MONTHOLON, Charles Tristan, Comte de (1783-1853), despite the departure of his wife Albine, he remained with Napoleon until his death and was, the servants apart, the only resident of Longwood House to do so.
Nowadays he is the prime suspect for poisoning Napoleon among those who subscribe to that theory.
For Gorrequer he was simply "Veritas", suggesting that he was plausible but also that what he said should not perhaps always be taken at face value.
LOWE, Susan DeLancey, Lady (1781-1832). The widow of Colonel William Johnson who died in battle in 1811, she had two teenage daughters, Susanna and Charlotte, of whose beauty she was very proud. Her father was Colonel Stephen DeLancey, a New York Loyalist who had moved to England after the American Revolution. With that background it is hardly suprising that she disliked Napoleon and all he was deemed to stand for.
Susan Johnson had married Sir Hudson shortly before they came to St Helena. For Lowe, who was over 10 years older (he was the same age as Napoleon) it was the first experience of matrimony, although he had had a mistress in Genoa who bore him two children.
Unfortunately there do not seem to be any images available of Lady Lowe, so we shall have to make do with a verbal picture given by Sir Henry Russell: "a large, showy-looking woman of about forty, who has been handsome, with an air of fashion about her, but who is too highly rouged and too décolletée."
(1)
To Gorrequer she was "Sultana": a lady who considered herself at the apex of St Helena society, was never shy of voicing her opinions, and made life difficult for most of those who shared Plantation House with her, including Sir Hudson Lowe and most certainly Gideon Gorrequer. According to Russell again: " [she] had a great deal to say and very little reserve in saying it". (2)
Apparently whilst on St Helena she took to the bottle, which in the circumstances is perhaps understandable, and there were rumours also of a lover, Captain Den Taaf, although one gets the impression that not to be suspected of having a lover might almost have been considered an insult on the island at that time.
Lady Lowe of course never met Napoleon, although towards the end of Napoleon's life she had some limited social contacts with Mme Bertrand.
Anyway, on re-reading Gorrequer's diary I was struck by the following revealing entry, made after the death of Napoleon when there was a degree of amity between the residents of Longwood and those of Plantation House.
"Sultana boasted that Veritas [Montholon] had told her that our Neighbour [Napoleon] was once prepared and dressed on purpose to go out and meet her, when she went up in consequence of Veritas having promised her at the races to show her the grounds."
Lady Lowe blamed the orderly officer and then the Bertrands (particularly Madame Shrug as Gorrequer referred to her) for not telling Montholon that she had arrived and thus depriving her of the opportunity to meet their neighbour:
".. Veritas said that had he known she was there, he would have gone immediately to receive her and procure her a sight of Neighbour. That he added had she seen and conversed with him, she would easily have brought about everything and restored a good understanding between Mach and him. In fact her meeting Neighbour was all that was wanted .
The idea of Lady Lowe as a peacemaker is shall we say an interesting one. Perhaps Montholon really believed it, but he was not finished.
Veritas told her also that Neighbour had been looking at Cadetta [Lady Lowe's daughter] through the window, and admired her much, saying she was very pretty (all this was said before Cadetta). She believed she said that Madam Shrug prevented her meeting Neighbour for fear she might supplant her. She was jealous of her being introduced to him, and feared he would be making a present to herself and figli, which would be depriving Madame Shrug and her figli of them. It was in fact her apprehension that Sultana would put her (Mme Shrug) nose out of joint. Veritas had begged her permission to send her presents from Paris, bonnets etc., and pressed her to pay them a visit at Paris, and to consider him entirely at her commands for any commission she might desire to have executed there.
Then came Montholon's coup de grace:
That he said that he understood Mach was to go out as Governor General to India, and that he thought it very likely etc. This made Mach cock up his ears, and a suffusion of self complacency and consciousness of meriting it spread over his countenance, and he appeared quite delighted at the prospect. "
Quite how Montholon would have been privy to British Government thinking on colonial appointments is far from clear, but the gullible Sir Hudson, never to get another post of similar standing to that held on St Helena, was all too ready to believe him.
Gorrequer concluded with a comment about the inconsistencies of Lady Lowe:
Sultana was quite in rapture at Veritas' politeness, he was so pleasant, so amiable, so clever and gentlemanly, after all the abuse she had so frequently lavished on him!!(3)
Gorrequer's diary is full of such gems. Had he been prepared to tidy it up and publish it in his lifetime he would have made a fortune, at a cost probably of time and money spent in the Law Courts and of being outcast from polite society.
I often think what a pity it was that that distinguished scholar of the captivity, Arnold Chaplin was never able to get his hands on the diary. He knew about its existence and in A St Helena Who's Who quoted extracts from the judgement in the Court of Chancery which at that time prevented anyone from reading it. He concluded that it was doubtful that its contents would ever be revealed. (4) Little over a decade after his death the judgement of the Court was overturned by Act of Parliament.
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1. Arnold Chaplin, A St Helena Whos Who (London 1919) pp 95-7.
2. Ibid .
3. 26 May 1821, St Helena During Napoleon's Exile, Gorrequer's Diary, pp 240-241
4. Chaplin p. 78-9
On Michel's blog there is an update about progress with the construction of a rest area and toilets on the approach to Napoleon's tomb. The island is slowly but surely gearing itself up for the expected increase in tourists when the airport is built.
Michel's blog also has a picture taken at his much loved Briars, showing the garden in front of the Balcombes' pavilion with the heart shaped waterfall in full flow in the background.
Also there is a new blog on St Helena history, written by John Grimshaw, whose photographs of the island have previously featured on here. John's latest post is about the murder at Prosperous Bay Signal Station in 1904, including the report of the execution of the two convicted murderers behind the customs shed and their burial in quick lime coffins. I wonder if John can tell me when the last execution took place on St Helena?
How strange to have two St Helena bloggers both Johns and both living in Greater Manchester!
This is I think the first time that St Helena's emblematic wirebird has made an appearance on this blog. Unfortunately I did not manage to get a decent photograph of one on my visit, but I found this among the excellent photographs of St Helena taken by John and Pauline Grimshaw on their visits to the island in 2006 and 2010.
John and Pauline live close by, and although we have never met, John and I exchange fairly frequent emails on matters relating to this blog. Both are obviously keen photographers, and I am sure their collection will be of interest to anyone who has visited or wishes to visit St Helena.
St Helena Photos: 2006
St Helena Photos: 2010
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.
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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
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.
MONTHOLON, Charles Tristan, Comte de (1783-1853), despite the departure of his wife Albine, he remained with Napoleon until his death and was, the servants apart, the only resident of Longwood House to do so. 
