearly an infringement of this gentlemanly code: detaining a defeated ruler after the end of hostilities was neither customary nor honourable. Napoleon in his letter to the Prince Regent had claimed " the protection of the laws", and had thrown himself on "the most powerful, the most constant, and the most generous" of his enemies. Whilst Captain Maitland gave no assurances as to the outcome of his surrender, Napoleon certainly got the impression that he would be treated with the respect normally afforded a defeated enemy. Lord Holland made exactly this criticism when opposing the bill to legalise Napoleon's detention:

To consign to distant exile and imprisonment a foreign and captive Chief, who, after the abdication of his authority, relying on British generosity, had surrendered himself to us, in preference to his other enemies, is unworthy the magnanimity of a great country;

Napoleon Preparing to Board the Bellerophon

The question of “honour” was important in governing circles, and impugnment of a man's honour fairly regularly led to duels.(2) Hudson Lowe mentioned it in one of his long letters to Bathurst early in the captivity.(3) Lord Castlereagh sought to dispel the concern by a rather tortuous logic: Napoleon and his fellow exiles had held a council of war in France prior to surrender and had decided there was no chance of escape; if Napoleon had had a chance of escape and had surrendered then the Government action would have been dishonourable, but since he had had no choice then Britain acted honourably.

The fact that Lord Bathurst and many members of the Government derived amusement from Napoleon's plight was also unworthy of an English gentleman. In a debate in the House of Lords in 1817 Lord Holland wondered how Bathurst could “allow himself to laugh and sneer at a man because he was in his power.“ Commenting on the affair, the Examiner criticized Bathurst for taking advantage of a man’s adversity by cracking jokes about him, and concluded that “it is the object of Ministers to humiliate their fallen Superior” hence their insistence on the title “General.”

Samuel Bamford, the simple weaver who could not aspire to gentlemanly status, clearly judged his country by that moral code, and condemned Napoleon's exile on St. Helena: "Of England's honour 'tis the grave."

It is no wonder that a later gentlemanly Prime Minister would write that an Englishman

"must regret that his Government ever undertook the custody of Napoleon, and he must regret still more that the duty should have been discharged in a spirit so ignoble and through agents so unfortunate."

Rosebery was presumably referring to two knights of the realm, Sir Hudson Lowe and Sir Thomas Reade, neither of whom he considered gentlemen.(4) For Loyalists such as Lowe and Reade of course, and for Bathurst also, Napoleon was an illegitimate ruler, a rebel and a usurper, which undoutedly affected the way he was treated.

It might be fair to point out that for the French at this time and later there was a certain hypocrisy about an Englishman's invocation of "honour", L'Angleterre, ah, la perfide Angleterre .
--------------------------------------------------------------------
1.See "In a Gewntleman-Like-Manner"
1. Canning and Castlereagh duelled in 1809; the Duke of Wellington fought a duel in 1829 when he was Prime Minister.
3. See also Gorrequer's comment, June 10, 1818.
4.Lord Rosebery, Napoleon The Last Phase London 1900, p 57.

The Pen is Mightier than the Sword: St Helena, March 1820

Front cover, "The political house that Jack built", 1819

In March 1820 a naval surgeon named McKenzie arrived on St Helena with a copy of the The political house that Jack built. (1) This pamphlet which was published by William Hone in the wake of the August 1819 Peterloo Massacre in Manchester, was to run to several editions and sell 100,000 or so copies.

McKenzie had, so he claimed, intended to show the pamphlet to Sir Thomas Reade, before giving it to an English resident on the island. Unfortunately he left it in a shop, and two British army officers found it and reported him to Sir Hudson Lowe.

Lowe immediately sent McKenzie aboard his ship and held him prisoner for 7 days, threatening to send him back to England and force him out of the Navy. Luckily for him there was no ship leaving for England, and so at the end of his confinement he was able to beg Lowe for forgiveness and secure his release. (2)

Hone was a fierce defender of the freedom of the press who had faced three separate trials on three days in December 1817, one of which was for libelling the Prince Regent.(3) He was acquitted in each trial, to great popular acclaim. Henceforth he was regarded as almost immune from prosecution whilst other radical journalists frequently found themselves in prison, and William Cobbett exiled himself in North America to avoid the same treatment.

Ruffians are abroad

William Hone was a friend of Hazlitt, and like him and many others did not subscribe to the Loyalist narrative about Napoleon. One of his earlier pamphlets had been Buonaparte-phobia (1815), which satirized the exaggerated anti-Napoleonic language of The Times , whose editor was henceforth referred to as Dr Slop.

The frontispiece of The "Political House that Jack Built" (top) carried a cartoon of Wellington, putting his sword on the scales of justice. The Waterloo man, as Hone described him, had been recruited into the Cabinet in late 1818, and his appointment was seen as a sign that the Government was prepared to use military force to put down those calling for reform. The Manchester massacre seemed to confirm this, and it almost immediately became known as "Peterloo".

These are THE PEOPLE all tatter'd and torn,
Who curse the day wherein they were born,
On account of Taxation too great to be borne,
And pray for relief, from night to morn;
Who, in vain, Petition in every form,
Who, peacably Meeting to ask for Reform,
Were sabred by Yeomanry Cavalry, who,
Were thank'd by THE MAN, all shaven and shorn,
All cover'd with Orders--and all forlorn;

The Man of course was the Prince Regent, a Whig in his youth, who had turned against his former political friends and had publicly thanked the troops who broke up the reform meeting in Manchester.

George Cruikshank's caricature of the Prince Regent

 
THE DANDY OF SIXTY, who bows with a grace,
And has taste in wigs, collars, cuirasses and lace;
Who, to tricksters, and fools, leaves the State 
and its treasure,
And, when Britain's in tears, sails about 
at his pleasure:
Who spurn'd from his presence the Friends of his youth,
And now has not one who will tell him the truth;
Who took to his counsels, in evil hour,
The Friends of the Reasons of lawless Power; 

In the poem Hone looked to leading Whigs to save Reform from Wellington and the repressive Tory Government:

This WORD is the Watchword--the talisman word,
That the WATERLOO-MAN's to crush with his sword;
But, if shielded by NORFOLK and BEDFORD's alliance,
It will set both his sword, and him, at defiance;
If FITZWILLIAM, and GROSVENOR, and ALBEMARLE aid it,
And assist its best Champions, who then dare invade it?

It is no wonder that a pamphlet such as this was not welcomed on St Helena at this time. Lowe and Reade were fierce Loyalists, determined to keep opposition newspapers off the island and especially from Longwood House, and naturally suspected anyone who showed any Whig or worse still Radical sympathies. On St Helena where the Governor's word was supreme, there was no recourse to the law to protect press freedom or individual liberties.
-------------------------------------------------
1. Jack was a synonym for John Bull. "This is the house that Jack Built" is a traditional English nursery rhyme.
2. The Morning Chronicle, May 20, 1820.
3. See also this post on Hone.

Chroniques de Sainte-Hélène Atlantique Sud

I am very pleased to have received a copy of Michel Dancoisne-Martineau's recently published book, Chroniques de Sainte-Hélène Atlantique Sud (Perrin 2011).

Based on extensive research accumulated during Michel's twenty five years on St Helena, this collection of vignettes provides a rich human backdrop to the captivity of Napoleon. It reminds us that whilst a drama at times bordering on farce was being played out at Longwood and Plantation House, ordinary people were, in extraordinary circumstances, trying to live their lives as best they could.

In here are accounts of relatively well known personages: Saul Solomon, the founder of the company that still bears his name on the island who profited greatly from the captivity of Napoleon; Robert Grant who prayed for the Emperor's soul with others at Mason's Stock House; Rev Boys, "the man whom even Hudson Lowe feared", in permanent conflict with the island authorities; Betsy Balcombe, whose familiarity with Napoleon was the envy of the other young girls.

There are also some lesser known characters: Mary Anne Robinson, Napoleon's Nymphe de la vallée ; Catherine Younghusband whose rumour mongering ultimately forced her and her husband off the island; Madame La Admiral, the mysterious companion of Admiral Plampin, whose identity may remain forever unknown, but who apparently openly plied her trade among the sailors in Portsmouth before accompanying the Admiral to St Helena, and continued to do the same on the ship going out!

Here also are accounts of the experiences of female slaves such as Flora, the mistress of a soldier, George Rushford, who in his absence came under the influence of James Williams the gaoler cum pimp, and was killed by the enraged, drunken Rushford, for which he was fined 10 pounds. Also the strange story of Fanny, a slave employed in the prison by James Williams to perform sexual favours for the inmates. Williams was convicted of procurement, fined 5 pounds and returned to his old job, as apparently did Fanny. It appears that Sir Thomas Reade, the year before having added chief of police to his multifarious and highly profitable duties, and having we are told, "a peculiar and not solely professional interest" in such matters, had some rather shadowy connection to this affair. Then there is the case of Lucy, a slave beaten and mistreated by her master, Robert Wright, a captain in the St Helena Regiment, who, thanks to the intervention of General Bingham, was eventually brought to some kind of justice.

Poignant too is the case of Mary Ellis, the wife of a captain in the 66th regiment. Pregnant in 1821, and not allowed to accompany her husband when he sailed for England with his regiment after Napoleon's death, so with about a dozen other women and their husbands she remained on the deserted camp at Deadwood. Just over two months later she died in child birth, and was buried with her dead child on 22nd August.

For anyone interested in the history of St Helena, this is a fascinating study which complements and enhances the general picture that emerged from Gilbert Martineau's Napoleon's St Helena. From reading it one can understand why a cleric as strait laced as Rev Boys was so outraged by the behaviour of large sections of the community on the island.

Inevitably there are omissions. I had hoped to learn more about Miss Mason, the rich landowner who always bowed effusively whenever she encountered Napoleon, and was there in 1840 to greet those of Napoleon's companions in exile who returned to reclaim his earthly remains. That though is a very minor complaint.

Curiously to English eyes at least, the book has its list of contents where one would have hoped to find an index! I should add in case there is any confusion that it is of course written in French! It would repay translating into English to give it the wider audience that it deserves.

Napoleon's Poisoned Chalice

Among the half dozen books I recenty read on holiday was Napoleon's Poisoned Chalice: The Emperor and His Doctors on St Helena by Dr Martin Howard. It was the only one on Napoleon that I took with me. It seems to me to be by far the best of the recent books on the captivity produced by British authors. Dr Martin is largely free of nationalistic prejudice, provides a careful and considered evaluation of the evidence, and thankfully does not engage in wild speculation as to what was going on in the head of Napoleon or anyone else. Although highly readable, this is a scholarly study which deserves the attention of anyone interested in the captivity of Napoleon.

The book's judgement on Lowe, derived partly from Gorrequer's diary, seems apt:

.. he may be judged to be a fundamentally decent man who was promoted beyond his capacity and was then destroyed from within by his deficiencies.

Napoleon himself astutely described Lowe as a hyena caught in a trap - a trap presumably set by Lord Bathurst and the British Government.

Dr Martin also provides a succinct analysis of Barry O'Meara's conflicting loyalties as Napoleon's medical attendant, a British officer, and an admiralty informer. He suggests with some justification that Lord Rosebery might have been less dismissive of O'Meara's Voice of St. Helena and its allegations about Lowe had he been able to read Gorrequer's diary.

Dr Martin also brings out clearly the enmity between Lowe and the Admiralty, and the Navy's sympathy for the Emperor and his doctor which is the key to understanding the O'Meara affair and much that followed. He describes Napoleon's relationship with the British Navy as close to being one of mutual admiration.

The book also provides a thorough account of the harsh treatment of Dr Stokoe by Sir Hudson Lowe and the egregious Sir Thomas Reade, always sniffing around for a conspiracy. It notes the very selective treatment of the case by Lowe's apologist W. Forsyth. The comment on Stokoe's plight as a doctor is worth repeating, coming as it does from a medical practitioner:

He decided to see Napoleon; whatever the risks, this was the action one would have expected of a conscientious doctor.

and

The regulations extant on St Helena had been manipulated to render normal medical practice illegal.

Dr Arnott's diagnosis of Napoleon's illness as hypchondriasis as late as 22nd April 1821 was he concludes the result of the climate of fear created by the Governor rather than of incompetence. Dr Martin dismisses the poisoning theory in an uncharacteristic unscholarly phrase as, all mouth and no trousers.

I found the introductory pages a little less sure footed. The famous letter to the Prince Regent is claimed to have been written in Plymouth when in fact it was written before Napoleon went on board the Bellerophon. Pieter Geyl's Napoleon For and Against is inaccurately described as a double edged account of Napoleon's life , when in fact it is a study of French historiography on Napoleon, a very different animal. I also have some problems with his description of Napoleon at his peak as egotistical and brutal. I don't think anyone would cavil at the egotistical epithet, but by no stretch of the imagination was Napoleon a brutal ruler. Martin also suggests that Napoleon still believed himself to be the Messiah, a somewhat bizarre assertion, which perhaps refers to Napoleon's sense of destiny. These though are minor points which should not detract from the quality of the work.

The book inevitably invites comparison with Albert Benhamou's L'Autre St Hélène. Albert's book engages more directly with the primary sources, and contains many long extracts from them, which I personally found very useful. Dr Martin's book is largely a synthesis of secondary sources, and focuses more on the doctors and on Hudson Lowe and less on the inhabitants of Longwood. I feel that these are complementary studies, and still hope to see an English translation of L'Autre St Hélène. I am pleased to have both books on my shelves, each signed by its author.

The 20th Foot and a Gift from Napoleon - The Fusilier Museum Bury

The Fusilier Museum in Bury has a small but priceless collection related to the last days of Napoleon. The centre piece is the three volumes of Coxe's Life of Marlborough, the gift of Napoleon to the 20th Regiment, which caused so much consternation to the Governor, Sir Hudson Lowe, and so much trouble to Captain Lutyens, the orderly officer at Longwood.



There are also a number of other items on view, including the medals of Dr Arnott, the last British doctor to attend Napoleon on St Helena, and the tunic he wore when attending him.



This tunic, and the picture of Arnott (below) were apparently rescued from the ruins of the home of a descendant of the Arnott family after the Lockerbie bombing in 1988, and but for that atrocity these items might never have been recovered.


Arnott, Archibald, M.D. (1771-1855). Surgeon to the 20th Foot Regiment, he was called to attend Napoleon on April 1st, 1821 and continued to attend him until his death on May 5th.

Whatever his limitations as a doctor, Arnott got on well with Napoleon.

During one of their conversations Napoleon praised the men of the 20th Foot and said that he would make them a gift of Coxe's Life of Marlborough.

The three volumes of this book were subsequently put in Captain Lutyens' room without explanation, presumably by St Denis.

On our visit we were privileged to be able to examine the famous books, and to photograph the three words, "L' Empereur Napoleon", which were like a red rag to a bull to Hudson Lowe.

Volume Two of Coxe's Life of Marlborough with three fatal words inscribed at the top. (Click to enlarge)









The inscription, almost certainly made by St Denis, who acted as Librarian at Longwood.



The books were returned to Longwood, although later the 20th Regiment was allowed to receive them, and for some time thereafter they were proudly kept in the officers' mess.

Happily Napoleon, in the last stages of his final illness, was not informed of what he would surely have regarded as one of the most hurtful of many insults. Even William Forsyth, Hudson Lowe's most faithful defender, conceded that "Napoleon's kindly meant present might, under the circumstances have been accepted. .. nor was there much likelihood of a British regiment being seduced from its allegiance by adding to its library a few books, the gift of Napoleon."

Blamed for his failue to return Napoleon's gift, Captain Lutyens was removed from his post. A decent man whose loyalty was unimpeachable, the incident was for him a disaster which must have overshadowed the rest of his short life.

Lutyens, Captain Engelbert (1784-1830). Orderly Officer at Longwood (1820-1821).

Member of a family which had come to England from Hamburg in 1745, and which was to produce one of Britain's best known architects.

Suspected by Hudson Lowe and Thomas Reade of being too friendly with the French at Longwood, honestly reporting the deterioration of Napoleon's health from November 1820, and very uncomfortable about being required to spy on Napoleon during his last illness, Lutyens had previously asked to be removed from Longwood at the end of December 1820.


For Captain Crokat, who replaced Lutyens at Longwood and subsequently had a very successful career and lived to the age of 90, it proved a very lucky break.

Crokat, William (1789-1879).

Having replaced Lutyens as orderly officer at Longwood he was given the honour of taking the news of Napoleon's death to London, for which he received the sum of £500, a large amount in those days.

He was also promoted to Major, ahead of Lutyens.

Lutyens, after a lengthy process was successful in getting his own promotion to Major backdated to 1821, as clear a sign as possible that the Army recognised that he had been wrongly treated.


Crokat whose bust is in the Fusilier Museum, ultimately rose to the rank of General,



and was one of the very few people who served on St Helena during Napoleon's captivity who can be said to have had great success afterwards.

Finally a note about the disputed books. Contrary to what has been written in a number of published accounts, these were the gift not of Captain Robert Cavendish Spencer, who happened to be on St Helena at the end of 1820, but of Lord Robert Spencer, the youngest son of the 3rd Duke of Marlborough. The books apparently had been sent via Lady Holland, at the centre of that group of Whigs who were opposed to the Government's treatment of Napoleon, and who sent many books to St Helena for Napoleon.

Allegedly Count Bertrand and/or his wife provided a French translation of Marlborough's biography for Napoleon. This translation, if it existed, has as far as I am aware never been found.

My thanks to Paul Dalton of the Fusilier Museum, and to Albert Benhamou, without whose help this blog would not have been possible.

St Helena One Man's Island: "He had little time for Napoleon"

Front Cover of Ian Baker's, "St Helena: One Man's Island" (1)

I have recently been reading Ian Baker's interesting and beautifully written book on St Helena. The first few paragraphs of the Introduction hooked me

Islands are special places. They are finite, complete. They are of the sea, and because of that, their land has added value.

An island can become part of you, though perhaps not you part of it.

An island allows you to stop and stare, to look anew at things with which you're familiar , and to find the things with which you are'nt. It gives you chances to look more closely at yourself."

He has woven together a fascinating account of St Helena, rooted in his unrivalled knowledge of its geology, which began with a lengthy research visit in the early 1960's.

Created over a period of millions of years from volcanic eruptions in the mid-Atlantic rift, which ceased in St Helena's case about seven or eight million years ago, it is at its longest only ten miles across, about the size of Greater Manchester he tells us, but at its base, deep below the surface of the Atlantic, it is eighty miles across, and higher than Mont Blanc before it breaks the water's surface.

One Man's Island might perhaps be seen as an early example of what is coming to be known as "Big History", an approach which gives homo sapiens a less privileged position in the story of our planet. Such an approach presents challenges when you are telling the story of a small remote island largely unknown apart from its association with the captivity of the legendary Emperor of the French.

"One Man" and Napoleon

Please don't get me wrong. I've as much time as the next for Napoleon, probably a lot more. But there is much more to this island than even that special bird of passage. (2)

So in his attempt to focus on the bigger picture, Ian Baker enlists the support of Charles Darwin, certainly focused on far greater forces, who during his short stay on St Helena in 1836 never bothered to visit Napoleon's tomb and, as the author says, probably "didn't have a great deal of time for Napoleon".

Similarly he is able to call on the the first man to sail around the world single handedly, Joshua Slocum, who presumably had had time enough to think about more fundamental things. Slocum, with some justification, described St Helena as "an island of tragedies", but added with a sting in the tail, "tragedies that have been lost sight of in wailing over the Corsican." (3)

Ian Baker is I think on shakier ground when he tells us, "Gorrequer certainly had little time for Napoleon" , a conclusion based on the fact that in his long diary entry on May 5th 1821 Gorrequer did not mention Napoleon, and on the next day referred to him as defunct Neighbour". It is impossible to know precisely what he thought of Napoleon, and it doesn't much matter, but while Gorrequer's diary is full of venom directed at Hudson Lowe, Lady Lowe and Sir Thomas Reade, I cannot recall any negative comments about Napoleon. Ian Baker also somewhat misleadingly describes Gorrequer's nickname for Lowe as "Chief". He certainly used it at times, but far more common was the sobriquet "Mach", short for Machiavelli, which throws rather a different light on Gorrequer's sympathies! (4)

I also have my doubts about the rather sweeping conclusion as to why Longwood was allowed to deteriorate after Napoleon's death:

"When Napoleon died in exile in 1821, most of the world felt that he had got no more than his just desserts. It is all too easy to see Napoleon, the great leader, in hindsight, but at the time he was hated, feared and vilified. Many would rather the Prussians had taken him after Waterloo, and executed him, as they had wanted to." (5)

Having read this one might be surprised to hear of the large numbers who queued up to see Napoleon's body after his death, the crowd that attended his funeral, and the steady stream of visitors to his grave in succeeding years. It was indeed the fuss about Napoleon, rather than Napoleon himself, which Darwin commented on. There would of course not have been that fuss had Napoleon not had significant support in England and the New World, though not of course among the absolute monarchs who wielded power on the continent and for a time at least felt more secure that Napoleon was gone, and wished that he would be soon forgotten.

As for the neglect of Longwood, the house itself was in a state of dilapidation and presumably would have been demolished had Napoleon lived and moved into New Longwood House. Unlike the Valley of the Tomb, which was in private hands and earned a reasonable income for its owners, ownership was in the hands of the East India Company, and clearly it had neither commercial nor political interest in creating a memorial to Napoleon.

Perhaps though the most questionable section on Napoleon is the description of his removal from the Briars to Longwood. The book paints a picture of Napoleon playing for time, and of Cockburn losing patience with him. According to this version Napoleon was "furious at having to leave the Briars. Cockburn was impassive, either Napoleon moved or he would bring guards to move him. Take it or be taken. Napoleon took it." (6) This version of events had then as now a very satisfying ring for British patriots. All one can say is that there is no support for it in French sources, nor from O'Meara nor indeed from Betsy Balcombe. Those closest to Napoleon were of the view that he was pleased to move to Longwood, and to assemble all his followers in one place. One would like to know the source for this version, but One Man's Island is not that kind of book.

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

1. Ian Baker St Helena One Man's Island (Wilton 65, 2004)
2. op cit p 101
3. op cit p 113
4. op cit p 164
5. op cit p 119
6. op cit p 62

Napoleon: General or Emperor?

Send this card to General Bonaparte; the last I heard of him was at the Pyramids and Mount Tabor.
- Napoleon to Bertrand, on receiving an invitation from Hudson Lowe inviting General Bonaparte to a ball.

.. I have no cognisance of any Emperor being actually upon this island, or of any person possessing such dignity having .. come hither with me in the Northumberland .
- Admiral Cockburn to Bertrand, in reply to a letter in which Napoleon had been styled Emperor.

Aside from the legality of Napoleon's detention without trial after the war with France had ended, the most contentious issue of his captivity on St Helena was the decision that he be styled and treated as a general officer, which was compounded by the puerile way in which Hudson Lowe was wont to enforce it.

Lord Rosebery in his Napoleon: The Last Phase singles out some of the absurdities: Hobhouse's gift of his book on the Hundred Days to Napoleon was confiscated because of the inscription Imperatori Napoleoni ; some chess pieces bearing the inscription N and a crown, sent by Mr Elphinstone who was grateful for Napoleon's kindness to his wounded brother on the field of Waterloo were passed on only with extreme reluctance; Napoleon's gift to the 20th Regiment of Coxe's Life of Marlborough was declined because the imperial insignia was on the title page. Also Gorrequer noted in his diary that he was required to cut a leaf out of a book sent for Napoleon by Lord John Russell because of something, presumably the disputed title Emperor, that Lord John had written on it.

One of the charges made against Dr Stokoe in his court martial was that he had referred to Napoleon as "Napoleon" rather than as "General Bonaparte". Finally of course, Hudson Lowe refused permission for the simple inscription Napoleon to be placed on the tomb. Lowe insisted that "Bonaparte" must be added, his followers refused, so it remained unmarked. "It seems incredible, but it is true" was Lord Rosebery's comment on this bizarre affair. (1)

Gorrequer noted though that after Napoleon's death Admiral Lambert had no compunction about using the terms Emperor, Empress and Princess (referring to Napoleon's sisters) in conversation with Bertrand. (2) Of course the Navy were always suspect in Lowe's eyes: " the fact is that there is a feeling for Bonaparte throughout, that ought not to be".(3)

Lowe also came to have doubts about the 20th Regiment, particularly after the affair of the books, and he must have been horrified to be informed by Sir Thomas Reade on 5th July 1821 that the officers had toasted Napoleon in their mess! (4) Whether or not they used the title General Bonaparte is not recorded! On an earlier occasion Gorrequer had noted Lady Lowe's comments on the 20th: "The affection and admiration of that corps for our Neighbour [Napoleon] was very unaccountable and, after his death, if he had lived longer and if 20th had remained where they were, God knows what would have been the consequences in time." (5)

At one stage Napoleon suggested that he should resolve the dispute by assuming the name of "Colonel Muiron" or "Baron Duroc". Lord Bathurst's response tells us much about the man and almost makes you feel sorry for Hudson Lowe in having to answer to him: "On the subject of General Bonaparte's proposition I shall probably not give you any instruction. It appears harsh to refuse it, and there may arise much embrrassment in formally accepting it." Apparently the right to assume an incognito belongs only to a monarch! (6) So General Bonaparte he remained.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Lord Rosebery, Napoleon: The Last Phase (London 1900) p 80.
2. James Kemble, Gorrequer's Diary (London 1969) p242.
3. Gorrequer's Diary p. 61
4. Gorrequer's Diary p 255
5. Gorrequer's Diary pp. 226-7
6. Rosebery pp 90-91

St. Helena Residents During the Captivity

For some time I had been meaning to do an entry on the families who lived on St. Helena during the Captivity of Napoleon. Reading G.L. De St. M. Watson's interesting work on Piontkowski and St. Helena has finally spurred me to do this. (1) This book contains a list of over 30 people that Hudson Lowe suspected might have been involved in helping Napoleon to smuggle letters to Europe.

I hope that this entry may be of some help to those trying to trace the names of families who once lived on St. Helena. It does not pretend to provide a definitive record.

Gilbert Martineau, in his Napoleon's St. Helena breaks the white population of the island into two categories: "big" whites and "small" whites, probably an appropriate terminology to describe the hierarchical world that was the British Empire. Below these would be the trades people, the free blacks and the slaves. (2)

The first category consisted of the well established families who lived in the fine houses scattered around the island - the Doveton (Mount Pleasant) , Hodson (Maldivia House) and Brooke families (Prospect House).

Others who were admitted to Plantation House functions during the East India Company period included Robert Leech (High Knoll) and D. Leech, B.A. Wright, John De Fountain, David and John Kay, Thomas Greentree (Fairyland), George Blenkens, Robert and Henry Seale (Castle of Otranto), Anthony Beale, George Lambe, Charles Blake and Nathaniel Kennedy. These families tended to intermarry and held all the important positions on the island.

Other family names on the island at the time included Bennett, Brabazon, Carr, Shortiss, Kinnaird, Bagley, Knipe, Torbett, Mason, Legge, Robinson, Broadway, Firmin, Young, Carrol, O'Connor, Porteous, Smith, Haynes, Beale, Hunter, Den Taafe, Cole, Harrington and Fowler.


Sir Hudson Lowe's List of Suspects

Sir Hudson Lowe's list, referred to earlier, not only provides an insight into the paranoia and distrust of Sir Hudson Lowe, but also affords a glimpse of the commercial life of St Helena during the Captivity. (3)

Some on the list appear in the Judicial Records I have been working on, but the Records rarely give any indication of occupation. Few if any of the names are I think now current on St. Helena.



Most of the names on the list are reproduced below, with any additional information that I have to hand.
















Samuel Solomon -the founder of the firm which still trades on St. Helena
Mr Bruce (clerk to Solomon)
Joseph Solomon

Mr Boorman - a plumber and paper hanger often employed at Longwood; he and his wife assisted Darling with the funeral arrangements.
Mr Paine - a painter and paper hanger, an employee of John Bullock (London) sent out to from the UK to work on New Longwood house
Mr Darling - another employee of John Bullock; served as undertaker at Napoleon's funeral; assisted also at the exhumation.

Mr Heywood
Mr Lowden
Mr Cole - postmaster
Members of the firm Balcombe, Cole & Co - Messrs. Fowler (Oaklands), Waring and Banks. The Balcombe family had by this time left the island.
Mr Scriven - warehouseman
Mr Wright - late captain St Helena Regiment - who was acquitted of murder in the duelling case in 1808 referred to in an earlier entry on this blog.

Mr Metcalfe - carpenter
Mr Bannister - victualler
Mr Simpson
Mr Eyre - lodging-keeper
Mr Mulhall
Mr Chamberlayn - carpenter
Mr Gordon - cooper
Mr Baker, contractor
Mr Carroll - merchant
Mr McRitchie - shopkeeper
Mr Torbett - shopkeeper; owned the land on which Napoleon was buried.
Mr Blunden - clerk
Mr Greenland - shopkeeper
Mr Green - shopkeeper
Mr Dring - auctioneer
Mr Julio - no fixed employment
Mr Tracy - butcher

Reverend Boys and Illegitimacy on St. Helena

One of the most colourful people on the island at this time was the Reverend Richard Boys, whose forthright opinions sometimes brought him into conflict with the powers on the island, most notably in his condemnation of Admiral Plampin's cohabitation with a lady not his wife.

On occasions when Boys was asked to record the births of children of slave women fathered by people of rank on the island, he insisted on writing the names and positions of the fathers in bold letters in the register. Apparently these names were virtually impossible to erase. Boys' efforts appear to have had some effect, as the decline in the number of illegitimate children registered suggests:
1813 :- 198; 1814 :- 101; 1815 :- 58 1816:- 46; 1817:- 53; 1818:- 39; 1819 :- 50; 1820 :- 17; 1821 :- 16; 1822 :- 6.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notes
1, G.L. De St. M. WatsonA Polish Exile with Napoleon(London and New York) 1912. I can find little about this author, who happened to live in nearby Wigan long before it was discovered and made famous by George Orwell. It seems to me to be a curious place find a Napoleonic scholar! on the occasion of his publication of a volume on Napoleon's death mask, Watson was described by the New York Times (August 15th 1915) as a leading Napoleonic iconographer. Watson was apparently a friend of Arnold Chaplin, whose A St. Helena Who's Who (London 1919) is an invaluable source for information on St. Helena during the captivity.

2. Chaplin gives the breakdown of the population as follows: 3534 whites; 1156 slaves; 481 Chinese; 613 Free Blacks; 33 Lascars (Asian sailors). He gives the total military population as 2181. Arnold p. 15

3.The background to this incident is as follows: In 1819 Mr Ripley, the captain of the Regent was apparently approached on St. Helena and offered some money to take some correspondence from Longwood to Europe. He informed Col. Reade, who informed Sir Hudson Lowe. Lowe sent a letter to Lord Bathurst listing possible suspects about whom Ripley should be questioned. Quite what Lord Bathurst made of this one can only imagine.