Dr Thomas Trotter sometime surgeon on the slave ship Brookes writing in 1827

 

This short letter is significant only because of its author. Older biographies of Thomas Trotter (1760-1832) like that to be found at Electric Scotland (and which appears unreliable) focus on his career after he graduated as a Doctor of Medicine from Edinburgh in 1788 and rose to be appointed Physician to the Royal Navy’s Channel Fleet in 1794 on the strength of a 1790 published proposal to reform the Medical Department of the Royal Navy. He was aboard ship during the naval engagements with the French fleet during 1794 and 1795 and had occasion to treat Nelson. But in 1802 an accident at sea produced a hernia which rendered him unfit for active service; he was given a pension and went into medical practice at Newcastle. He published significant work on reform of naval medicine, scurvy, the effects of drunkenness on the body, and on the prevention of “Fire and Choak Damps” in coal mines. He had literary pretensions and published poems and plays.

More recent biographies, like that now online at the Royal Museums of Greenwich website (see References) draw attention to his earlier career. The son of a baker, he enlisted in the Royal Navy in 1779 from uncompleted medical studies at Edinburgh and was assigned the role of surgeon’s mate. He saw very active service in conflicts, including those around the Great Siege of Gibraltar, and was promoted to full surgeon but then discharged in 1783 when those conflicts ended. Unemployed, he took a job as surgeon on a ship which  for over two centuries has been familiar to students of the slave trade, the Brookes. He was horrified by what he encountered at sea and found himself in conflict with the ship’s Master, Clement Noble, who refused his appeals to allow the captives on board more freedom of movement and more fruit & vegetables to combat scurvy, He made just one round trip on the Brookes and returned to Britain with a strong sense of guilt and convinced that the slave trade should be stopped.  He appeared before a House of Commons committee and recounted his experiences; Noble was also questioned. Later in life he argued for the abolition of impressment into Navy service; the practice was not formally abolished but lapsed after the end of the Napoleonic wars because the Navy was able to find enough voluntary recruits. My maternal grandfather ran away from his unhappy Kentish home in the 1870s, aged fourteen, made his way to the naval dockyards at Chatham, falsified his age to sixteen and enlisted. Only at his death in 1924 was his real age  recorded and revealed.

Mark Benson writing for the Royal Greenwich Museum (see References)  indicates that Trotter felt that the value of his work had not been fully recognised in the size of  his pension and this letter contains a statement to that effect; but he may also have hoped to receive some honour for what he had done both as a practising surgeon and, perhaps more so, as a contributor to both medicine and policies of naval reform.

The recipient of this letter, living fairly near to Trotter, is a man who eventually became Lieutenant General James Home (died 1849) of the Royal Marines. See the final reference for more about his career.  There were family as well as professional connections between the Trotters of Melrose and the Homes of Broomhouse. 

 

 Transcription

Addressed: To   Col. James Home    R.M.     Broomhouse    Dunse

Datelined: Melrose, July 30. 1827

Postmarked MELROSE and other markings which suggest the letter followed a rounabout route

Docketing note: 30 July 1827 Dr Trotter Melrose

My Dear Sir

Permit me to acknowledge the receipt of your kind Letter, with the inclosure for which again accept my warmest thanks.

Many of our old friends are now dropping into the grave; among the rest I lately observed Willie Minto, aged above 72.

I feel my general health improved in the country [he has been living in Newcastle and has returned to his place of birth], but my local [?] complaints cannot be mended.

The Duke of Clarence seems doing some liberal things [as Lord High Admiral he severely reduced the range of offences for which corporal punishment could be used in the Navy] but I have no hopes of any favor being extended to me. The acknowledged Good which I have done the Navy, seems only to have been the means of being treated with neglect & injustice. I remain, My Dear Sir, your ever grateful friend

T. Trotter

References

https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/maritime-history/library-archive/dr-thomas-trotter [Mark Benson]

https://electricscotland.com/history/men/trotter_thomas.htm

https://snr.org.uk/two-scottish-marines-in-the-american-war-the-letters-of-william-and-james-home-of-broomhouse-1778-1782/

 

 

The Logistics of Emigration Betsy Stewart in Liverpool waiting to board ship for Australia 1853

 

This very detailed letter recounts a rail journey from Perth to Liverpool and preparations for embarkation on an unidentified ship sailing to Australia. The letter is written by Betsy (presumably Elizabeth in passenger records) Stewart to her married sister Mrs Margaret Anderson in Perth, Scotland; she is travelling with Jean and Kate and Donald – the latter two may be a married couple.  The financial details given in the letter indicate that she was not travelling by Assisted Passage. Australian arrival records should allow identification of the ship which sailed from Liverpool on or about the 12 May 1853 and the names of those who accompanied Betsy. It might then be possible to track their future lives 

Transcription

Addressed to: Mrs Henderson    Annat Bank    New Scone   Perth

Datelined: Ramesys Hotell   Liverpool    Thursday evening

Despatch postmark     LIVERPOOL MY 9 53

My dear Margret

Here we are all safe after Eating a good Breakfast not the bit the worse of our long journey of 200 & 70 miles Jean is briskest of us to day and her Cough much better we got the Carriage we started from Perth in all to ourselves till we came to Carlyle we had to shift Carraiges there (Luggage and all) and was put in to a common third Class where we had no so such room we were shifted a Second time within 16 miles of Liverpool and had to wait half an hour for the train that took us here it was a very long and heavy one so that it was 12 o’clock before we arrived late as it was Mr Duncan Robertson was the first person we saw for to hand us out of the Carriage. We had such Luggage that we saw no common horse could hold it and it was locked up at the Station until it goes on Board.

Duncan put us all in a Noddy and came down with us here (and payed the Cab of course) it was one o’clock before he left us and he is to be here to day about 12 o’clock and arrange about the heavy Luggage and everything that has not been put on Board yet but is to be to day. Kates Trunk is also safe at the Station Donald and her are away just now with Ramesy to see about it. We got nothing to eat all day yesterday but what we took with us for we stopt no time at any of the stations, we had 15 minutes at Carlyle changing but it took it all to see the Luggage right and at the other place we stopt at as it was so late that nothing could be got. There was a large room with a good fire for the Passengers we took Tea here although it was late and was in Bed about two in the morning and realy slept wonderfully well better than we expected. There is a nice young woman here with a Child that is going out to her Husband in Melbourn she is to be in the Second Cabin with us she is from Glasgow she intends going on Board tomorrow afternoon so if she goes we will go also we have to pay 2 / [two shillings] for our Beds here every night there are many going aboard even to day.

Thursday afternoon. Duncan has been here I went with him to Bains & Cos office to pay the rest of our Passage Money. Duncan tried to get our heavy luggage as reasonable as possible payed for I showed the Clark the measurement Mr Easson made out he said we should put the three largest Boxes on Board as Ships Cargo and that we would get it much chaper than by the feet measurement & give us a Card to that effect & when the Luggage is put on Board, we will get all the rest on as our due so that we think that it will not be so expensive as we thought. Kate has got her Trunk and after Packing the Crockery Box in it they have bought also all the Tin articules they required they got it and the mattress for 10/ [ten shillings] we payed 4/6 for the tin things we got also bought 2/ worth of nice soft Biscuite for Jean. Duncan is coming tomorrow to see all our Luggage on Board and then ourselves we cannot be grateful enough tot him for all his attention what could we do without him here. There are to be about 36 to 40 Passengers in the Second Cabin which will make it quite chearfull. There is only 4 or 5 first Cabin Passengers (no wonder tho they were anxious to get us) the most on Board are Steerage Passengers they think there will be very near 400 Passengers all together as we are going on Board tomorrow and the Ship is not to sail till Sunday morning perhaps I may write a few lines on Saturday after being a night on Board Donald says he will write home from the ship also. I hope you get home safe and not worse of coming to the Station with us and that you found the Calf better. This is a terrible town with traffick down at the wharf you would not hear yourself speak let you roar never so much Carting going as it is a real business town. Duncan took me through a great part of it to day to see as much of it as I could according to Miss Betsy Naughton Ideas.

I must now bid you good night and if I can get a letter Posted from the Ship on Saturday I will write a few lines. Jean joins me in kind love to you & Henderson and believe me my dear Margret your affte. Sister

Betsy Stewart

Diplomatic Manoeuvres in the Dark James Mario Matra British Consul at Tangier 1789

 

In the two immediately preceding posts I transcribed two 1790 letters from James Mario Matra, British Consul at Tangier, addressed to General Charles O’Hara in Gibraltar. This third letter to the same recipient is dated 1789 when the previous Sultan or Emperor, Sidi Muhammad ibn Abdallah, was still alive and in power.

What strikes me most is that this letter on its own, and even more so when taken with the two previous ones, shows Matra doing a job which looks more like that of an ambassador or diplomat than that of  a consul who would often be mainly concerned with trade matters and the needs of citizens of the consul’s own country. Here it is clear that Matra has direct access to the Emperor and other governing figures and is looking to solve a diplomatic problem the nature of which is not entirely clear. The Sultan wants one of his ships repaired at Gibraltar (and, presumably, at considerable British expense) but Matra is prevaricating and at the same time does not wish to cause offence.

Three references in the letter can be clarified:

 “Layton’s affair” involved the British merchant Layton out hunting one day who got into an altercation with local people over one of his dogs chasing a calf in the course of which – but seemingly by accident – he knocked out two teeth of a local woman. Retribution was sought and the Sultan, the Sidi Muhammad ibn Abdallah of this letter, ordered two of Layton’s teeth to be extracted. But by way of compensation, he awarded Layton a trading privilege.

The reconciliation with a son  referenced at the end of the letter was with his eldest son Mulay Ali, governor of Fez, who had been resisting orders from his father to impose additional taxes on the Jewish population of Fez, arguing that they were already impoverished. The dispute was settled by mediation but the relief afforded the Jews of Fez was short-lived: when the Sultan died another son, Mulay al-Yazid, seized power and launched new and bloody persecutions of the Jewish population.

"young Barrington" refers  to George Barrington, the 18th century's "King of Pickpockets" who has a Wikipedia page.

The clarification of those three things was enabled by AI results.

Transcription

Addressed to: No outer wrapper but note bottom left of letter in Matra’s hand: General [Charles] O’Hara &c &c &c [Gibraltar]

Datelined: Tangiers 2 August 1789

Docketing note in another hand: 1789 2d Augst Tangier [in another ink “12” as if a serial number]

Sir

I am honoured with Your Letter of the 29 Ult acquainting me with the arrival of Rais Hamaly [“Rais” used here to mean a Moroccan naval commander] and the conversation he has had with You.

I have been acquainted with the Emperors design of sending that ship to you, since Feby. last, but have had her detained by various artifices, until the Emperor sent a positive Order for her to go, and would not permit the Capt. any more to come on shore.

Mr Raleigh [John Raleigh, Secretary to the Governor of Gibraltar] can inform you of my last arrangement with him but I have no official information of it unless Layton’s [see introduction above] letter to me  & Rt. [Robert] Anderson can be considered as such, which by me they were not, & I refused to give an answer although I sent the Letter home [to England].

He [the Emperor]knows very well that it is not in your power to refuse his Ship; he must likewise know from what I have said to him & his Ministers, that there is no hope that the King [George the Third] will depart from the Declaration he was pleased to make last year “that whatever favour the Emperor required, he must apply immediately to His Majesty for”. I therefore conclude he is only in search of a pretext to show his ill will to Your Garrison and that when he hears of the departure of his Frigate he will stop the communication [between Morocco and Gibraltar]; for he is most sensibly mortified, at not receiving an Answer to the Letter I sent home in Feby. & would long before this have kept his word had not Laytons affair [see introduction above] happened.

It remains now to be decided whether considering the Emperors great age; the opinion of Europe on disputes with this country, and the advantages of his Provisions, it be, or not, worth while to parry this thrust, at the expence of fifty or a hundred Guineas.

As to repairing his ship, I do not think it will be done; at least I have reason to believe that while Lord Sydney [Thomas Townshend, Home Secretary until June 1789] was Secry. of State it would not, particularly if the Emperor did not ask it properly; what Mr Grenvilles [William Grenville, Home Secretary from June 1789] sentiments are I know not, as I have not yet heard from him.

Should you think it worth while to attempt any thing, I see but two ways – Keeping him till you know Mr G’s [Grenville’s] sentiments is dangerous; from what I have heard of her state, she may sink in the Bay, or what is as bad, He may two months hence send out a direct refusal.

If by an agreement with the Rais [the naval commander Hamaly], she was properly surveyed, & he join in opinion that it was impossible to repair her without a Dock; or that she could not float till proper stores arrived that it was necessary for her to go to some Port immediately, & that a ship must even escort her to Cadiz, I think it would do.

The Rais may be prevailed on to agree to this, & I dare say in his report to the Emperor, would mention how very ready You all were to please him had it been possible. He has I think some Plan of his own, which he was to have mentioned to me but he arrived late at night & was ordered out at daylight next morning.

He would rather be at Cadiz because the Corn junto [ association of corn merchants in Cadiz who import from Morocco and need naval co-operation] pay him well; our Bashaw    [ variant of “Pasha” and referring here to the Governor of Tangier, Mohammed ibn 'Abd al-Malik, a significant figure who travelled to Vienna in 1783 to establish diplomatic relations with the Holy Roman Empire] would report as favourably as possible, because he is ruined by the Emperor & has no way of getting money but by selling his Cattle at Gibraltar.

If any thing like what I have proposed be adopted You will probably have another attempt in the winter when his remaining frigates return from the Westward. But by then you may be well assured of the sentiments of the new Secretary of State. Some resolutions on our part must be taken, we must either drub, or pay this Man, unless we choose at once to abandon his Provisions [What is supplied to him or what he supplies?], & preserve Peace without a connection. His word or treaty, is on a par with the morality of young Barrington [see introduction] but just at this time I would not willingly quarrel, because we have eleven men among the Arabs whom I want to get [informers he wants to protect?]

I have not seen the Bashaw since the receipt of Your letter, for I have been confined to my room more than a week, & am at present, so ill that it is a pain to me to write. I am paying a heavy Tax for my winters journey.

The Empeor (they say) has reconciled to his son [see Introduction for details], to whom he has sent some handsome Presents. He is to reside at Fez [where he was already Governor]. He has cut off all communication by Land with Algiers, & orders any Caravans coming from thence to be confiscated, for reasons which he reserves to himself.

The Bashaw told me, when I last saw him, Orders were given to raise an Army of 45,000 men.

I have the Honour to be Sir    Your most Obedient Humble Servant J.M.Matra

Reference

Wikipedia: George Barrington