All the News from Maracaibo: Frederic Harris writes to David T Lanman in New York 1852

 

The Past is like the Future. International trade in the nineteenth century was often disrupted by war on land and at sea, by revolution, piracy and pestilence. Merchants trading out of coastal ports were obliged to keep themselves informed of political happenings not only close to their base but far away. The writer of the letter transcribed below was a leading – perhaps the leading – merchant in the Venezuelan port of Maracaibo to whom the arrival from New York of a batch of American newspapers is clearly of some importance. He reciprocates by sending his correspondent a remarkably detailed review of what is now known to be the failed attempt by General Juan Jose Flores, starting out from a base in Peru, to overthrow the republican government of Ecuador (led by Jose Maria Urbana) and install a monarchy which might then seek to expand its territory or at least its influence northwards into Colombia.  Maracaibo in north western Venezuela is close to the border with Colombia but a long way from Ecuador; nonetheless this was a conflict which had the potential to spread and the writer of this letter appears to welcome it though in the context of what precedes it, possibly ironically.

Frederic Harris (1799-1875) was born and grew up in England which explains his use of a now completely obsolete derogatory term for the French, “Johnny Crapeau” also encountered as the identically pronounced “Johnny Crapaud” which appears to date from the period of the Napoleonic Wars. "Crapaud" is French for "toad" but the  expression also  incorporates the  English derogatory "crap". Harris died in Maracaibo.

Purely commercial matters relating to tea merit no more than a line in this letter addressed to David T Lanman (1802-65) who operated as a wholesale druggist on Water Street New York and was probably a friend as well as business associate: the letter opens, “My dear Lanman” not “Dear Sir”. The Lanman company expanded in later years and some of its paperwork is held in a Delaware museum.

 

Transcription

Addressed to: David T Lanman Esqr   Water Street   New York

Datelined: Maracaibo 16 May 1852

Docketing note: Frederic Harris Maracaibo Letter  May 16^th 1852  Answrd June 11/52

No postal markings; faded Forwarding Agent cachets of Matheson and Company [the letter would have been carried aboard ship and passed on arrival to this New York Agent for delivery]

My dear Lanman

The Alexander Mitchell arrived here on the 8^th instant & I received one [?] bundle of Newspapers directed to me by your well  known hand but your letter of the 10 ulto. was detained in the post office until the 13^th.

We are always kept in a state of excitement by some political affair – the Governments of Venezuela, New Granada [Colombia] and Equador [sic] are in a state of trepidation, in consequence of the Expedition of General Flores, the first asked permission of Congress to raise 5000 Men the 2^nd to raise Mas 9e [?] 20,000 & moreover has degraded himself & Country by stating in his message that he had every reliance on receiving assistance from the illustrious & liberal Govt of the United Sates of America. I am inclined to think that Flores must be very popular to occasion so great an alarm to 3 Govts his reported force was only 1 Steamer 1 Bark 1 Brig, 9 Gun boats, 3382 Soldiers & 1200 Sailors, his actual force in all probability is less as you well know how prone these Caballeros are to exaggerate. I recollect old Jolly saying on one occasion during the last Revolution when we attacked him for having published a bouncer [idiomatic?] that in War the pen was frequently more destructive than the Sword – the Spanish race has certainly the advantage of expressing their ideas with great facility  & if they had the tact of wielding their Swords as effectively as they do their pens they would be irristible. I trust Flores may carry  all before him, the friends of order look to him as the only person who can release them from their present ignominious state – do not fail to send me all the papers that are published reporting his movements.

I wish you would send me by the return of the Alexander Mitchell a similar quantity of Tea as formerly but if possible of a better quality.

Our trade continues in a most ruinous state. My regards to Mrs Lanman & Believe me

Yours truly

Frederic Harris

What is your opinion of the Prince President [Louis Napoleon Bonaparte] perhaps Johnny Crapeau may come to his senses one of these days & think that he is very dear in his Charges & send him about his business as they did Luis Felipe [Louis Philippe, King of France abdicated 1848] who had more talent & was not so handsomely paid.

It is already reported that General Paez [Jose Antonio Paez, Venezuelan general living in exile in the  USA] has left the States that he is in league with Flores & may attempt an Invasion

References

Wikipedia: Juan Jose Flores

Wikipedia: José Antonio Páez

https://openlibrary.org/works/OL13848713W/La_familia_Harris_de_Maracaibo

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/28101402_MARACAIBO_Y_SU_CIRCUITO_AGROEXPORTADOR_EN_EL_SIGLO_XIX [contains a description of Frederic Harris’s business]

In 1839 the amateur botanist Thomas Harris of Middlesex is seeking specimens of Cactae from Dr John Imray in Dominica

 

This water-damaged letter evidences the obsessiveness which characterises dedicated collectors; equally, it is true that the writer Thomas Harris made significant contributions to botanical knowledge in the Victorian period and there are plants the Latin names of which incorporate his surname. He was wealthy and employed gardeners. The recipient Dr John Imray (1811-1880) born in Scotland spent his adult life in Dominica as a medical doctor and died there. He was politically active and also an enthusiastic botanist in regular correspondence with the Hookers, father and son, best known as directors of  the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. Imray has a Wikipedia page. There is a small detail in this letter worth attention: Harris suggests that Imray “would employ a negro” to do the actual job of collecting cactus specimens. This implies that the person selected would know what to look for and how to go about gathering specimens in a manner which would ensure their survival – Harris makes detailed proposals of his own in relation to this. Someone researching Imray’s life might be able to discover if he employed regular assistants and who they were.

Click to enlarge

 

Transcription

Addresses to: Dr John Imray Roseau Dominica. Care of Messrs Alex. Dalrymple & Co near East India Chambers Leadenhall Street

Datelined: Kingsbury Middx. June 26 1839

Postmarked: Local postage paid mark applied on despatch and later crossed out, London PAID mark 1 JY 1839, charged 4/2 [four shillings and two pence] on arrival.

 

Dear Sir

My worthy Friend Sir W Hooker  of Glasgow whose note you will received inclosed – recommended you to me as a zealous agent in the cause of botanical science. Through him I take the liberty of soliciting your aid, in behalf of my collection of Orchidea and Cactae in the way suggested in his note; or in any other way more suitable to yourself. I have alredy a large number of both tribes of plants, but few I believe from your parts, and therefore most gladly avail myself of Sir Wm’s introduction; desirous of making my collection as compleat as possible. If, therefore, you would employ a negro, to collect, three of four plants of each kind of Cactus he could find, and the same with orchidea I would most willingly pay his expences, and the other charges of packing and boxes.

The Cactus tribe are so tenacious of life, as to be peculiarly suited to the convenience of a resident naturalist, they sustain little or no injury, though out of the ground for months, thus enabling one to procure a few through different channels, or correspondents, to be laid by till a sufficient number is procured to fill a box. In addition to what you may please to send I shall be glad to hear whether there are many other species and varieties possible to be procured at no great distance.

As respects to taking up and packing of Cacti may I presume to offer a few suggestions – they should not be pulled or twisted out of the ground – this is of the greatest consequence – but, merely be cut off their roots at or a little beneath the surface of the ground – and dried a few days, weeks, or even months in the shade and to be packed in dry saw dust, or in very dry grass, and small pieces of sticks, always bearing in mind that the slightest bruise is fatal  to the round ribbed sorts, called melo-cacti – and these are the most valuable kinds. Seeds of Cacti, washed out and dried, will carry safely in coarse brown paper or if that part of the Cactus in which the seed vessel is placed, is cut out and dried a little they will carry very well in that state. In all cases where seeds of any species can be got they are of the greatest interest to me. I believe no one else here will take the troubles of growing them, and the interest is much increased when a description of the plant to which they belong accompanies them.

All this I humbly submit to your better judgment, assuring you that I shall be most grateful for anything you can do for me in this way, and much ready to return it in the manner most ageeable to yourself.

I remain My dear Sir your …….[split in paper] Thomas Harris

To Dr John Imray   Roseau   Dominica.

My Agents in London are Messrs F & L ?] Smith Trinity Chambers to whom you will please direct.

 

References

Wikipedia: John Imray

Wikipedia: William Jackson Hooker

Elizabeth Lady Templetown writes three letters to her son the Hon. Arthur Percy Upton 1792-94

The three letters transcribed below were written by the widowed Lady Templetown to her youngest son Arthur Percy Upton who is launching on a military career which involves learning German and spending a year at a military academy in Berlin, followed by a Commission to the Coldstream Regiment in London. Since I am inviting you to read three long letters I will refrain from a long introduction. Lady Templetown was the wealthy and well-connected widow of a much older Irish peer with whom she had six children, three sons (John, Greville, Arthur) and three daughters (Elizabeth, Caroline, Sophia), with whose lives she is much concerned - though in these three letters, at a distance. Lady Templetown (1747-1823) took an active interest in political matters from a Tory standpoint and was also known as a significant graphic artist: she created many of the designs which Josiah Wedgwood used for his jasperware ("Blue Wedgwood") examples of which are to be found in the Victoria and Albert Museum though her name is mis-spelt there as "Templeton". She was also a sculptor.

Arthur Percy Upton never married; it's likely that he kept these letters from his mother and that they were sold off  sometime after he died in 1855 with no direct descendants.

There is a mention in the second letter of "Sophia Upton"; this appears not to be her daughter referred to in the letters as Sophia and author of a letter elsewhere on this site. Rather, this second Sophia appears to be a natural child of Lady Templetown's late husband who was partly integrated into the family and sometimes referred to as Sophy. I owe this (late) discovery to the atricle by Jeremy Warren listed in my References.

This group of three letters is related to two other letters posted elsewhere on this site.

In this letter Sir Edwrad Crofton advises  Arthur that he is offered a Commission in the Coldstream Regiment

https://www.otherpeoplesletters.com/2026/08/sir-edward-crofton-writes-in-1793-to.html

And this is a fairly remarkable letter from Naples written by Lady Templetown's 12 year old daughter Sophia: 

https://www.otherpeoplesletters.com/2026/07/in-naples-and-aged-twelve-honourable.html

Click to enlarge

Transcription Letter 1

Addressed to: The Honourable Arthur Percy Upton chez Monsr. Le Professeur de Beuaclair à Marbourg. Routing endorsements via Cologne and Frankfurt. Straight-line postmark of SPA

Datelined: Friday evening July 13^th 1792 [ written at Spa]

 I received my Arthur’s second most dear letter the day before yesterday, & should have answered it directly had it been possible, but as you know how eager I am to obtain any thing you desire, I thought it better to write immediately to Templetown [ his elder brother John, now second Lord Templetown] with the message you sent to him, that if he should come to Spa, he may have time to get all the things you desire – it was all I could do to send off my letter by today’s post & I have told him how anxiously you wish to see him – do not talk  of your letter being stupid, we al devoured it & are delighted to hear of every thing you have done & are to do. I am glad you are to see the Coronation of the Emperor at Francfort of which I shall expect a very detailed account – how different is the life you lead now, & how much more manly & improving than at Westminster [School] – I am sure you must be of the same opinion, & I think you cannot be otherwise than happy with Mr Beauclair. [Arthur is lodging with his language master who is on the faculty of the University of Marburg, Jean Pierre de Rouville gen. de Beauclair, born in Paris in 1752 and now an émigré]

If Temp. [2^nd Baron Templetown, his oldest brother] does not bring you a gun from England, I could certainly get one from Liege if I knew how to send it – Spa begins to grow very brilliant, altho’ there are very few English in comparison of other nations – how much you must have enjoyed the sight of so many Prussian troops! I hear they are soon to be joined by 15,000 Hessians – if that is so, you will probably see them when they begin to march.

Your sisters have had some very good Balls & are grown tolerably expert at dancing the French dances – they are all thought very pretty – but poor little Sophia [her youngest daughter, born 1780] is not able to dance much. I know nothing of Greville [ Fulke Greville, her second son born 1773], but should suppose that by this time he is setting out, as I think he expected to leave Oxford about the 7^th & I think he had rather come to Spa, than be alone in London.

I am endeavouring to change my house for a much better one in the town of Spa, but am not sure whether I shall succeed, as it depends upon a Lady’s taking this from whom I cannot get a positive answer, & as she is at Bruxelles I am afraid of losing the one that would suit me, before she is decided – for to speak the truth, I am not pleased with my abode, & am sure Templetown would be still less. Mrs Crofton is pretty well – I will tell her of your enquiry. I had a letter lately from Ldy Bulwer[?] & fear from her manner of speaking that poor Lady Harriet Ponsonby is in a very bad state of health – if anything happened to her, it would I know break the hearts of all her family, yet her constitution is so delicate, that I am afraid it will never hold out very long what a blessing it is my lovely Arthur to have very good health pray God preserve it to you.

Your present manner of living is more likely to strengthen your body & mind than the way of passing your time in London – do not you think so. What a blessing it will be to me if all my wishes about you or half of them turn out as I could desire! You will then be the consolation of my life – at present you are the delight of it even in thinking of you. Your sisters charge me to send you a hundred kisses & little Sophia has been embracing me with all her powers, in the hope I suppose that her portion of them will travel better to you. Pray assure M & Mme Beauclair of my best Compls.

Ld. Mornington is come here but I have not seen him I have had a letter from Monsr. de Flachslanden [Jean-Baptiste Antoine de Flachslanden 1739-1825, a nobleman who represented Alsace in the French Etats Generaux of 1789  as a convinced Royalist and now an émigré ] but I want to know by what accident you did not see him, as he tells me qu’il mourit d’envie de vous embarasser & was then sending to every place to see if you could be found -  I wish you had seen him, that you might have recollected in your future life one of the most amiable men, & highest  characters I have ever met with – there is no politics thought of here but french ones & I confess I am as anxious about them, & for the success of the Emigrant Princes Noblesse as if I was one of them - & I sincerely hope that the Prussian & Austrian Troops will break almost all the bones in the National Assembly. I wish I could have a picture of you with your cropt hair & your long tail – I do suppose that none of your Friends in London will know you when you return there – remember you were just 5 feet & one inch high when you left this english measure – I hope that by this time twelvemonth you may be 5 foot 4 – we have all begun to ride out & have got tolerable good horses how do you like the German horses? are those that you hire pleasant to ride? I will not forget to give [illegible name] a knife or something from you she is very much obliged to you for thinking of it. perhaps you never see an English paper & consequently do not know that Lord Cornwallis has obtained a complete victory over Tippoo Saib [Tipu Sultan] that terror of the East & has made a very advantageous peace for England. God bless you my dearest Arthur & make you all that is great & good [is] the earnest devoutest prayer of yr. most affect. Mother   E T

 

 Transcription Letter 2

Addressed to: The Honorable Ensign Arthur Percy Upton     Coldstream Regimt. Whitehall    London

Datelined: Poitiers Oct 19 1794 London receiver postmark: DE[cember] 6

 

I think my dearest Arthur may with justice accuse me of never writing to him - Sophia has always been so ready to take up the pen, that this made me repeatedly acknowledging your dear & welcome letter of July 30^th since which Sophia has had one (& I believe answered it) of the 23^rd Aug. This was relative to fashions which she thought you are so good a judge of & this I by no means regret provided it does not preclude a regular attention to more essential things, & in this I am sure you will be of my opinion – the fewer one has to wish undone the better - & by which means one either loses the good opinion of ones Friends, nor ones own   which believe me Arthur is above all – how grieved I am that we shall be longer before we meet but the sudden evacuation of Flanders & the different eruptions into Germany ( & precisely that road which I must have taken) made it impossible for me to undertake the Journey so late in the year. Besides that I am well aprised the Packets have been repeatedly taken between Helvetsburg [? Hellevoetsluis  close to the Hook of Holland?] & Harwich – without considering the length of sea at such a time of year – therefore prudence has determined me to stay this Winter where I am – which is certainly better for Sophia who seems to gain essentially & I should dread a long Northern journey. In the Spring however I shall do my best to effect it for we are longing most earnestly to see our dear Boys & we hope that the same evil Genius may not continue to preside over us & half Europe by which the human race becomes the victim of disorder & barbarism – all intercourse is so impeded that Letters can hardly be obtained – I have had but one from Greville for these 4 months yet am persuaded he has written. I know not whether there is much to apprehend from his situation but I should hope not as the season is too advanced for the French to attempt the conquest of Holland this year & if the thirst for blood is a little assuaged in that ferocious people since the fall of Robespierre, I cannot help hoping they will desire a suspension of arms,  altho’ their continued victories may have hitherto retarded it. If you know of any news, pray write us immediately, whether you owe us a letter or not - is Opposition likely to be very powerful this Winter? – some of the papers say so. I am in daily expectation of a letter from Templetown [her eldest son, now second Baron Templetown] in answer to one where I entreated him to join us at Naples – for he seemed very ready to quit Berlin. I love to hear of all you do especially when you are spending your time so pleasantly as you describe it at Sir Barrington Price’s. I really long to know him & Lady Maria – some friends of mine who quitted Naples last June Mr Monck & Ldy. Eliza have taken great pains to see you & not finding you in London have sent you a letter to Nottingham from me - if it is ever in your power pray endeavour to find them – they have shewn the most friendly attention to me & yr Sisters.

We shall remove to Winter quarters at Naples in a fortnight, altho’ nothing can be more delightful than our present abode – there are few English here – the pleasantest are Ld. & Ldy. Fitzgerald whom I hope you will know one of these days – they are most amiable people, & are quite attached to us all but among the numbers one meets of ones own Country people it is amazing how few are worth cultivation & how many little intrigues & jealousy one finds among them – in a little while I suppose you will change yr quarters & if you are in London pray when every attention that does not appear to them troublesome ….. [words missing from breaking of the seal] Boughtons [ her own family’s members, she was born Elizabeth Boughton] – they have been extremely kind to Greville, & to Sophia Upton [ NB! This appears not to be the Sophia  who travels with her – see introductory Notes] during my absence, & you know that I always wish to pay as I receive. Adieu Dearest Arthur our precious Mrs Crofton is now at Tunbridge but I am sure I need not admonish your actions be all known of & approved by her she is your kindest Friend, & your heart must of course dictate your conduct – besides she is your Mothers best consolation.

Your sisters say everything that is kind to you

Your most affect. Mother E T

One of our best friends the Prince d’Avilla [Charles Colonna, prince d'Avella 1737-1819, conservative member of the Senate of Bonaparte’s First Empire] is with us & desires his love to you – you would love him excessively if you knew him

 

Transcription Letter 3

 Addressed to: The Honourable Ensign     Arthur Percy Upton   Coldstream Regimt     Whitehall   London

Postmarked: Napoli

Datelined: Naples Dec 6 1794

 I begin to long for a letter from my dearest Arthur. I am certain I answered your last but neglecting to set it down cannot tell how long it is since it might have reached you – all the disastrous events that have been accumulating one upon another during this whole Campaign keeps one in perpetual dread of Postdays and one needs some letter of consolation from a beloved Friend or Child to teach one to support the rest. I trust in God my Arthur that you go on well in every respect – you owe it to yourself, as well as to an anxious & absent Parent whose days I am sure you would not wish to embitter but on the contrary to give them ease & joy. I cannot get one line from Greville [ her son the Hon. Fulke Greville Howard] – this is a cruel mortification to me & I am convinced it is not his fault. I have written 6 times without any answer. The last & only one I have had from him since his being with the Army was dated the 15^th of Aug. For gods sake write to him & tell him my anxiety on this account, & when you get a line from him, send it to me if any thing should prevent you writing yourself – you may conceive what I feel when I read of actions between the French & our army – my blood runs cold yet when we conduct ourselves right we must consider that all is guided by an unseen hand & in that we must invariably confide.

Templetown [her eldest son born 1771 and now 2^nd Baron Templetown and later an M.P. for Bury St Edminds] is I hope pleased with his [military] situation at Berlin, as it seems wholly to engross him. I am waiting here my Arthur until circumstances will enable me to leave it with safety – many who have attempted the Journey are I understand stopt in different parts of Germany- it is useless to undertake it until one can go straight thro’. Peace is talked of with all powers but with England – how is this relished by all parties? & is it thought that Mr Pitt will notwithstanding, preserve the public confidence & stand his ground? I beg of you to become a Politician for my sake, & tell me the temper of things in London upon the opening of Parliament – tell me who are your greatest Friends & associates – if the Drummonds are returned & their house pleasant as usual.

We are exceedingly quiet here, very few English, & nothing funny going on, but thank God we are all well. Sophia certainly better than she has been any Winter & it is certainly well for her that I have been obliged to stay a little longer in this warm Climate – Believe me that we are all as impatient to see you, as you can be to see us. I need not ask if you go often to our dear Mrs Crofton for in her you have a Mother & a Friend that is rare to be met with, & you can never show her too much gratitude & attention - how few my Arthur there are even among our nearest relations, who would adopt all our interests, & devote herself to our welfare as she has done on every occasion! God knows what I should have done without her since I have been abroad. O pray do not forget other little duties - of calling sometimes on my Brother Rouse Boughton & Ldy. B – also my poor Aunt Greville whenever she is in Town – these little duties one must fulfil with a good grace because things are due from the young to the old, & shew the goodness of the heart. My old Aunt L… also cannot be very long for this World & now & then the calling to ask how she does wd. be decent & right – all this you will think very dry but so are many things that our situation requires.

God bless you my dearest Arthur your sisters [Elizabeth, Sophia, Caroline] send their kindest love to you.

Your most Affect. Mother

E Templetown

Remember me kindly to Mr Price – now I think of it the letter I last wrote to you was inclosed to him & was of the 21^st of July, I now see from my memorandum book.

References

Wikipedia: Arthur Upton

Wikipedia: Elizabeth Upton, Baroness Templetown

Wikipedia: Viscount Templetown [ = 2nd BaronTempletown]

Wikipedia: Charles Colonna d'Avella

Wikipedia : Fulke Greville Howard

Wikipedia: Uvedale Price, First Baronet

https://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/852231  [long article by Dr Jeremy Warren]

  

 

 

Sir Edward Crofton writes in 1793 to tell the Hon. Arthur Upton that he can have a Commission in the Cold Stream Regiment

 

This 1793 letter indicates how influence was exerted to advance the interest of family and friends. Not all the connections are clear but enough for the letter to be of interest. A degree of patience is required as I attempt to re-create the network which got the job for Arthur Upton.

The author of the letter is Sir Edward Crofton, Second Baronet of the Mote in the peerage of Ireland, and a member of the Irish House of Commons. The autograph signature appears to consist only of a surname. Through both husband and wife there were connections to the Irish family of Clotworthy Upton who as First Baron Templetown sat in the Irish House of Lords.  His youngest son Arthur Percy Upton (born June 1777) was just seven years old when his father died in 1785 and he and his five siblings became the responsibility of their mother Elizabeth Lady Templetown who was well provided for financially and sought to advance her children’s interests. She came from an established and well-connected Herefordshire family, the Boughtons, and before her marriage was a Lady of the Bedchamber to Princess Amelia Sophia, daughter of George the Second. She was also a talented artist who produced many of the designs used on Josiah Wedgwood’s jasper ware, “Blue Wedgwood” to me; unfortunately, her name is misspelt as “Templeton” by the V & A museum which houses many examples.

The author of the letter has presented his case to a Mr Price who is most probably Major William Price. Price belonged to a Herefordshire family of which a prominent member was Uvedale Price, who later took the surname Barrington-Price which appears in letters written by Arthur Upton’s mother.  Mr Price is not referred to by his military rank but two others mentioned in the hurried letter are also briskly treated; Her Royal Highness Queen Charlotte is simply “the Queen”.

In 1793 Major Price was Vice-Chamberlain to George the Third’s wife, Queen Charlotte, and was at the time directing the construction of the gardens at Frogmore House which Charlotte was developing as a peaceful retreat for herself.  So he would have been in frequent contact with her and able to put in a word on behalf of young Arthur Upton who has lost his father who might otherwise be networking on his behalf. In turn, Queen Charlotte has written to the Duke of York, her second son by George the Third, who was Colonel of the Coldstream Regiment, as it then was. He has only to give his approval. Letters written by Arthur’s mother to her son in 1794 by which date he is seventeen, are addressed to him at the “Coldstream Regiment Whitehall London”. He got the job. But in case you should be thinking he was six feet tall I note that in a letter of the same period his mother describes him as five foot one though hoping he will soon grow to five foot four.

Before taking it up, as the address panel and contents of this letter indicate, he spent a gap year at the Military Academy in Berlin.  His later military career spanned the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and he was present at numerous battles, though in 1810 he is listed as Equerry to Queen Charlotte and in 1815 as aide-de-camp to the Duke of York. By 1821 he was both a Major-General and Member of Parliament. In 1806 he took part in the first Gentleman v. Players cricket match.

Arthur Percy Upton never married, something which was very common among those who lost a parent in childhood. He was known to Harriette Wilson and appears briefly and honourably in her Memoirs coming to her assistance; in a contemporary satirical print he appears as the diminutive figure immediately behind the tall and chin-up Marquess of Hertford in the back row.

Transcription

Addressed to: A Monsieur Monsr. Upton    a l’Ecole Militaire     Berlin

Endorsed: Single sheet     par l’ Allmagne [sic]

Datelined: London     Novemr. ye. 22d 1793

I am happy my Dr Arthur in being able to tell you that you may now be certain of having immediately a Commission in the Cold Stream Regt., which I hope will put you in good humour with us all. I have this moment had a letter from Mr. Price to inform me of the Queens having been so gracious as to write her self to the Duke of York to express her desire that you should fill up a vacancy now in his Regt. so there can be no doubt. I have wrote to Mr. Price to ask him to obtain a few months leave of absence if he thinks it not wrong to apply for it. My idea is that the Army will soon go into Winter Quarters & during that time you might go on at Berlin as now making yourself Master of your profession & be happier I should hope than in Winter Quarters – however as soon as I hear from Mr Price in answer in answer to what I have said, I will certainly let you know what is to be done. I have now a long letter to write to yr. dear Mother upon this & other business which obliges me to hurry this one in such a manner as I doubt if you can read it. I should be glad to know of its having reached you so pray immediately to My Dr. Arthur’s

Sincerely Affectionate

Crofton

References

Wikipedia: Arthur Upton

Wikipedia: Elizabeth Upton, Baroness Templetown

Wikipedia: Sir Edward Crofton, 2^nd Baronet

 

Charles Tyssen Jenner Tyrell gets a second job in 1828 thanks to patronage

 The author of this letter was an unremarkable but loyal Tory First Baronet; his eldest son John Tyssen Tyrell who became Second Baronet had a long Parliamentary career as a Tory MP in Essex from 1830 to 1857. The History of Parliament online offers a detailed career and colourful life story. The younger son Charles, educated at Oriel College Oxford, pursued the standard younger son path into the Church. At the date of the letter, Charles Tyssen Jenner Tyrell was Stipendiary Curate of the Essex parish of South Hanningfield with West Hanningfield annexed, which suggests to me rural obscurity. The patronage exercised on is behalf by the Tory MP Quintin Dick has additionally secured him a “chaplaincy to a Nobleman” which will boost his income; who the Nobleman was I cannot trace. 

Quintin Dick re-appears elsewhere on this site thanks to a chance find of over fifty letters addressed to him.

Quintin Dick MP 

From a drawing by A D’Orsay printed by the lithographic company Graf & Soret at the period when Dick was Member of Parliament for Maldon, Essex. Collection of the present author.

Transcription

Addressed to: Quintin Dick Esq M.P.    Curzon Srreet    Mayfair

Datelined: Boreham House July 13^th 1828

Intact armorial seal; faded CHELMSFORD postmark; London FREE mark 15 JY 1828

My Dear Sir

I embrace the first opportunity of assuring you how much I feel obliged by your kindness to my son Chas. in obtaining for him a chaplaincy to a Nobleman of which, I trust he also is duly sensible. I am happy to find from John [that] Mr Hugh Dick [Quintin Dick’s brother] was satisfied with his reception at Maldon & I know of my own knowledge his consitutuents were equally so with him & that he made a great impression there. Am sorry my friend Beaminster is by no means well though I think him better.

With sentiments of friendship believe me most faithfully yr. John Tyrell

 

References

https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/member/tyrell-john-1795-1877

Wikipedia: Quintin Dick

Wikipedia: Sir John Tyrell, 2nd Baronet

 

1832 Richard Hill writes from Haiti to the Anti-Slavery Society in London

 

In 1840 Her Majesty’s Government in London offered the post of Lieutenant-Governor of St Lucia to Richard Hill who declined. In 1834 he had been appointed as one of Jamaica’s new stipendiary magistrates tasked to adjudicate disputes between masters and the ex-slave class of apprentices which Parliament had created when it abolished slavery in the colonies. By 1840 he was in charge of the entire team of magistrates, sometimes numbered at forty and sometimes at sixty, and was the link person between them and the Governor. He remained in post until his death in 1872. Born in 1795 he was the son of a Montego Bay merchant who was White and a woman of mixed African and Indian descent; the son therefore counted legally, in the language of the time, as Free Coloured. 

Richard Hill self-portrait circa 1859

His father, also called Richard Hill, was a committed abolitionist who decided that the best thing he could do for his son was send him to England to be educated. The son left at the age of five, lived with members of his father’s family in Lincolnshire, and completed his education at Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School in Horncastle. He returned to Jamaica perhaps only shortly before his father’s death in 1818, an event which left him responsible for sorting out complicated and failing business finances and for the well-being of his two sisters, Ann and Jane. He never married.

He became politically active and from no later than 1823 took part in campaigns to enshrine in law equal rights for Free Coloureds. But in 1826 he set out on travels which took him to Cuba, the USA, Canada, and then to England where in 1827 according to his early biographer, Frank Cundall, “The petition from the people of color of this island to the House of Commons for the removal of their civil disabilities, was entrusted to Hill, who upon the occasion of presenting it was permitted "within the bar" of the House. On that occasion Canning delivered his last speech a splendid effort in favor of the petitioners”. 

Hill stayed on in England, speaking and writing against slavery, and joined in the activities of what is usually called the Anti-Slavery Society but which on paper had a variety of more cumbersome titles. That society decided in 1830 to fund him to travel to the republic of Haiti, at that time comprising the whole island of Hispaniola, to report on the success, or otherwise, of the only Caribbean post-slavery society. They hoped to secure evidence which would refute anti-abolitionist claims that economies without slavery were doomed to failure. Hill’s travels in Haiti were extensive and included researches into its natural world and natural resources. 

Part of Hill’s correspondence from his time in Haiti is now in Oxford’s Bodleian Library and excerpts have been published online but this letter appeared in a 2025 auction, misdescribed as a “Missionary Letter”. He writes from Jacmel on the southern coast of Haiti, close to Jamaica, and the island’s main trading port. It may be that the letter’s sharp rebuke to the limited imagination of the Anti-Slavery Society’s committee members led to it being put away in a different drawer. There is no docketing note such as is usually present on filed correspondence. 

Matters worsened on Hill’s return when he discovered that the Society had defaulted on a commitment to provide (out of his own remuneration) regular financial support for his sister Jane who was with him in England. For this and other reasons he cut his connection with the Society though maintaining contact with individual members – the letter singles out the Clapham Sect’s Zachary Macaulay (father of Thomas Babington Macaulay) in a sympathetic sentence. His later successful career in colonial Jamaica included that offer of a Lieutenant-Governorship suggests that he was neither lacking in ability or over-inclined to be difficult; by inference his grievance with the Anti-Slavery Society most likely had some justification.

The Bodleian letters provide evidence of Hill’s deep interests in the natural world and not exclusively in relation to agricultural potential; later in life he wrote extensively on natural history and collaborated with Philip Henry Gosse (the father of Edmund Gosse’s Father and Son) on The Birds of Jamaica (1847). The title page of the original edition credits authorship to Gosse but immediately adds “Assisted by Richard Hill Esq of Spanish-Town”; this credit is not always preserved in later editions. As a result of his collaboration and friendship with Gosse, Hill corresponded with Charles Darwin on several topics and supplied him with Jamaican bees and detailed notes on them. The Darwin Correspondence Project has transcribed the text of five letters from Hill to Darwin.

All this (and more) causes me some surprise to discover that Richard Hill does not have a full-length modern biography; the last full-length study appears to be that written as an inaccessible doctoral dissertation by Marlene Manderson-Jones in 1973.  It is, I think, an index of relative neglect that he currently exists online as both “planter” and “former slave”. 

*

Transcription

Addressed to: Thomas Pringle Esqr 18 Aldermanbury London [address of the Anti-Slavery Society] per [ship] Birmingham. Landed at Liverpool; London arrival postmark 21 April 1832

Datelined: Jacmel. February 29 1832 / Haiti

My dear Sir

I yesterday received your Communication apprizing me of “the resolution” of your Committee commanding my immediate return to England. In complying with it, you must be aware, that it is not easy in a Country like this in which almost all communication with you is circuitous, either through America or the Continent of Europe and that at not very rapid intervals, to find a ship at a week’s notice. I promise you however to take all my measures with a view to the most speedy arrival with you. 

You intimate to me that my stay here has been too protracted already. As the resolution does not state the reasons which have led to my recal so hastily I am left to conclude that there may be in it some displeasure at the supposed slowness with which I make my journeys. I can only say that though my Christian belief is quite as strong as the generality of mens I have not that faith which can remove Mountains. My path is frequently a flowery one but it is any thing but smooth – and however the speaking of many tongues may be a sign of the Millenial age commencing in the world, that portion of it in which the crooked ways are to be made straight has not yet begun [written over commenced] in Haiti. Persons who can know nothing of the difficulties of travelling, but from what they feel in the inconvenient length and breadth of a mail Coach, or the slowness with which horses are changed by the way side Inn have no means of judging my speed. I can tell you however that people here are surprized I should have gone in the space I have done in the course of 15 months. From June to October was incessant rain, and yet I was travelling. From January to June, a killing drought, yet I was riding frequently fifty miles a day. My poor animals have been taught to eat all sorts of food, and I to endure all sorts of calamities, and if among these I am in the end to count the mistrust of friends  - such too, as boast commiseration for their fellow men beyond men in general, well then, my measure of evils is accomplished, and the wave that puts me on your shores again, will be an ebbing Tide to me. 

I have not received the letter you speak of. The present one is the next date after the one of May to which I replied last month, immediately after it was handed to me. I can see by the date of the present Communication, that you have put your letters in the post office for the wrong packet [boat], that is the first Monday in the month instead of the third, in which case Government frequently despatch the letters by ship [that’s to say, not by a regular Royal Mail packet service], though scarcely think, that this will account for any failure in their transit.

I sincerely hope Mr Macaulay’s health will be found reinvigorated with the coming Spring. I can see that to an active mind, he has been adding of late an anxious heart under domestic affliction [Zachary Macaulay’s wife Selina Mills died in 1831]. Do present my best wishes to him.

With respects as usual    Believe me     Yours faithfully & obediently   

 Richard Hill

To Thomas Pringle Esq 18 Aldermanbury London

References

Oxford, Bodleian Libraries, MSS. Brit. Emp. s. 18, C1

Manderson-Jones, Marlene   Richard Hill of Jamaica: his life and times, 1795-1872 (University of Jamaica, doctoral dissertation, 1973).  I have not seen this work.

Cundall, Frank “Richard Hill”, Journal of Negro History, Vol 5, Nr 1 (1920)

Hanley,  Ryan Beyond Slavery and Abolition: Black British Writing c. 1770-1830 (2019)

Wikipedia: Richard Hill (activist)

 

Thomas Coleman Chandler writing from Fairfield Plantation Virginia in 1847

 

Thomas Coleman Chandler is well-known to the internet; it was to his tobacco plantation at Fairfield in Virginia that the Confederate General “Stonewall” Jackson was taken after being wounded by friendly fire in 1863.  The Chandlers knew Jackson and he had previously stayed at Fairfield. The Fairfield secondary building (the Office) in which he died has been preserved by the US National Parks Service but the main Fairfield house from which this letter was written no longer exists. There are many images of both buildings avialable on the internet.

The letter was written by Chandler addressed to his daughter Mildred; it was written in 1847 a couple of years after Chandler had purchased the Fairfield plantation which was worked by around sixty slaves until slavery was abolished after the defeat of the Confederate armies. The plantation had a very favourable location close to the Guinea station of the railway constructed in the 1830s and which ran in a more or less straight line north from the Virginia state capital in Richmond and through Guinea to the port of Baltimore from which tobacco was exported to Europe. From the letter, it will be seen that Thomas Chandler used the railway to send a trunk down to Richmond where Mildred is a pupil or pupil teacher in Mrs Mead’s school.  Mrs Meade/Mead was the widow of the Reverend Zachariah Mead by whom she had children; she opened her school in the state capital in 1841 and ran it successfully for over a decade. The internet knows a lot about her life and her school. But I can find nothing about Mildred Chandler though it knows several Mildred Chandlers from this period; it may be that she died young though it may be that she can  be found deep in one of the many Chandler online genealogies.

Transcription

Addressed to: Miss Mildred Chandler   Richmond Va

No postal markings; probably carried by hand. Endorsed: Answered

Datelined: Fairfield March 31^st 1847

Mildred

I received your Communication yesterday & today which informed me of the scarlet fever being in Mrs Meades school and the death of the little girl, which Mrs Meade had informed me before your letter came to hand which made me feel very uneasy for you. I am not prepared at this time what course to avise you to pursue, But I will say tis much to you, in the even ther should be some two or three cases of fever in the school I think you had better leave until the fever abate if you have any fear upon your mind I will leave it with you. You must write every two or three days so that I may hear from you, we are all well at this time except some of the small negro children with the Hooping Cough. I received a letter from Joseph [his son, a physician] yesterday which informed me he was not very well and that his eyes had been very soar, I have nothing of any importance to write you, I have been informed that your Aunt Jane was to have gone to Hanover and that Enodia would meet her there.

Your affectionate Father T C. Chandler

Tom [his son who later took over the plantation] sent a letter from Fredericksburg maild [?] at the Boulingreen [Bowling Green] to you. P.S I have sent your trunk of Cloths by the Railroad Capt. (Mr Ruth) which he will have it sent to you J.C.C

References (there are others easily found)

https://www.nps.gov/places/chandler-house-site.htm

https://randomthoughtsonhistory.blogspot.com/2016/04/a-couple-of-weeks-ago-i-stopped-in-at.html

https://www.nps.gov/places/guinea-station.htm

https://www.masshist.org/beehiveblog/2015/03/the-unstoppable-anna-maria-mead-chalmers/