Regency Happenings: The 1820 Scottish Insurrection

Posted on September 5, 2013 by Regina Jeffers

Stirling Tolbooth and Cross where a plaque commemorates Baird and Hardie

Stirling Tolbooth and Cross where a plaque commemorates Baird and Hardie

The Radical War, also known as the Scottish Insurrection of 1820, was a week of strikes and unrest, a culmination of Radical demands for reform in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, which had become prominent in the early years of the French Revolution, but had then been repressed during the long Napoleonic Wars.

An economic downturn after the wars ended brought increasing unrest. Artisan workers, particularly weavers in Scotland, sought action to reform an uncaring government, gentry fearing revolutionary horrors recruited militia, and the government deployed an apparatus of spies, informers and agents provocateurs to stamp out the movement.

A Committee of Organisation for Forming a Provisional Government put placards around the streets of Glasgow late on Saturday 1 April, calling for an immediate national strike. On Monday 3 April work stopped in a wide area of central Scotland and in a swirl of disorderly events a small group marched towards the Carron Company ironworks to seize weapons, but while stopped at Bonnymuir, they were attacked by Hussars.

Another small group from Strathaven marched to meet a rumoured larger force, but were warned of an ambush and dispersed. Militia taking prisoners to Greenock jail were attacked by local people, and the prisoners released. James Wilson of Strathaven was singled out as a leader of the march there, and at Glasgow was executed by hanging, then decapitated. Of those seized by the British army at Bonnymuir, John Baird and Andrew Hardie were similarly executed at Stirling after making short defiant speeches. Twenty other Radicals were sentenced to penal transportation.

It became evident that government agents had actively fomented the unrest to bring radicals into the open. The insurrection was largely forgotten as attention focused on better publicized Radical events in England. Two years later, enthusiasm for the visit of King George IV to Scotland successfully boosted loyalist sentiment, ushering in a new-found Scottish national identity.

Background
In the 18th century, artisans such as handloom weavers, shoemakers, smiths and wrights worked to commission and so could set their own hours of work, which often left them time to read and debate what they had read with friends. The national Presbyterian Church of Scotland was founded on egalitarian attitudes and rights of the individual to make principled judgements, and so encouraged disputatious habits and preoccupation with “rights” as well as continuing the Scottish education tradition, which achieved more widespread literacy at that time than other countries. In Scotland only 1 in 250 people had the right to vote and these artisans were ready to join the Radical movement in welcoming the American Revolution and the French Revolution, and be influenced by Thomas Paine’s The Rights of Man.

The Scottish Friends of the People society held a series of “Conventions” in 1792 and 1793. The government reacted harshly, sentencing successive leaders to penal transportation, and in 1793 Dundee Unitarian minister Thomas Fysshe Palmer was also given 7 years transportation for helping to prepare and distribute reform tracts. Dissent went underground with the United Scotsmen whose activities were curbed with the trial of George Mealmaker in 1798.

Between 1800 and 1808 the earnings of weavers were halved, and in 1812 they petitioned for an increase, which was granted by the magistrates, but the employers refused to pay, and so the weavers called a strike, which lasted for nine weeks with the support of a “National Committee of Scottish Union Societies,” organized in a similar way to the United Scotsmen (“Unions” being area related, not Trade Unions). The authorities were further alarmed and set up spies and informers to forestall any further reformist activity. Between then and 1815 Major John Cartwright made visits to establish radical Hampden Clubs across Scotland.

Post War Unrest
The end of the Napoleonic Wars brought economic depression. In 1816, some 40,000 people attended a meeting on Glasgow Green to demand more representative government and an end to the Corn laws, which kept food prices high. The Industrial Revolution affected handloom weavers in particular, and unrest grew despite attempts by the authorities to employ the workless and open relief centres to relieve hardship. Government agents brought conspiracy trials to court in 1816 and 1817.

The Peterloo massacre of August 1819 sparked protest demonstrations across Britain. In Scotland, a memorial rally in Paisley on 11 September led to a week of rioting, and the cavalry were used to control around 5,000 “Radicals.” Protest meetings were held in Stirling, Airdrie, Renfrewshire, Ayrshire and Fife, mainly in weaving areas. On 13 December the “Radical Laird” Kinloch was arrested for addressing a mass meeting on Magdalen Green in Dundee, but he escaped and fled abroad.

The gentry feared that the kind of revolutionary turmoil that had been seen in France and Ireland could take place in Britain, and there was a great recruiting of volunteer regiments through the Scottish lowlands and Scottish Borders. Walter Scott urged his Borders neighbours to “appeal at this crisis to the good sense and loyalty of the lower orders… All you have to do is sound the men, and mark down those who seem zealous. They will perhaps have to fight with the pitmen and colliers of Northumbria for defence of their firesides, for those literal blackguards are got beyond the management of their own people.”

The “Radical War”
As 1820 began the government, frightened by the “Cato Street Conspiracy” in London, acted to suppress reform agitation and drew on its apparatus of spies and agents provocateurs in Scotland. A 28 man Radical Committee for organizing a Provisional Government elected by delegates of local “unions” elected officers and decided to arrange military training for its supporters, giving some responsibility for the training programme to a Condorrat weaver with army experience, John Baird. On 18 March Mitchell of the Glasgow police notified the Home Secretary that “a meeting of the organising committee of the rabble.. . is due in this vicinity in a few days hence.”

On 21 March the Committee met in a Glasgow tavern. The weaver John King left the meeting early, shortly before a raid in which the Committee was secretly arrested. Mitchell reported on 25 March that those arrested had “confessed their audacious plot to sever the Kingdom of Scotland from that of England and restore the ancient Scottish Parliament… If some plan were conceived by which the disaffected could be lured out of their lairs – being made to think that the day of “liberty” had come – we could catch them abroad and undefended… few know of the apprehension of the leaders. . . so no suspicion would attach itself to the plan at all. Our informants have infiltrated the disaffected’s committees and organisation, and in a few days you shall judge the results.” King, Craig, Turner and Lees would now be repeatedly involved in organiZing agitation.

At a meeting on 22 March, the 15 to 20 people present included the weavers John King and John Craig, the tin-smith Duncan Turner, and “an Englishman” called Lees. John King told them that a rising was imminent and all present should hold themselves in enthusiastic readiness for the call to arms. The next day some of them met on Glasgow Green, then moved on to Rutherglen where Turner revealed plans to establish a Provisional Government, got those present to resolve to “act accordingly,” then gave over a copy of a draft Proclamation to be delivered to a printer. Lees, King and Turner went round encouraging supporters to make pikes for the battles. On Saturday 1 April, Craig and Lees collected the prints, which Lees had paid for the previous day. By the morning of Sunday 2 April, copies of the Proclamation were displayed throughout Glasgow.

Proclamation
The Proclamation, signed “By order of the Committee of Organisation for forming a Provisional Government. Glasgow April 1st. 1820,” included references to the English Magna Carta and the English Bill of Rights.

“Friends and Countrymen! Rouse from that torpid state in which we have sunk for so many years, we are at length compelled from the extremity of our sufferings, and the contempt heaped upon our petitions for redress, to assert our rights at the hazard of our lives.” by “taking up arms for the redress of our common grievances”. “Equality of rights (not of property)… Liberty or Death is our motto, and we have sworn to return home in triumph – or return no more…. we earnestly request all to desist from their labour from and after this day, the first of April [until] in possession of those rights…” It called for a rising “To show the world that we are not that lawless, sanguinary rabble which our oppressors would persuade the higher circles we are but a brave and generous people determined to be free.”

A footnote added: “Britons – God – Justice – the wish of all good men, are with us. Join together and make it one good cause, and the nations of the earth shall hail the day when the Standard of Liberty shall be raised on its native soil.”

Strike and Unrest
On Monday 3 April work stopped, particularly in weaving communities, over a wide area of central Scotland including Stirlingshire, Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire, Lanarkshire and Ayrshire, with an estimated total of around 60,000 stopping work.
Reports came in that men were carrying out military drill at points round Glasgow, foundries and forges had been raided, and iron files and dyer’s poles taken to make pikes. In Kilbarchan soldiers found men making pikes, in Stewarton around 60 strikers was dispersed, in Balfron around 200 men had assembled for some sort of action. Pikes, gunpowder and weapons called “wasps” (a sort of javelin) and “clegs” (a barbed shuttlecock to throw at horses) were offered for sale.

Rumours spread that England was in arms for the cause of reform and that an army was mustering at Campsie commanded by Marshal MacDonald, a Marshal of France and son of a Jacobite refugee family, to join forces with 50,000 French soldiers at Cathkin Braes under Kinloch, the fugitive “Radical laird” from Dundee.

In Paisley the local reformers’ committee met under command of their drill instructor, but scattered when Paisley was put under curfew.

Government troops were ready in Glasgow, including the Rifle Brigade, the 83rd Regiment of Foot, the 7th and 10th Hussars and Samuel Hunter’s Glasgow Sharpshooters. In the evening 300 radicals briefly skirmished with a party “of cavalry,” but no one came to harm that day.

March on Carron
In Glasgow John Craig led around 30 men to make for the Carron Company ironworks in Falkirk, Stirlingshire, telling them that weapons would be there for the taking, but the group scattered when intercepted by a police patrol. By coincidence a detachment of Hussars was waiting in ambush with the intention of catching men marching off from Glasgow to Carron, but was disappointed. Craig was caught, brought before a magistrate and fined, but the magistrate paid his fine for him.

On the next day, Tuesday 4 April, Duncan Turner assembled around 60 men to march to Carron, while he carried out organising work elsewhere. Half the group dropped out, the rest accepted his assurances that they would pick up supporters along the way. Their leader Andrew Hardie was given a torn half card to be matched with the other half in the possession of a supporter in Condorrat, on the way to Carron. There, John Baird was visited around 11 P.M. by John King, who gave him the other half card.

At around 5 A.M. on 5 April, Hardie arrived with 25 men, soaked through. Baird had expected a small army, but King urged them on, saying he would go on ahead to rally supporters. One of the men named Kean went with him, and Baird and Hardie set off with a total of 30 men. On the way they twice came across travellers, but let them go. The travellers passed the information on to authorities at Kilsyth and Stirling Castle. King arrived again, though Kean was not with him. and told them that he had instructions that he had to go quickly to find supporters at Camelon, while Baird and Hardie were to leave the road and wait at Bonnymuir.

Sixteen Hussars and sixteen Yeomanry troopers had been ordered on 4 April to leave Perth and go to protect Carron. They left the road at Bonnybridge early on 5 April and made straight for the slopes of Bonnymuir. As the newspapers subsequently reported, “On observing this force the radicals cheered and advanced to a wall over which they commenced firing at the military. Some shots were then fired by the soldiers in return, and after some time the cavalry got through an opening in the wall and attacked the party who resisted till overpowered by the troops who succeeded in taking nineteen of them prisoners, who are lodged in Stirling Castle. Four of the radicals were wounded.” The Glasgow Herald sniggered at the small number of radicals encountered, but worried that “the conspiracy appears to be more extensive than almost anyone imagined… radical principles are too widely spread and too deeply rooted to vanish without some explosion and the sooner it takes place the better.”

During 5 April, more regiments arrived in Glasgow, causing considerable excitement. Some signs of resistance being organised were reported and the army stood on the alert well into the night, but no radical attack materialised. In Duntocher, Paisley and Camelon people thought to be drilling or making pikes were arrested.

The March from Strathaven
On the afternoon of 5 April, before news of the Bonnymuir fighting got out, “the Englishman” Lees sent a message asking the radicals of Strathaven to meet up with the “Radical laird” Kinloch’s large force at Cathkin, and next morning a small force of 25 men followed the instructions and left at 7 A.M. to march there. The experienced elderly Radical James Wilson is claimed to have had a banner reading “Scotland Free or a Desart” [sic]. At East Kilbride they were warned of an army ambush, and Wilson, suspecting treachery, returned to Strathaven. The others bypassed the ambush and reached Cathkin, but as there was no sign of the promised army they dispersed. Ten of them were identified and caught, and by nightfall on 7 April they were jailed at Hamilton.

Other Radical disturbances occurred at weaver villages around the central lowlands and the west central Scotland, with less obvious activity in some east coast towns.

Prisoners to Greenock
On Saturday 8 April, prisoners from Paisley were being escorted by the Port Glasgow Militia to Greenock jail when the militia were attacked by local people who fought the them in the streets and from the windows and doorways of their houses. The escort managed to get through and lodge the prisoners in the jail by 5 P.M., but then had to fight their way out again. In reaction to insults and stone throwing they opened fire, killing eight including an 8 year old boy and wounding ten others. The militiamen escaped, then angry Greenockians stormed the jail and freed the prisoners.

Trials and Executions
In various towns a total of 88 men were charged with treason. At both Glasgow and Stirling a special Royal commission Court of Oyer and Terminer was set up to prosecute.

James Wilson was arrested and on 20 July was put on trial at Glasgow charged with four counts of treason The jury found him Not Guilty on three counts, Guilty of “compassing to levy war against the King in order to compel him to change his measures” and recommended mercy, but he was sentenced to death.

Five of his colleagues were found Not Guilty, another was discharged. On 1 August a jury ignored the abrasive judge and refused to convict two weavers.

At Stirling on 4 August the judge advised “To you Andrew Hardie and John Baird I can hold out little or no hope of mercy” since “as you were the leaders, I am afraid that example must be given by you.”

James Wilson was hanged and beheaded on 30 August watched by some 20,000 people, first remarking to the executioner “Did you ever see such a crowd, Thomas?”
On 8 September Hardie and Baird were executed in Stirling, watched by a crowd of 2,000. The Sheriff of Stirling, Ranald MacDonald, required that they make no political speech from the gallows, but agreed that they could speak upon the bible. Baird concluded his brief speech by saying “Although this day we die an ignominious death by unjust laws our blood, which in a very few minutes shall flow on this scaffold, will cry to heaven for vengeance, and may it be the means of our afflicted Countrymen’s speedy redemption.” Hardie then spoke of “our blood [being] shed on this scaffold… for no other sin but seeking the legitimate rights of our ill used and down trodden beloved Countrymen”, then when the Sheriff angrily intervened he concluded by asking those present to “go quietly home and read your Bibles, and remember the fate of Hardie and Baird.” They were hanged and then beheaded.

Thomas McCulloch, John Barr, William Smith, Benjamin Moir, Allan Murchie, Alexander Latimer, Andrew White, David Thomson, James Wright, William Clackson, Thomas Pike, Robert Gray, John Clelland, Alexander Hart, Thomas McFarlane, John Anderson, Andrew Dawson, William Crawford and the 15 year old Alexander Johnstone were in due course transported to the penal colonies in New South Wales or Tasmania. Peter Mackenzie, a Glasgow journalist, campaigned unsuccessfully to have them pardoned, and published a small book: The Spy System, including the exploits of Mr Alex. Richmond, the notorious Government Spy of Sidmouth and Castlereagh.
Eventually, on the 10th August 1835 an absolute pardon was granted.

Outcome
The effect of the crushing of this staged insurrection was to effectively discourage serious Radical unrest in Scotland for some time. Lord Melville, the right hand man in Scotland of Lord Liverpool’s government, saw the suggested Visit of King George IV to Scotland as a political need, to engage the feelings of the common people and weaken the Radical movement. The event, largely organised by Sir Walter Scott, succeeded brilliantly and brought a new-found Scottish national identity creating widespread enthusiasm for the tartan “plaided pageantry” that Sheriff Ranald MacDonald of Stirling was already enthusiastically engaged in as a Clan chieftain at Ulva and member of various “Highland societies.”

At the suggestion of Walter Scott, unemployed weavers from the west of Scotland were put to work on paving a track round Salisbury Crags in Holyrood Park adjoining Arthur’s Seat, Edinburgh. The path is still known as the Radical Road.

The cause of electoral reform continued, and with the Scottish Reform Act 1832 Glasgow was given its own Member of Parliament for the first time. The event was largely overshadowed by English Radical events and forgotten by school history, but in the 20th century the Scottish National Party historian J. Halliday brought the event back into the curriculum. At an anniversary debate in the Scottish Parliament members of the various parties each found lessons for their different causes in the “Radical War.”

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Regency Happenings: The Hampden Clubs, Political Reform Stimuli

Posted on September 4, 2013 by Regina Jeffers

The Hampden Clubs were political campaigning and debating societies formed in England in the early 19th century. They were particularly concentrated in the Midlands and the northern counties, and were closely associated with the popular movements for social and political reform that arose in the years following the end of the Napoleonic wars. They were forced underground, and eventually disbanded, in the face of legislation and pressure from the authorities.

Origins

John Cartwright is usually regarded as the founder of the Hampden Clubs

John Cartwright is usually regarded as the founder of the Hampden Clubs

The original Hampden Club was formed in London in 1812. John Cartwright is generally regarded as the originator and founder, although evidence has been offered that Cartwright’s friend Thomas Northmore actually initiated the clubs. Edward Blount (MP) was another founder member. Cartwright certainly dominated the movement from 1813 onwards. A former naval and militia officer with a long record of political activism, he toured northwest England to promote the idea of a forum for political debate among ordinary people. There had been no similar institutions since the London Corresponding Society, which had disbanded in 1794. The clubs were intended to bring together middle class moderates and lower class radicals in the reform cause, and were named for John Hampden, an English Civil War Parliamentary leader.

In 1813 Cartwright was arrested in Huddersfield while promoting the Clubs. He made a further promotional tour in 1815.

The first Hampden Club outside London was formed in 1816 by William Fitton at Royden. Other clubs in the north-west soon followed; in Middleton the radical weaver-poet Samuel Bamford started one. Other clubs were formed in Oldham, Manchester, Rochdale, Ashton-under-Lyne and Stockport.

Activities
Club members paid a penny per week subscription, and usually met weekly for political discussion and debate. Radical pamphlets were read, and newspaper articles by prominent reformers like William Cobbett were shared. Samuel Bamford describes the activities of club members in positive terms, emphasizing them as a peaceful alternative to riot and destruction of property.

Hampden clubs were now established in many of our large towns, and the villages and districts around them. Cobbett’s books were printed in a cheap form; the labourers read them, and thenceforward became deliberate and systematic in their proceedings. Nor were there wanting men of their own class, to encourage and direct the new converts.

The Sunday Schools of the preceding thirty years had produced many working men of sufficient talent to become readers, writers, and speakers in the village meetings for Parliamentary reform. Some also were found to possess a rude poetic talent, which rendered their effusions popular, and bestowed an additional charm on their assemblages; and by such various means, anxious listeners at first, and then zealous proselytes, were drawn from the cottages of quiet nooks and dingles, to the weekly readings and discussions of the Hampden clubs.

In January 1817 many regional Hampden Clubs and similar political debating societies sent delegates to a large meeting at the Crown & Anchor tavern in Strand, London, well known as a meeting-place of radicals, to discuss proposals for a bill for Parliamentary reform. The assembly had been called by Cartwright and Jones Burdett, brother of Sir Francis Burdett. The wording proposed by the Hampden Clubs’ leadership included votes for all householders, electoral boundary reform and annual elections. However, the moderates were outvoted by those who favoured more radical reforms, and there were angry words from those who felt the Clubs’ plans had been hijacked by others. The final resolutions of the meeting carried no reference to the Hampden Clubs. Reports of the meeting in The Times criticized both the meeting and its outcome, and accused the delegates of attempting to overthrow the Constitution.

Suppression and Dissolution
The clubs were regarded with suspicion by the authorities, which saw them as breeding grounds for the growing radicalism of the times. On 9 February 1817, a secret Parliamentary Committee report concluded that the real object of the Hampden Clubs and similar institutions was to foment “an insurrection, so formidable from numbers, as by dint of physical strength to overpower all resistance.”

The government began to introduce legislation, such as the Seditious Meetings Act 1817, and it became more difficult for political clubs to meet. For example, the Birmingham Hampden Club, founded in September 1816 and boasting 300 regular attendees by the following January, had a moderate ethos and publicly condemned violence after a local riot, but struggled to find venues as publicans were pressured not to permit club meetings on their premises. Private rooms were found, but by April 1817, in an atmosphere of suspicion and with the government spy and agent provocateur Oliver active in the city, regular club meetings were suspended.

In Manchester the movement’s leaders were targeted by the city’s deputy constable, Joseph Nadin, who arrested many of them, including Samuel Bamford, after the unrest of March 1817 and sent them to London in irons, where some spent months in prison before their release without charge. With the Hampden clubs stifled, the Lancashire leadership formed the Patriotic Union Society, and it was this body that called the 1819 public meeting for political reform that became the Peterloo Massacre.

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Georgian Celebrity: Charlotte Lennox, Author of “The Female Quixote”

Posted on September 3, 2013 by Regina Jeffers

Charlotte_Ramsay_Lennox Charlotte Lennox, née Ramsay (c. 1730 – 4 January 1804) was an English author and poet. She is most famous now as the author of The Female Quixote and for her association with Samuel Johnson, Joshua Reynolds, and Samuel Richardson, but she had a long career and wrote poetry, prose, and drama.

Life
Charlotte Lennox was born in Gibraltar. Her father, James Ramsay, was a Scottish captain in the Royal Navy, and her mother was Scottish and Irish. She was baptized Barbara Ramsay. Very little direct evidence for her pre-public life is available, and biographers have extrapolated from her first novel elements that seem semi-autobiographical. Charlotte and her family moved to New York in 1738; where her father was lieutenant-governor – he died in 1742, but she and her mother remained in New York for a few years. At the age of fifteen, she accepted a position as a companion to the widow Mary Luckyn in London, but upon her arrival, she discovered her future employer had apparently become “deranged” following the death of her son. As the position was no longer available, Charlotte then became a companion to Lady Isabella Finch.

Her first volume of poetry was entitled Poems on Several Occasions, dedicated to Lady Isabella in 1747. She was preparing herself for a position at court, but such a future was rendered moot by her marriage to Alexander Lennox, “an indigenous and shiftless Scot.” His only known employment was in the customs office from 1773–1782, and this was reported to be as a benefice of the Duke of Newcastle as a reward for his wife. He also claimed to be the proper heir to the Earl of Lennox in 1768, but the House of Lords rejected his claims on the basis of bastardry, or his “Birth misfortunes” as Charlotte tactfully described them.

After her marriage, Charlotte turned her attention to becoming an actress, but without much success. Horace Walpole described her performance at Richmond in 1748 as “deplorable.” She did though receive a benefit night at the Haymarket Theatre in a production of The Mourning Bride in 1750. That year she also published her most successful poem, The Art of Coquetry in Gentleman’s Magazine. She met Samuel Johnson around this time, and he held her in very high regard. When her first novel, The Life of Harriot Stuart, Written by Herself, appeared, Johnson threw a lavish party for Lennox, with a laurel wreath and an apple pie that contained bay leaf. Johnson thought her superior to his other female literary friends, Elizabeth Carter, Hannah More, and Frances Burney. He ensured that Lennox was introduced to important members of the London literary scene.

The women of Johnson’s circle were not fond of Lennox. Hester Thrale, Elizabeth Carter, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu all faulted her, either for her housekeeping, her unpleasant personality, or her temper. They regarded her specifically as unladylike and incendiary.

However, Samuel Richardson and Samuel Johnson both reviewed and helped out with Lennox’s second and most successful novel, The Female Quixote, or, The Adventures of Arabella, and Henry Fielding praised the novel in his Covent Garden Journal. The Female Quixote was quite popular. It was reprinted and packaged in a series of great novels in 1783, 1799, and 1810. It was translated into German in 1754, French in 1773 and 1801, and Spanish in 1808. The novel formally inverts Don Quixote: as the don mistakes himself for the knightly hero of a Romance, so Arabella mistakes herself for the maiden love of a Romance. While the don thinks it his duty to praise the Platonically pure damsels he meets (such as the farm girl he loves), so Arabella believes it is in her power to kill with a look, and it is the duty of her lovers to suffer ordeals on her behalf.

The Female Quixote was officially anonymous and technically unrecognized until after Lennox’s death. The anonymity was an open secret, though, as her other works were advertised as, by “the author of The Female Quixote“, but no published version of The Female Quixote bore her name during her life. The translator-censor of the Spanish version, Lieutenant Colonel Don Bernardo María de Calzada, appropriated the text, saying “written in English by unknown author and in Spanish by D. Bernardo,” even though de Calzada, who was not fluent in English, only translated to Spanish the previous French translation, which was already censored. In the preface, de Calzada also warns the reader of the questionable quality of the text, as good British texts were only written by “Fyelding” [sic] and Richardson, the two authors with international fame (in contrast to the often mechanical “romances” produced by various names for shops like Edmund Curll’s or the satirical romances appearing under one-off pseudonyms that were not, first and foremost, novels).

Joseph Baretti taught Lennox Italian, and several helped her translate The Greek Theatre of Father Brumoy, the most influential French study of Greek tragedy at mid-18th century. Learning several languages, Charlotte Lennox took an interest in the sources for Shakespeare’s plays. In 1753, she wrote Shakespear Illustrated, which discussed Shakespeare’s sources extensively. She preferred originals to their adaptations, and so her work ended up being critical of Shakespeare. She did not discuss any of the beauties of Shakespeare’s poetry or the power of his personifications, and so Garrick and Johnson both regarded her work as being more of a case of Shakespeare exposed than Shakespeare illustrated.

In 1755 she translated Memoirs of Maximilian de Bethune, Duke of Sully, which sold well.
Her third novel, Henrietta, appeared in 1758 and sold well, but it did not bring her any money. From 1760 to 1761, she wrote for the periodical The Lady’s Museum, which contained material which would eventually comprise her 1762 novel Sophia. David Garrick produced her Old City Manners at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1775 (an adaptation of Ben Jonson’s Eastward Ho). Finally, in 1790, she published Euphemia, her last novel, with little success, as the public’s interest in novels of romance seemed to have waned.

She had two children who survived infancy, Harriot Holles Lennox (1765–1802/4) and George Lewis Lennox (b. 1771). She was estranged from her husband for many years, and the couple finally separated for good in 1793. Charlotte subsequently lived in “solitary penury” for the rest of her life, entirely reliant on the support of the Literary Fund. She died on 4 January 1804 in London and was buried in an unmarked grave at Broad Court Cemetery.

During the nineteenth century, The Female Quixote remained moderately popular. In the twentieth century, feminist scholars such as Janet Todd, Jane Spencer, and Nancy Armstrong have praised Lennox’s skill and inventiveness.

Works
Poetry
Poems on Several Occasions (1747)
The Art of Coquetry (1750)

Novels
The Life of Harriot Stuart (1751)
The Female Quixote (1752)
Henrietta (1758)
Sophia (1762)
Euphemia (1790)
Hermione (1791)

Plays
The Sister (1762)
Old City Manners (1775)

Posted in British history, Georgian Era, Living in the Regency, real life tales, Regency era, Regency personalities, writing | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Georgian Celebrity: Charlotte Lennox, Author of “The Female Quixote”

Thoughts on Self Publishing from Leaders in Romance Market

Posted on August 31, 2013 by Regina Jeffers

This article comes from Publishers Weekly and introduces the reader to views of the self publishing phenomenon from of the best selling authors in the romance market.

At RWA [Romance Writers of America] in Atlanta, one of the hottest author tracts to follow was the Self-Publishing Tract. This group of workshops, geared to authors thinking of publishing on their own, was standing room only. Interest came from authors in all stages of their careers.

This is feedback from several authors (both traditional and Indie published). The tract was developed by #1 NYT bestseller Barbara Freethy and loaded with top speakers.

To read the complete article, please visit http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/blogs/beyondherbook/?p=8360

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Regency Celebrity: Captain George William Manby, Author and Inventor

Posted on August 30, 2013 by Regina Jeffers

34493 Captain George William Manby FRS (born November 28, 1765 in Denver, Norfolk; died November 18, 1854 in Great Yarmouth), was an English author and inventor. He designed an apparatus for saving life from shipwrecks and also the first modern form of fire extinguisher.

Life
Manby went to school at Downham Market. Although he claimed to have been a friend there of Horatio Nelson, this is unlikely to be true as Nelson would have left the school (if he ever attended) before Manby started. He volunteered to fight in the American War of Independence, aged 17, but was rejected because of his youth and his small size. Instead, he entered the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich, and then joined the Cambridgeshire Militia, where he gained the rank of captain.

He married in 1793 and inherited his wife’s family’s estates, but left her in 1801 after being shot by her lover and moved to Clifton, Bristol. There, he published several books, including The History and Antiquities of St David’s (1801), Sketches of the History and Natural Beauties of Clifton (1802), and A Guide from Clifton to the Counties of Monmouth, Glamorgan, etc. (1802). In 1803, his pamphlet An Englishman’s Reflexions on the Author of the Present Disturbances, on Napoleon’s plans to invade England, came to the attention of the Secretary of War, Charles Yorke, who was impressed and recommended Manby to be appointed as Barrack-Master at Great Yarmouth.

On 18 February 1807, as a helpless onlooker, he witnessed a Naval ship, the Snipe run aground 60 yards off Great Yarmouth during a storm, with (according to some accounts) a total of 214 people drowned, including French prisoners of war, women, and children. Following this tragedy, Manby experimented with mortars, and so invented the Manby Mortar, later developed into the breeches buoy, that fired a thin rope from shore into the rigging of a ship in distress. A strong rope, attached to the thin one, could be pulled aboard the ship. His successful invention followed an experiment as a youth in 1783, when he shot a mortar carrying a line over Downham church. His invention was officially adopted in 1814, and a series of mortar stations were established around the coast. It was estimated that by the time of his death nearly 1000 persons had been rescued from stranded ships by means of his apparatus.

Manby also built an “unsinkable” ship. The first test indeed proved it to be floating when mostly filled with water; however, the seamen (who disliked Manby) rocked the boat back and forth, so that it eventually turned over. The boatmen depended on the cargo left over from shipwrecks, and may have thought Manby’s mortar a threat to their livelihood.

In 1813 Manby invented the “Extincteur,” the first portable pressurised fire extinguisher. This consisted of a copper vessel of 3 gallons of pearl ash (potassium carbonate) solution contained within compressed air. He also invented a device intended to save people who had fallen through ice.

In 1821, he sailed to Greenland with William Scoresby, for the purpose of testing a new type of harpoon for whaling, based on the same principles as his mortar. However, his device was sabotaged by the whalers. He published his account as Journal of a Voyage to Greenland, containing observations on the flora and fauna of the Arctic regions, as well as the practice of whale hunting.

He was the first to advocate a national fire brigade, and is considered by some to be a true founder of the RNLI. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1831 in recognition of his many accomplishments.

In later life Manby became obsessed with Nelson, turning his house into a Nelson museum filled with memorabilia and living in the basement.

Manby also became one of the godfathers of Augustus Onslow Manby Gibbes (1828–1897), the youngest son of the Collector of Customs for Great Yarmouth from 1827 to 1833, Colonel John George Nathaniel Gibbes (1787-1873).

Posted in British history, Georgian Era, Living in the Regency, real life tales, Regency era, Regency personalities, White Soup Press | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Regency Celebrity: Captain George William Manby, Author and Inventor

Regency Justice: The Pillory

Posted on August 29, 2013 by Regina Jeffers
1808 pillory at Charing Cross, London

1808 pillory at Charing Cross, London

The pillory was a device made of a wooden or metal framework erected on a post, with holes for securing the head and hands, formerly used for punishment by public humiliation and often further physical abuse, sometimes lethal. The pillory is related to the stocks.

The word is documented in English since 1274 (attested in Anglo-Latin from c. 1189), and stems from Old French pellori (1168; modern French pilori, see below), itself from medieval Latin pilloria, of uncertain origin, perhaps a diminutive of Latin pila “pillar, stone barrier.”

Description
Rather like the lesser punishment called the stocks, the pillory consisted of hinged wooden boards forming holes through which the head and/or various limbs were inserted; then the boards were locked together to secure the captive. Pillories were set up to hold petty criminals in marketplaces, crossroads, and other public places. They were often placed on platforms to increase public visibility of the offender. Often a placard detailing the crime was placed nearby; these punishments generally lasted only a few hours.

images-1 In being forced to bend forward and stick their head and hands out in front, offenders in the pillory would have been extremely uncomfortable during their punishment. However, the main purpose in putting criminals in the pillory was to publicly humiliate them. On discovering the pillory was occupied, people would excitedly gather in the marketplace to taunt, tease, and laugh at the offender on display.

Those who gathered to watch the punishment typically wanted to make the offender’s experience as unpleasant as possible. In addition to being jeered and mocked, those in the pillory might be pelted with rotten food, mud, offal, dead animals, and animal excrement. As a result, criminals were often very dirty by the end of their punishment, their faces and hair begrimed with the smelly refuse with which they had been pelted. Sometimes people were killed or maimed in the pillory because crowds could get too violent and pelt the offender with stones, bricks and other dangerous objects. However, when Daniel Defoe was sentenced to the pillory in 1703 for Seditious libel, he was regarded as a hero by the crowd and was pelted with flowers.

images-1 The criminal could also be sentenced to further punishments while in the pillory: humiliation by shaving off some or all hair or regular corporal punishment(s), notably flagellation (the pillory serving as the “whipping post”) or even permanent mutilation such as branding or having an ear cut off (cropping), as in the case of John Bastwick.

Uses
After 1816, use of the pillory was restricted in England to punishment for perjury or subornation. The pillory was formally abolished as a form of punishment in England and Wales in 1837, but the stocks remained in use, though extremely infrequently, until 1872. The last person to be pilloried in England was Peter James Bossy, who was convicted of “wilful and corrupt perjury” in 1830. He was offered the choice of seven years’ penal transportation or one hour in the pillory, and chose the latter.

In France, time in the “pilori” was usually limited to two hours. It was replaced in 1789 by “exposition,” and abolished in 1832. Two types of devices were used:

The poteau (another French term) was a simple post, often with a board around only the neck, and was synonymous with the mode of punishment. This was the same as the schandpaal (“shamepole”) in Dutch. The carcan, an iron ring around the neck to tie a prisoner to such a post, was the name of a similar punishment that was abolished in 1832. A criminal convicted to serve time in a prison or galleys would, prior to his incarceration, be attached for two to six hours (depending on whether he was convicted to prison or the galleys) to the carcan, with his name, crime and sentence written on a board over his head.

A permanent small tower, the upper floor of which had a ring made of wood or iron with holes for the victim’s head and arms, which was often on a turntable to expose the condemned to all parts of the crowd.

Like other permanent apparatus for physical punishment, the pillory was often placed prominently and constructed more elaborately than necessary. It served as a symbol of the power of the judicial authorities, and its continual presence was seen as a deterrent, like permanent gallows for authorities endowed with high justice.

In Portugal, it is called Pelourinho, and there are monuments of great importance because they are known since the Roman times. Usually, they are located on the main square of the town, and/or in front of a major church or a palace. They are made of stone with a column and the top carved. Pelourinhos are considered major local monuments, several clearly bearing the coat of arms of a king or queen. The same is true of its former colonies, notably in Brazil (in its former capital, Salvador, the whole old quarter is known as Pelourinho) and Africa (e.g. Cape Verde’s old capital, Cidade Velha), always as symbols of royal power.

In Spain it was called picota.

The pillory was also in common use in other western countries and colonies, and similar devices were used in other, non-Western cultures. According to one source, the pillory was abolished as a form of punishment in the United States in 1839, but this cannot be entirely true because it was clearly in use in Delaware as recently as 1901. Punishment by whipping-post remained on the books in Delaware until 1972, when it became the last state to abolish it.

Similar Humiliation Devices
There was a variant (rather of the stocks type), called a barrel pillory, or Spanish mantle, used to punish drunks, which is reported in England and among its troops. It fitted over the entire body, with the head sticking out from a hole in the top. The criminal is put in either an enclosed barrel, forcing him to kneel in his own filth, or an open barrel, also known as “barrel shirt” or “drunkards collar” after the punishable crime, leaving him to roam about town or military camp and be ridiculed and scorned.

Although a pillory, by its physical nature, was a perfect choice to double as a whipping post to tie a criminal down for public flagellation (as used to be the case in many German sentences to staupenschlag), the two as such are separate punishments: the pillory is a sentence to public humiliation, whipping an essentially painful corporal punishment that could be administered anywhere, (semi-)publicly or not, often in prison; if a pole or more elaborate construction is erected, temporary or permanent, often on a scaffolding, for lashings, as in a few southern US prisons until the 1960s, the correct term is whipping post—however, sometimes a construction combines the two.

When permanently present in sight of prisoners, it was thought to act as a deterrent against bad behaviour, especially when each prisoner had been subjected to a “welcome beating” on arrival, as in 18th-century Waldheim in Saxony (12, 18 or 24 whip lashes on the bare posterior tied to a pole in the castle courtyard, or by birch rod over the “bock,” a bench in the corner).

Still a different penal use of such constructions is to tie the criminal down, possibly after a beating, to expose him for a long time to the elements, usually without food and drink, even to the point of starvation.

This information comes from Wikipedia.

Posted in British history, buildings and structures, Georgian Era, Living in the Regency, real life tales, Regency era, Victorian era | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Regency Celebrity: William Smith, Abolitionist (and Florence Nightingale’s Grandfather)

Posted on August 28, 2013 by Regina Jeffers

William Smith (1756 – 1835) was a leading independent British politician, sitting as Member of Parliament (MP) for more than one constituency. He was an English Dissenter and was instrumental in bringing political rights to that religious minority. He was a friend and close associate of William Wilberforce and a member of the Clapham Sect of social reformers, and was in the forefront of many of their campaigns for social justice, prison reform, and philanthropic endeavour, most notably the abolition of slavery. He was the maternal grandfather of pioneer nurse and statistician Florence Nightingale.

Early Life
William Smith was born on 22 September 1756 at Clapham (then a village to the south of London), the son of Samuel Smith. Brought up by parents who worshipped at an Independent chapel, he was educated at the dissenting academy at Daventry until 1772, where he began to come under the influence of Unitarians. He went into the family grocery business, and by 1777 had become a partner. Smith had a long career as a social and political reformer, joining the Society for Constitutional Information in 1782.

On 12 September 1781, he married Frances Coape (1758 – 1840), daughter of John and Hannah Coape, both Dissenters. Their daughter, Frances Smith, married William Nightingale and was the mother of Florence Nightingale. According to Cambridge University Library records, William and Frances had four other daughters: Joanna Maria (1791–1884), Julia, Anne and Patty. According to the Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, they also had five sons. One of them was Benjamin Smith, the Whig politician who fathered Barbara Bodichon, founder of Girton College, and the explorer Benjamin Leigh Smith.
The Smiths continued to live near the family business and moved into Eagle House on Clapham Common.

Election as M.P.
William Smith was elected in 1784 as Member of Parliament for Sudbury in Suffolk. He was active in his support for the Whigs while in opposition. In 1790, he lost his seat at Sudbury, and in the following January, he was elected as M.P. for Camelford. In 1796, he was once again returned for Sudbury, but in 1802 accepted the invitation of radicals to stand for Norwich, although he was defeated in the election of 1806, which was fought on a local issue. The Whig party were, however, elected and formed the next government under Lord Grenville. Smith was returned again in 1807 and 1812 and became a popular and outspoken radical Member of Parliament for Norwich, which was known for being a gathering place for dissenters and radicals of all kinds.

Unitarianism
William Smith held strong dissenting Christian convictions – he was a Unitarian, and was thus prevented from attaining the Great Offices of State. (The doctrine of Unitarians was to deny the truth of the Trinity, a central tenet of the Church of England.) [See yesterday’s post on the Doctrine of the Trinity Act for more details on the unitarians.] He nevertheless played a leading role in most of the great contemporary Parliamentary issues, including the Dissenters’ demands for the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts (for the first time since the 1730s).

Although the campaigners were unsuccessful in 1787, they tried again in 1789. When Charles Fox introduced a bill for the relief of Nontrinitarianism in May 1792, Smith supported the Unitarian Society, publicly declaring his commitment to the Unitarian cause. The same year he became one of the founding members of the Friends of the People Society. In 1813, Smith challenged the established church, and was responsible for championing the Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813, known as ‘Mr William Smith’s Bill,’ which, for the first time, made it legal to practice Unitarianism. He was a member of the Essex Street Chapel.

Abolitionism
In June 1787, Smith was one of the first to campaign for the abolition of the slave trade, becoming a vocal advocate for the cause. In 1790, he supported William Wilberforce in the slave trade debate in April. While he had been out of Parliament, he had given his support to Abolitionism by writing a pamphlet entitled A Letter to William Wilberforce (1807), in which he cogently and convincingly summarized the abolitionists’ arguments.

Once the trade had been halted, he turned his attention to freeing those who were already slaves. In 1823, with Zachary Macaulay, he helped found the London Society for the Abolition of Slavery in our Colonies, thereby launching the next phase of the campaign to eradicate slavery.

French Revolution
In the beginning, at least, William Smith was sympathetic to the revolutionary movement in France. He visited Paris in 1790, where he attended the 14 July celebrations, and later recorded his reactions to the momentous events he witnessed. In April 1791, he publicly supported the aims and principles of the newly formed Unitarian Society, including support for the recently won liberty of the French. Smith was swiftly gaining a reputation as a radical, even a Jacobin. Because he had business contacts and friends in Paris, he was more than once asked to act as a go-between for the government. In 1792, he arranged several meetings between William Pitt and Maret, Napoleon’s foreign minister, in a desperate attempt to avoid war.

Later Life
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1806 as “a Gentleman well versed in various branches of Natural Knowledge.”

Smith’s final major contribution to British politics was to finally successfully see through Parliament the repeal of the Test Acts in 1828. He died on 31 May 1835 in London.

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Regency Happenings: The Battle of Vitoria, the end to the Peninsular War

Posted on August 26, 2013 by Regina Jeffers

300px-Vitoria_-_Plaza_de_la_Virgen_Blanca_10 At the Battle of Vitoria (21 June 1813) a British, Portuguese and Spanish army under General the Marquess of Wellington broke the French army under Joseph Bonaparte and Marshal Jean-Baptiste Jourdan near Vitoria in Spain, eventually leading to victory in the Peninsular War.

Background

In July 1812, after the Battle of Salamanca, the French had evacuated Madrid, which Wellington’s army entered on 12 August 1812. Deploying three divisions to guard its southern approaches, Wellington marched north with the rest of his army to lay siege to the fortress of Burgos, 140 miles (230 km) away, but he had underestimated the enemy’s strength, and on 21 October, he had to abandon the Siege of Burgos and retreat. By 31 October, he had abandoned Madrid too, and retreated first to Salamanca then to Ciudad Rodrigo, near the Portuguese frontier, to avoid encirclement by French armies from the north-east and south-east.

Wellington spent the winter reorganizing and strengthening his forces. By contrast, Napoleon withdrew many soldiers to rebuild his main army after his disastrous invasion of Russia. By 20 May 1813, Wellington marched 121,000 troops (53,749 British, 39,608 Spanish and 27,569 Portuguese) from northern Portugal across the mountains of northern Spain and the Esla River to outflank Marshal Jourdan’s army of 68,000, strung out between the Douro and the Tagus. The French retreated to Burgos, with Wellington’s forces marching hard to cut them off from the road to France. Wellington himself commanded the small central force in a strategic feint, while Sir Thomas Graham conducted the bulk of the army around the French right flank over landscape considered impassable.

Wellington launched his attack at Vitoria on 21 June, in four columns. After hard fighting, Thomas Picton’s 3rd Division broke the enemy’s center and soon the French defense crumbled. About 5,000 French soldiers were killed or wounded, and 3,000 were taken prisoner, while Wellington suffered about 5,000 killed or wounded. 152 cannons were captured, but Bonaparte narrowly escaped. The battle led to the collapse of Napoleonic rule in Spain.

Terrain
The battlefield centers on the Zadorra River, which runs from east to west. As the Zadorra runs west, it loops into a hairpin bend, finally swinging generally to the southwest. On the south of the battlefield are the Heights of La Puebla. To the northwest is the mass of Monte Arrato. Vitoria stands to the east, two miles (3 km) south of the Zadorra. Five roads radiate from Vitoria, north to Bilbao, northeast to Salinas and Bayonne, east to Salvatierra, south to Logroño and west to Burgos on the south side of the Zadorra.

Plans
Jourdan was ill with a fever all day on 20 June. Because of this, few orders were issued, and the French forces stood idle. An enormous wagon train of booty clogged the streets of Vitoria. A convoy left during the night, but it had to leave siege artillery behind because there were not enough draft animals to pull the cannons.
Gazan’s divisions guarded the narrow western end of the Zadorra valley, deployed south of the river. Maransin’s brigade was posted in advance, at the village of Subijana. The divisions were disposed with Leval on the right, Daricau in the centre, Conroux on the left, and Villate in reserve. Only a picket guarded the western extremity of the Heights of La Puebla.

Further back, D’Erlon’s force stood in a second line, also south of the river. D’Armagnac’s division deployed on the right and Cassagne’s on the left. D’Erlon failed to destroy three bridges near the river’s hairpin bend and posted Avy’s weak cavalry division to guard them. Reille’s men originally formed a third line, but Sarrut’s division was sent north of the river to guard the Bilbao road, while Lamartinière’s division and the Spanish Royal Guard units held the river bank.

Wellington directed Hill’s 20,000-man Right Column to drive the French from the Zadorra defile on the south side of the river. While the French were preoccupied with Hill, Wellington’s Right Centre column moved along the north bank of the river and crossed it near the hairpin bend behind the French right flank.

Graham’s 20,000-man Left Column was sent around the north side of Monte Arrato. It drove down the Bilbao road, cutting off the bulk of the French army. Dalhousie’s Left Centre column cut across Monte Arrato and struck the river east of the hairpin, providing a link between Graham and Wellington.

Battle
Coming up the Burgos road, Hill sent Morillo’s Division to the right on a climb up the Heights of La Puebla. Stewart’s 2nd Division began deploying to the left in the narrow plain just south of the river. Seeing these moves, Gazan sent Maransin forward to drive Morillo off the heights. Hill moved Col. Henry Cadogan’s brigade of the 2nd Division to assist Morillo. Gazan responded by committing Villatte’s reserve division to the battle on the heights.

About this time, Gazan first spotted Wellington’s column moving north of the Zadorra to turn his right flank. He asked Jourdan, now recovered from his fever, for reinforcements. Having become obsessed with the safety of his left flank, the marshal refused to help Gazan, instead ordering some of D’Erlon’s troops to guard the Logroño road.

Wellington thrust James Kempt’s brigade of the Light Division across the Zadorra at the hairpin. At the same time, Stewart took Subijana and was counterattacked by two of Gazan’s divisions. On the heights, Cadogan was killed, but the Anglo-Spanish force managed to hang on to its foothold. Wellington suspended his attacks to allow Graham’s column time to make an impression, and a lull descended on the battlefield.

At noon, Graham’s column appeared on the Bilbao road. Jourdan immediately realized he was in danger of envelopment and ordered Gazan to pull back toward Vitoria. Graham drove Sarrut’s division back across the river, but could not force his way across the Zadorra despite bitter fighting. Further east, Longa’s Spanish troops defeated the Spanish Royal Guards and cut the road to Bayonne.

With some help from Kempt’s brigade, Picton’s 3rd Division from Dalhousie’s column crossed to the south side of the river. According to Picton, the enemy responded by pummeling the 3rd with 40 to 50 cannons and a counter-attack on their right flank, still open because they had captured the bridge so quickly, causing the 3rd to lose 1,800 men (over one third of all Allied losses at the battle) as they held their ground. Cole’s 4th Division crossed further west. With Gazan on the left and D’Erlon on the right, the French attempted a stand at the village of Arinez. Formed in a menacing line, the 4th, Light, 3rd and 7th Divisions soon captured this position. The French fell back to the Zuazo ridge, covered by their well-handled and numerous field artillery. This position fell to Wellington’s attack when Gazan refused to cooperate with his colleague D’Erlon.

French morale collapsed, and the soldiers of Gazan and D’Erlon ran for it. Artillerists left their guns behind as they fled on the trace horses. Soon the road was jammed with a mass of wagons and carriages. The efforts of Reille’s two divisions, holding off Graham, allowed tens of thousands of French troops to escape by the Salvatierra road.

Aftermath
The Allied army lost about 5,000 men, with 3,675 British, 921 Portuguese and 562 Spanish casualties. French losses totaled at least 5,200 killed and wounded, plus 2,800 men and 151 cannon captured. By army, the losses were South 4,300, Centre 2,100 and Portugal 1,600. There were no casualty returns from the Royal Guard or the artillery.

French losses were not higher for several reasons. First, the Allied army had already marched 20 miles (32 km) that morning and was in no condition to pursue. Second, Reille’s men valiantly held off Graham’s column. Third, the valley by which the French retreated was narrow and well-covered by the 3rd Hussar and the 15th Dragoon Regiments acting as rearguard. Last, the French left their booty behind.

Many British soldiers turned aside to plunder the abandoned French wagons, containing “the loot of a kingdom.” It is estimated that over one million pounds of booty (perhaps £100 million in modern equivalent) was seized, but the gross abandonment of discipline caused an enraged Wellington to write in a dispatch to Earl Bathurst, “We have in the service the scum of the earth as common soldiers.”The British general also vented his fury on a new cavalry regiment, writing, “The 18th Hussars are a disgrace to the name of soldier, in action as well as elsewhere; and I propose to draft their horses from them and send the men to England if I cannot get the better of them in any other manner.” (On 8 April 1814, the 18th redeemed their reputation in a gallant charge at Croix d’Orade, shortly before the Battle of Toulouse.)

Order was soon restored, and by December, after detachments had seized San Sebastián and Pamplona, Wellington’s army was encamped in France.

The battle was the inspiration for Beethoven’s Opus 91, often called the “Battle Symphony” or “Wellington’s Victory,” which portrays the battle as musical drama. The climax of the movie The Firefly, starring Jeanette MacDonald, occurs with Wellington’s attack on the French centre. (The film used music from an opera of the same name by Rudolf Friml, but with a totally different plot.)

Posted in British history, Living in the Regency, real life tales, Regency era, Regency personalities, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Regency Happenings: The Battle of Vitoria, the end to the Peninsular War

BAM Tiptoeing into Print on Demand Market

Posted on August 24, 2013 by Regina Jeffers

This article comes from Laura Owen and Paid Content.

Books-A-Million, the nation’s second-largest bookstore chain after Barnes & Noble (not that there’s a lot of competition these days) is tiptoeing into the print-on-demand market: The chain signed a deal with the print-on-demand company On Demand Books to install an Espresso Book Machine in its Portland, Maine store. A second Books-A-Million store will get an Espresso Book Machine “at a later date.”

“This offering means something special for BAM customers, who will now have access to a virtual inventory of seven million titles instantly available to them,” Terrance G. Finley, CEO of Books-A-Million, said in a statement. “Our customers will also be able to print their self-published works or any user generated content, photo books, recipes, etc. in a matter of minutes and pick it up in our store.”

To read the complete article, please visit http://paidcontent.org/2013/07/18/print-on-demand-may-be-coming-soon-to-a-books-a-million-near-you/

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Regency Happenings: The Battle of Stoney Creek from the War of 1812

Posted on August 23, 2013 by Regina Jeffers

300px-Battle_of_stoney_creek The Battle of Stoney Creek was fought on 6 June 1813 during the War of 1812 near present day Stoney Creek, Ontario. British units made a night attack on an American encampment. Due in large part to the capture of the two senior officers of the American force, and an overestimation of British strength by the Americans, the battle was a victory for the British, and a turning point in the defense of Upper Canada.

Background
On 27 May, the Americans had won the Battle of Fort George, forcing the British defenders of Fort George into a hasty retreat, with heavy casualties. The British commander, Brigadier General John Vincent, gathered in all his outposts along the Niagara River, disbanded the militia contingents in his force and retreated to Burlington Heights (at the west end of Burlington Bay), with about 1,600 men in total. The Americans under the overall leadership of General Henry Dearborn, who was elderly and ill, were slow to pursue. A brigade under Brigadier General William H. Winder first followed up Vincent, but Winder decided that Vincent’s forces were too strong to engage, and halted at the Forty Mile Creek. Another brigade joined him, commanded by Brigadier General John Chandler, who was the senior, and took overall command. Their combined force, numbering 3,400, advanced to Stoney Creek, where they encamped on 5 June. The two generals set up their headquarters at the Gage Farm.

Vincent sent his Deputy Assistant Adjutant General, Lieutenant Colonel John Harvey, to reconnoitre the American position. Harvey recommended a night attack, reporting that “the enemy’s guards were few and negligent; his line of encampment was long and broken; his artillery was feebly supported; several of his corps were placed too far to the rear to aid in repelling a blow which might be rapidly struck in front.” The American dispositions described by Harvey account for the statement in the post-battle report of the U.S. Assistant Adjutant-General that only 1,328 American troops were engaged against the British, out of Chandler’s total force of 3,400.

A British column of five companies from the 1/8th (King’s) Regiment of Foot and the main body of the 49th Regiment of Foot, about 700 men in all, was formed. Although Vincent accompanied the column, he placed Harvey in command.

At this point, the story of Billy Green comes to light. Billy Green was a 19 year old local resident, who had witnessed the advance of the Americans from the top of the Niagara Escarpment earlier in the day. Billy’s brother-in-law, Isaac Corman, had been briefly captured by the Americans, but was released after he convinced them (truthfully) that he was the cousin of American General William Henry Harrison. In order to be able to pass through the American lines, he was given the challenge response password for the day – “WIL-HEN-HAR” (an abbreviation of Harrison’s name). He gave his word of honor that he would not divulge this to the British army. He kept his word, but did reveal the word to Billy Green, who rode his brother-in-law’s horse part way, and ran on foot the rest of the way to Burlington Heights. Here, he revealed the password to Lieutenant James FitzGibbon. He was provided with a sword and uniform and used his knowledge of the terrain to guide the British to the American position. Billy Green was present at the battle.

However, it has been suggested that the password was actually obtained by Lieutenant Colonel Harvey. According to an account given after the war by Frederick Snider, a neighbour of the Gages, Harvey had executed a ruse on the first sentry to be accosted. Pretending to be the American officer of the day making Grand Rounds, he approached the sentry and when challenged, came close to the sentry’s ear as if to whisper the countersign. But with bayonet secreted in hand, he grabbed the surprised sentry by the throat and threw him to the ground. With the bayonet at his throat, the sentry gave up the password.

This suggestion illustrates the incomplete research into several aspects of the Battle of Stoney Creek. Snider gave this account not long before his death in 1877, and his source for it was the April 1871 issue of The Canadian Literary Journal. Snider was confusing Harvey with Colonel Murray, June 1813 with December 1813 and Stoney Creek with Youngstown near Fort Niagara. Snider makes several obvious errors, such as “the British General St. Vincent was found some days after wandering about in the woods nearly dead of hunger.” His name was Vincent, and he did not wander about the woods for days. His source for the provenance of the countersign should thus be considered to be unreliable.

Battle
The British left their camp at Burlington Heights at 11:30 P.M. on 5 June. While Vincent was the senior officer present, the troops were placed under the conduct and direction of Lieutenant Colonel Harvey, who led them silently toward Stoney Creek. They had removed the flints from their muskets to ensure that there were no accidental discharges and dared not utter even a whisper. A sentry post of American soldiers was surprised and either captured or killed by bayonet. Billy Green is said to have bayoneted one of the American sentries personally, although this is not mentioned in any official British record.

The British continued advancing toward the American campfires in silence. However, at the repeated urging of Second Lieutenant Ephraim Shaler, the U.S. 25th Regiment, which had earlier been camped there had been moved from their previous exposed position, leaving behind only the cooks who were preparing the troops’ meal for the next day. Shaler had returned to the original position when he heard a sentry cry out as he was being tomahawked after being shot with an arrow from one of John Norton’s small band of First Nations warriors.

Around the same time, a group of Vincent’s staff officers who had come forward to watch the action let out a cheer. Their men took up the cheer, relieving their tension but depriving them of the element of surprise that was their primary advantage given the lopsided number of troops they faced. Instead of striking fear in their adversaries, the yells served to direct their attention to where the British were, helping the rousing troops to focus their attention and musket fire and making it nearly impossible for officers’ orders to be heard above the din. Any hope of catching the Americans unaware and bayoneting them in their sleep was now lost, and the British fixed their flints to their muskets and attacked. Lieutenant James FitzGibbon and three sergeants of the Light Company of the 49th were able to keep their men from taking up the shout “until a late stage of the affair, when firing on our side became general.” Gradually, the American troops began to recover from the initial surprise, recover their poise and start firing at the attacking British, at times from as far away as 200 yards (180 m). The American artillery also entered the fray after having previously been rendered useless due to the dampness settling into the powder.

Holding the high ground, the Americans were able to pour both musket and artillery fire into the exposed British line, and the line began to lose cohesion. For ammunition, the U.S. Twenty-Fifth Infantry was firing a variant of ‘buck and ball,’ in this instance firing 12 buckshot balls instead of the usual .65 calibre ball and 3 buckshot. This effectively turned their muskets into shotguns. Despite repeated charges by the British, the centre of the American line was holding and with the withering fire that the British line was sustaining, it was only a matter of time before they would have to retire.

A series of events coincided to change the course of the battle. General Winder ordered the U.S. 5th Infantry to protect the left flank. In doing so, he created a gap in the American line while at the same time leaving the artillery unsupported by infantry. At the same time, the American commander, John Chandler, hearing musket shots from the far right of the American line and having already sent his staff officers off with other orders, rode out himself to investigate. But his horse fell (or was shot – Chandler used both excuses at different times), and he was knocked out in the fall.

Major Charles Plenderleath, commanding the British 49th Regiment, was able to ascertain the position of the American artillery when two field guns fired in quick succession (43.218493°N 79.764344°W). Realizing the importance of possession of the guns, he gathered troops of FitzGibbon’s and other nearby companies to charge the guns before they could reload. First to volunteer for what could be a suicidal attack were 23-year-old Sergeant Alexander Fraser and his 21-year-old brother Peter, a corporal in FitzGibbon’s company, with 20 to 30 others. With bayonets fixed, Plenderleath led the charge up Gage’s Lane, volunteers following at a run, all fearing the next discharge from the cannons might annihilate them.

However, the U.S. 2nd Artillery under the command of Captain Nathaniel Towson at that moment responded to an order to cease firing, unaware of the British troops advancing on their position. The gunners were without arms of their own. The British charged the field guns, and when they were within a few yards of the gun emplacement, the men began yelling “Come on, Brant.” They set upon the helpless gunners, bayoneting man and horse, quickly overrunning and capturing the position before continuing on to engage the U.S. 23rd Infantry, which got off one round before the momentum of the 49th scattered them. The remaining British forces followed soon after.

At this point General Chandler, conscious again and aware of the commotion near his artillery but not of the reason, stumbled to the position to investigate. Thinking himself to be among the U.S. 23rd Infantry and intending to bring order back to the “new and undisciplined” troops, he realized to his horror that the soldiers were British and Alexander Fraser immediately took him prisoner at bayonet point. Winder very shortly thereafter fell prey to the same mistake. Realizing his error, he pulled his pistol, aiming it at Fraser who was poised to take him prisoner, as he had Chandler. With his musket pointed at Winder’s breast, Fraser told him menacingly “If you stir, sir; you die” and Winder was made prisoner also, proffering his sword to Fraser.

Major Joseph Lee Smith of the 25th U.S. Infantry was very nearly captured himself, but having made good his escape, alerted his men to make a quick withdrawal, thereby avoiding capture. Command of the American forces fell to cavalry officer Colonel James Burn. The cavalry charged forward firing, but once again in the darkness, the Americans suffered from a case of mistaken identity – they were firing on their own U.S. 16th Infantry, who were themselves wandering around without their commander and firing at each other in confusion. Shortly afterwards, the Americans fell back, convinced that they had been defeated, when in fact they still retained a superior force.

The battle lasted less than 45 minutes, but its intensity led to heavy casualties on both sides. As dawn broke, Harvey ordered the outnumbered British to fall back into the woods in order to hide their small numbers. They succeeded in carrying away two of the captured guns, and spiked two more, leaving them on the ground due to their lack of the ability to move them. They later watched from a distance as the Americans returned to their camp after daybreak, burned their provisions and tents, and retreated toward Forty Mile Creek (present day Grimsby, Ontario). By afternoon on 6 June, the British occupied the former site of the American camp.

For much of the morning of 6 June, General Vincent was missing. He had been injured after a fall from his horse during the battle and was found wandering in a state of confusion, convinced that the entire British force had been destroyed. He was finally located about seven miles from the battle scene; his horse, hat and sword all missing.

Casualties
The British casualty return gave 23 killed, 136 wounded, and 55 missing. Of the men reported as “missing,” 52 were captured by the Americans.

The American casualty return for 6 June gave 17 killed, 38 wounded, and 7 officers (2 brigadier-generals, 1 major, 3 captains and 1 lieutenant) and 93 enlisted men missing. The British report of prisoners taken on the morning of 6 June corresponds exactly to the American list of “missing” as concerns the number and ranks of the captured officers, but gives 94 enlisted men captured, indicating that one of the Americans who was presumed to have been killed in the casualty return was in fact captured. Of the seven officers who were captured on the morning of 6 June, three (Gen. Chandler, Captain Peter Mills and Captain George Steele) were wounded, which suggests that a substantial number of the enlisted prisoners may also have been wounded.
Killed in action at the Battle of Stoney Creek, 6 June 1813 (as listed on the Stoney Creek Battlefield Monument): Samuel Hooker, Joseph Hunt, James Daig, Thomas Fearnsides, Richard Hugill, George Longley, Laurence Mead, John Regler, John Wale, Charles Page, James Adams, Alexander Brown, Michael Burke, Henry Carroll, Nathaniel Catlin, Martin Curley, Martin Donnolly, Peter Henley, John Hostler, Edward Killoran, Edward Little, Patrick Martin, John Maxwell. The names of the American dead are not recorded.

Aftermath
Casualties in the fight had been roughly even, but the Americans had been shaken. It is most probable that if their generals had not been captured, the battle might have turned out quite differently. However, the British had a reasonable claim to victory in this battle. Under the de facto leadership of Colonel Harvey, and with some good fortune, they had successfully forced the Americans back toward the Niagara River. American forces would never again advance so far from the Niagara.

At Forty Mile Creek, the retreating American troops were met by reinforcements under Dearborn’s second-in-command, Major General Morgan Lewis. Dearborn had ordered Lewis to proceed to Stoney Creek to attack the British, but almost as the two groups met, the British fleet under Captain Sir James Lucas Yeo appeared in Lake Ontario. The American armed vessels under Commodore Isaac Chauncey had abruptly vanished when they heard that Yeo and troops under Lieutenant General Sir George Prevost had attacked their own base at Sackett’s Harbor, New York. (The Battle of Sackett’s Harbor was a defeat for the British, but large quantities of stores and equipment had mistakenly been set on fire by the Americans, hampering the Americans’ efforts to build large fighting vessels.)

With Yeo threatening his communications, which ran for 40 miles (64 km) along the edge of the lake, Lewis decided to retreat at once to Fort George, leaving a large quantity of tents, arms and supplies for the British to acquire. The British vigorously followed up the American withdrawal. A skirmish on 7 June brought in 12 more prisoners; a captain and 11 enlisted men. During 8–10 June, 80 more prisoners were taken, making a total American loss, during 6–10 June, of 16 killed, 38 wounded, and 192 captured: total 230 men.

The Americans retired into a small defensive perimeter around Fort George, where they remained until abandoning the fort and retreating across the Niagara River into U.S. territory in December.

Brigadier General Winder was later exchanged and subsequently commanded the Tenth Military District around Washington, where he attracted censure following the Burning of Washington.

Legacy
170px-Stoney_Creek_Battlefield_Monument The site of the battle is a National Historic Site of Canada. A stone tower, dedicated exactly 100 years after the battle by Queen Mary, commemorates the British soldiers who died at this location. The Gage farm house is also preserved and serves as a museum. The battle is re-enacted annually on the weekend closest to 6 June.

“More dearly than their lives they held those principles and traditions of British Liberty of which Canada is the inheritor.” – inscription on the Stoney Creek Battlefield Monument

The battle is commemorated in the song Billy Green from the 2000 album From Coffee House to Concert Hall by the late Canadian folk singer Stan Rogers.

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