THE NAPIER PAPERS

PHILIP V. BLAKE-HILL

A. THE FIRST SERIES

I N 1956 the Department of Manuscripts incorporated in its collections a series of papersof various members of the Napier family which had been bequeathed by Miss VioletBunbury Napier, youngest daughter of General William Craig Emilius Napier. Theycommence with those of the Hon. George Napier, 6th son of Francis, 6th Baron Napierof Merchiston, and continue with those of four of his sons, Charles, George, William,and Richard, and Sir Charles's daughter, Emily. They have been arranged in eighty-eight volumes of papers (Add. MSS. 49086-49172) and twenty-four charters, mostlyarmy commissions (Add. Ch. 75438, 75767, 75769-75790).

The first series is divided into sub-sections: (i) the Hon. George Napier, (2) Sir CharlesJames Napier, (3) Emily Cefalonia^ and William Craig Emilius Napier, (4) Sir GeorgeThomas Napier, (5) Sir William Francis Patrick Napier, and (6) Richard Napier. Therelationship between them is shown in the genealogical table. At the end is a sectionconsisting of papers of other members of the family.

I. Papers of George and Lady Sarah Napier

The Hon. George Napier married en secondes noces Lady Sarah Bunbury, daughter ofCharles, 2nd Duke of Richmond, and divorced wife of Sir Thomas Bunbury: she was thefamous beauty to whom George III had once proposed. Although some of her corre-spondence is included in this section, the majority of the papers are the official documentsand letters of Napier in his capacities as Comptroller of the Royal Laboratory, Woolwich(1782-3),^ Deputy Quartermaster General of the Army (1794 8), and Comptroller ofArmy Accounts, Ireland (1799-1804). The D.Q,M.G. papers mostly relate to the Frenchemtgre troops at Netley, Hampshire, while the Irish papers to a large extent refer to theinquiry, set up by order of the Lord Lieutenant and conducted by Napier, on the expendi-ture of public moneys by the Board of Works.

One of the most interesting volumes in this section is Add. MS. 49092, a small vellum-bound book containing the journal of George Napier from 15 March to 29 August 1779.It gives a day-to-day account of the voyage from Leith to New York, to which his company,the Grenadiers Company of the 80th Foot, was bound as reinforcements for GeneralClinton. His solicitude for his men and his terse comments on the lack of consideration

25

be

U

biioo

.i2 oo3 -

C L

X i

u Q

c c

au

O ::

•—lOG

EUJ

u -

9nT3

o *

ui ^

I

^S

shown by his superiors for the comfort and health of the soldiers and their families remindone of his son. Sir Charles James Napier, and it is quite clear from whom the latterinherited these same qualities. The journal also possesses some interest for the militaryhistorian in that it includes lists of provisions for the voyage on a daily basis^ and of thenumbers of troops engaged on various operations in America during 1779.

The remainder of this section comprises Napier's notebooks. Most cover his Woolwichperiod and describe experiments with gunpowder samples and methods of manufacturinggunpowder, shot, etc. Of the other two notebooks the first was compiled during the periodof his appointment as D.Q.M.G. and consists of a resume of part of Sir David Dundas'sPrinciples of Military Movements (2nd edition, published in 1795), and the second, writtenup in the early years of his Irish period, 1799-1801, contains memoranda of matters tobe attended to, copies of letters, etc.

2. Papers ofLieut.-Gen. Sir Charles James Napier

This section is supplemented by Add. MSS. 54510-63, incorporated in 1968, whichwill be briefly described later. In the present series, most of the special correspondence,apart from family letters, relates to Napier's Indian service, the earlier years being repre-sented to a greater extent in the second series. Two Governors-General of India areincluded. Lords Ellenborough and Dalhousie, as are such well-known soldiers as SirColin Campbell (afterwards Lord Clyde) and Sir Walter Ralegh Gilbert. The remainderof the special correspondence consists of Napier's correspondence with his sister LadyBunbury and other members of his family, except for that with his daughter Emily andher husband, which is included in the next section.

Sir Charles always regarded the conquest of Sind in 1843 as the highlight of his militarycareer: indeed, 17 February was 'Meeanee Day' to him for the remaining years of hislife. He gives a full account of the battle of Miani in two interesting letters, one to SirGeorge Arthur, the Governor of Bombay, written only two days later (Add.MS. 49115,fol. 49) and the other, embellished by a sketch-map, to his brother. Sir George Napier,on 24 February (Add. MS. 49168, fol. 22). Five weeks later, on 24 March, came the battleof Doaba, and in a letter of 30 March 1843 to his sister, Lady Bunbury, he describes thecondition of the province of Sind under the Amirs and the course of that decisive battle(Add. MS. 49109, fol. 144).

Two maps are of some interest. Both are of the country around Peshawar and thefirst, which is engraved and hand-coloured, shows the route taken in 1833 by JamesGilbert Gerard, the Bengal surgeon and explorer, from Herat to Peshawar and on toHusun Abdul. The other is a sketch-map of the southern Eusofyze territory, drawn inink by Captain Edward Barry Conolly, of the Bengal cavalry, assisted by SergeantCameron. It seems to have been made about 1840, the year in which Barry was killednear Cabul, since in 1841 there appeared from his pen a posthumous article in the Journalof the Asiatic Society of Bengal on the subject of the Eusofyze tribes.

Turning to the general correspondence, we find that it includes a number of interesting

• 27

topics, the saga of the £n.). 135.9^. being particularly worth recording. On 27 July 1821the War Office wrote to Napier to the effect that, according to their records, he wasoverpaid by this amount between 29 May 1806 (when he was appointed to the CapeCorps as Major) and 24 June of the same year. They therefore requested him to reimburseit to Greenwood, Cox & Co., the War Office bankers. Napier was furious. He endorsedthe letter, 'An infamous surcharge at a distance of 16 years', and added an avowal thatnot only did he not receive double pay but also that he clearly remembers having refusedto do so. This letter took nearly six months to reach the Ionian Islands and the unreliabilityof the postal system only served to complicate an already difficult situation betweenNapier and his masters in London. On 14 February 1822 the War Office, apparentlyfailing to realize the postal difficulties, sent a reminder, which did not arrive until 6 June."*Napier replied on the same day, but unfortunately the reply is not now extant in eitherthis or the second series. On 29 June Palmerston himself took up the matter and wroteto Sir Thomas Maitland, the Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands, requestinghim to order Napier to remit the money and 'further desire that officer to explain thecause of his inattention to the instructions already communicated to him under mydirections from this Office'. On 23 December Palmerston wrote to Sir Frederick Adam,the new High Commissioner, saying that the letter which Napier was said to have writtenin June had not been received and that Napier had still not remitted the sum to Greenwood,Cox & Co. Palmerston therefore asked Adam to order Napier to 'pay immediate attentionto the instructions he had received'. On 4 April 1823 Napier forwarded to Palmerstona copy of his June letter with a covering note saying, ironically, that he was 'not able tosecure the regularity of the post' and that Palmerston 'will surely acquit him of inatten-tion or delay'. He ended by requesting Palmerston either to counter the charge or toallow him to postpone further reply until after his return to England. On 9 AugustPalmerston returned to the attack with a letter to Adam, in reply to one which Adam hadwritten on 16 April, fixing a date, 24 December, before which the sum must be paid orproof given that Napier had accounted for it. The copy of this letter, presumably suppliedby Adam, was endorsed by Napier with a typical comment, 'I will see you damned first!I never drew the money and won't pay it.' The year 1824 opened with both sides reiteratingthe old arguments. Palmerston wrote to Adam (8 January), noting that no reply hadbeen received to his letter of 9 August and asking to be informed as to what steps hadbeen taken. The War Office clearly still had not realized the length of the delay in thepost, but by the time that this letter reached Adam, Napier was in London and on 11 April1824 wrote to Palmerston with copies of various documents from the Colonial AuditOffice which proved that he had not received double pay. The final communication fromPalmerston, dated 26 May, is in the second series of papers (Add.MS. 54540, fol. 153).It is in reply to Napier's letter of 11 April and curtly informed him that the War Officehad had a further report from Messrs. Greenwood, Cox & Co. and that 'repayment ofthe sum . . . is not now required'. As Napier tells us in a later endorsement to the originalletter of 27 July 1821, 'I found the whole blunder out! I went to War Office and discoveredthe papers proving that I had never overdrawn a shilling!' The mistake seems to have

28

arisen, as Napier originally suspected, in the chaotic condition of the records of thePaymaster, Royal Staff Corps, in 1806. So, after nearly three years of argument andfrayed tempers, Napier's firmness was successful and the War Office had to admit defeat.

Sir Charles's letter-books (unfortunately with many gaps) range from his early yearsas Resident in Cephalonia to the end of his tour of duty as Commander-in-Chief, India,a period of nearly thirty years (1822-50). Three letter-books are of considerable interest.One (Add. MS. 49126) concerns his quarrel with Sir Frederick Adam, the Lord HighCommissioner of the Ionian Islands, who, after Napier had left Cephalonia in 1830, hadaccused him of misrule and injustice, but without making any specific charges. Napier'sreforms had made enemies among certain landowners, whose complaints Adam hadtaken at face value without further inquiry. For nearly two years Napier endeavoured toextract details of the accusations from Lord Goderich, Secretary of State for War andColonies, but to no effect. Lord Hill, the Commander-in-Chief, offered him the post ofDeputy Adjutant General, Canada, and Goderich followed it up with the offer of theResidency at Zante, a higher position than his former Residency at Cephalonia, but herefused both and the letter-book ends with a diatribe against Goderich and all his works.

The other two letter-books of interest (Add. MSS. 49133, 49134) concern a privatematter. Napier tells the story in detail in the first of them. In 1827 he married Elizabeth,widow of Francis John Kelly. She was very much his senior and, in fact, already hada grown-up family, one son, a Captain in the Army, and three daughters, the youngestof whom had been married in 1809 to a Samuel Laing, of Orkney. Soon after his daughter'smarriage Kelly incurred large debts, which, to avoid scandal, Laing paid. He continuedto help the family in this way for some years, even paying the debts incurred in 1815 byCaptain Kelly's imprudence' (apparently Napier's euphemism for gambling debts). Theelder Kelly died in 1826, at about the same time as his son: Laing's generosity then ceased.Just before Napier and his wife returned to England in 1830 Napier received a demandfrom Laing for repayment of all the moneys advanced to the Kelly family between 1809and 1826, together with the accrued interest. Not unnaturally, Napier refused and allattempts on Laing's part to obtain the money failed. Napier became so incensed that heeven challenged Laing to a duel, but withdrew on the advice of his friends. Sir AlexanderJohnston and Lord Napier. Eventually on 8 and 11 November 1830 Napier wrote twoletters declining to have any further correspondence on the subject, after which the affairseems to have petered out.

Napier's journals (Add. MSS. 49137-40) are few in number but of considerable interest.The first three cover the period 1810-21, while the fourth, dating from March 1840 toMay 1847, seems to have been part of a larger work intended for publication but neverpublished. His excellence as a draughtsman is shown by his sketches of places in Portugal,made during the Peninsular War and illustrating his journal for April August 1810 (Add.MS.49137A). In the January of the preceding year he had been taken prisoner at thebattle of Coruna, but a year later was released on compassionate grounds on account ofhis mother's age and infirmity, rejoining his regiment in time for the battles of the Coaand Almeida. A plan of the latter engagement is included in this journal. Other sketches

29

of different places in Europe and India are to be found in his journal for 1821 (Add.MS.49i3()) and in his sketchbook (Add. MS. 49147), which dates from 1821 to c. 1847.

3. Papers of Emily CefaIonia Napier and William Craig Emilius Napier

Emily Cefalonia Napier, the younger of the two natural daughters of Sir CharlesNapier by his Greek mistress, Anastasia, was born in Cephalonia in 1827, just before herfather's return from England.5 She and her elder sister, Susan, accompanied him on allhis travels and both made advantageous marriages, Susan in 1844 to a young officer onSir Charles's staff. Captain William Montagu Scott McMurdo (afterwards a General anda K.C.B.), and Emily in 1845 to her own first cousin. Captain William Craig EmiliusNapier, who also finished his army career as a General.

The correspondence of Emily and her husband is mostly with other members of thefamily. The only special correspondent not even remotely connected with the Napiersis Emily Anne Eliza Shirreff, the pioneer of women's education and, in 1870, Mistressof Girton, whose letters cover a period of over thirty years (c. 1863-r. 1894) (Add.MS.49161). In addition to the general correspondence of Emily and William (Add.MSS.49162-5), there is also a volume of letters (Add. MS. 49167) addressed to their fifthdaughter, Emily Caroline, who died unmarried in 1919.

An interesting letter to Emily Napier is worth noting (Add. MS. 49163, fol. 15). It waswritten on 5 September 1864 by Captain Frederick Wollaston Hutton, while DeputyAssistant Quartermaster-General, Ireland, and it describes the conditions on board amerchantman of Green's company in the East India service during the early 1850s. Theletter was in reply to an inquiry from Emily Cefalonia Napier on behalf of an unnamednephew, probably Robert McMurdo. Hutton says that he cannot recommend the life.

For the first three voyages Green . . . charges premiums of £60, £50 and £40 respectively,and your nephew's pay would be i/^ a month, paid to the 'Dreadnought', floating hospital forsailors, in the Thames. The fourth voyage might be as 5th mate, when he would receive thegenerous pay of j£i a month for the 10 months he was afloat. . . . The next year he would receive£2 a month, and the next £3, living all this time in the midshipman's cabin. On his 7th voyagehe might with luck be made 2nd mate, and receive I think £s or ^7 a month. He would mostlikely remain second mate for two or three years, when he might be made chief mate at £10a month. The chances of being made captain are very problematical. Green will make no onecaptain who does not take shares in the ship. . . . Your nephew will meet few, if any, gentlemenamong the officers, and he will be lucky if he finds anyone he can make a friend of. . . . Thebullying is very bad. You may not believe me but it is true that a 'first voyager' seldom dare openhis lips, never at meals. I have seen table knives flung at an unfortunate 'first voyager's' head,who ventured to make a remark. . . . The morals of a midshipman's berth are fearful far worsethan the forecastle or a barrack room.

He goes on to describe the onerous duties, 'just the same as the sailors', which a mid-shipman has to perform, and the unappetizing, monotonous food - 'pork or pea soup oneday, salt beef or duff the next for four months. . . . Milk of course was unheard of from

30

the beginning of a voyage to the end, and our allowance of sugar only lasted for two orthree days. . . . I would far rather a son of mine enlisted than that he went into Green'sservice.' Hutton's career in the army, after leaving the mercantile marine, was brief butnot without interest. He was commissioned as an Ensign in the 23rd Foot (the RoyalWelch Fusiliers) in May 1855, in the middle of the Crimean War, becoming Lieutenantten months later. He served in India during the Mutiny, being present at the reliefof Lucknow. He attained his captaincy in December 1862, and in July 1864 becameD.A.Q.M.G., Ireland, based at Dublin Castle, where the letter referred to above waswritten. He sold out in the following year.

4. Papers of General Sir George Thomas Napier

In arranging a collection of papers such as this, where several members of a familyare involved, the normal practice is to divide it into sections, each under the name of theowner, who would be the recipient of the letters, not the writer. With the first volumeof the present section, however, this practice has had to be set aside. It consists of lettersfrom Sir George Napier^ to his brothers, one of whom (Henry Edward) does not possessa section of his own in these papers, while the other (Sir William) is not represented by anyother correspondence.

Of particular interest are those letters which deal with the presumed death of CharlesJames Napier at the battle of Coruna in January 1809. Some, in Section i above, areaddressed to his mother. Lady Sarah Napier, and others, in the present section, to hisbrother George.

The earliest letter on the subject is from Captain William Clunes, of the 50th Foot(at that time Charles's regiment), who was in the battle and who wrote to George on29 January, giving an account of the circumstances, as far as he knew them to be correct:

I loose [sic] not a moment in letting you know whatever came to my knowledge relative to thedeath of your ever to be lamented Brother and my sincere Friend. After the 50th had drawn theenemy out of the village in front of our position, I myself saw him and told him that MajorStanhope was killed, but I never saw him more, and it was not untill [sic] the Regt had advancedahout 500 yards up the hill which the French occupied that he fell. He was shot in the Breast.Ensign Moore of ours who I fear is dying of his wounds, and a Grenadier of my Com^ werenext to him when he was wounded. These are the only people [who] speak positively of hisdeath. (Add. MS. 49169, fol. 7.)

However, the family were not satisfied and made further inquiries, both officially and inprivate. Lieutenant William Bower, also of the 50th Foot, in a letter of 11 February toGeorge Napier (Add. MS. 49169, fol. 16) described how a private of the Grenadiers 'sawhim sitting or lying on a bush . . . wounded both on the arm and the body. He howeverdoes not say anything to confirm the report of his death.' A letter written on 22 Marchby Lieut.-Col. (afterwards Major-General Sir) George Townshend Walker, then onhalf-pay, quotes one which he had just received from a Captain Bentley, relating how

31

a private of the 5otb and a corporal of the 43rd had made their escape after the battle,disguised as Spaniards, and had seen Napier a prisoner, riding a mule and wounded inthe head and arm (Add. MS. 49169, fol. 30). It would appear, however, that the familyhad already heard strong rumours of Charles's possible survival, since there exists acopy of a letter from George to the French general Lefevre, c. 17 March, requestingpermission for his brother William to visit the prisoners taken at Coruna, to ascertainwhether or not Charles was amongst them (Add. MS. 49169, fol. 27). A few days later on20 March Sir George Rupert of the Transport Office wrote to Lady Sarah acknowledgingthe receipt of her letter enclosing a message for Charles to be forwarded to the Ministrede la Marine in Paris (Add. MS. 49090, fol. 182).

On 22 March a Major Hamilton Rose, of the 42nd Foot, wrote to Lord Clancarty(Add. MS. 49090, fol. 183), T h e account she [Lady Sarah] had heard respecting myhaving seen him [Charles] after the action is not correct', but he added that an officertold him that he himself had seen Napier alive under the shelter of a bush, thus confirmingthe account given by the grenadier in Bower's letter. Meanwhile, on 20 March, Charleshad regained his liberty, having given his parole not to rejoin his regiment until officiallyexchanged for a French prisoner-of-war, and he reached England at the end of the month.Among the letters of congratulation on his release was one from the famous surgeonJames Moore, the brother of Sir John Moore, Napier's former commander who waskilled in the battle (i-. 31 March: Add.MS. 49090, fol. 189).

5. Papers of General Sir William Francis Patrick Napier

There is no correspondence in this section, its only volume consisting of an early draftof Sir William Napier's Conquest ofScinde, which was published in 1845 and 1846 as ananswer to his brother's critics.^

6. Papers of Rtchard Napier

The single volume which comprises this section is divided into two parts: (i) corre-spondence with Richard Baily and his wife and eldest son, 1817-48, and (ii) generalcorrespondence, 1809-68.

Richard Baily, a clerk in the War Office, seems to have been one of those unfortunateindividuals who, often through no fault of their own, are constantly in trouble. Just asconstantly he was in financial straits, usually through his own lack of prudence. The WarOffice had made him redundant in 1820 and three years later we find him unhappilysituated in a junior capacity in the Excise Office at Reading. Eventually he left Englandand settled in Hanover with his family, but he met with no greater success there thanhe had in England. From time to time he importuned Napier for assistance, mainlyfinancial, which was provided. Finally, in January 1833, he died as the result of injuriessustained in a street accident in Hamburg. To his credit, Baily had always done his bestto repay some of the capital and interest, but Napier tells us in a note, written after he

32

had finally severed all connections with the family, that he ended by being out of pocketto the tune of ^̂ 1,200.

About a year after Richard Baily's death, Napier agreed to advance money to his eldestson, Richard Adye Baily, to enable him to emigrate to the United States and start a farmin Michigan. He sailed in March 1834, but by October of the following year he was backin England, never having started the farm for which the money was intended. Indeed,he had not even left New York, owing, as he later told Napier, to a combination ofcircumstances - ill health and the necessity to await the arrival of a further remittancefrom England. All this time he was living on Napier's loan and, when that was nearlyexhausted, he took a steerage passage back to England with his American wife, whom hehad married shortly before his departure. In the following year, 1836, he seems to havesettled down, since he then obtained a post as a clerk in the Accountant's Office of theBank of England. However, in 1848, financial troubles again beset him and he tried onceagain to borrow money from Napier, but this time without success. The correspondencecloses abruptly on this note. However, as the memorandum referred to above suggests,Napier was clearly sorry for the family and in all fairness explained that the letters of theelder Baily if'read on their own, might make him seem a bad creditor'.

The remainder of the volume comprises Richard Napier's general correspondence,which spanned no less than sixty years, from 1809 until his death in 1868.

7. Papers of other members of the Napier Family

The last volume of the papers^ consists of letters (1805-1933) mostly written to or byvarious members of the family who are not represented in the above sections. Theyinclude letters to Sir William Napier and Captain Henry Edward Napier, R.N., LadyLouisa Conolly, Lady Bunbury, Sir William McMurdo (husband of Sir Charles'sdaughter Susan) and various younger members of the family, ending with a letter, writtenas late as 1933, from Emily's son, Charles James Napier, to his sister Hester.

SYNOPSIS

I. Papers of George and Lady Sarah Napier

Add. MSS. Vol.

49086, 49087 I, II Correspondence and papers of George Napier as Comp-

troller of the Royal Laboratory, Woolwich; Apr.-Oct.1782; Nov. 1782-3

49088 111 Correspondence and papers of George Napier as:(1) Deputy Quartermaster General; 1794-8(2) Comptroller of Army Accounts, Ireland; 1798-1804

49089 IV (i) Correspondence of George and Sarah Napier withFrancis, 2nd Earl of Moira; [?i792]-i8o9

33

[49089]

4909049091

4909-2

4910349104

V

VI

VII

V I I I - X V I I

X V I I I

XIX

(2) Correspondence with Elizabeth, Dowager Countessof Moira; 1789-1805

(3) Letters to their eldest son, Charles James Napier;1801-9

General correspondence; [c. i765]-i8i7George Napier's 'List of Papers, Official and Private',

1795-1801 with additions in 1802 and 1803Journal of George Napier's voyage from Leith to New

York in 1779Notebooks of George Napier as Comptroller, Royal

Laboratory, Woolwich; 1782, 1783Notebook as D.QM.G. ; 1795Notebook as Comptroller of Army Accounts, Ireland;

I799-I80I

2. Papers of Lieut.-Gen. Sir Charles James Napier

49105

49106

49107

49108

XX

XXI

XXII

XXIII

49109, 49110 XXIV, xxv

XXVI49111

49112-49117 xxv 11-XXXII

49118 XXXIII

49119 XXXIV49120-49131 xxxv-XLVi49132 xLvn

Correspondence with Edward, Earl of Ellenborough,Governor-General of India; 1842-53

Correspondence with James, Marquess of Dalhousie,Governor-General of India; 1849-51

Correspondence with Capt. Frederick Robertson, R.A.;

1833-53Letters from:(1) Sir Colin Campbell [Lord Clyde]; 1850-3(2) Sir Walter Ralegh Gilbert; 1849, 1850(3) Lieut.-Col. Reginald Ranald Macdonald, D.A.G.,

Bombay; 1842-4(4) Lieut.-Col.John Pitt Kennedy; 1850-3, preceded

by verses [?i829], addressed to C.J.Napier(5) Lieut. Gore Boland Munbee, Bombay Engineers;

1842,1843Correspondence with Lady Bunbury (sister); 1801-43;

1844-53Correspondence with:(1) Sir William Napier (brother); 1834-53(2) Richard Napier (brother); 1813-53(3) Various members of his family; 1801-53General correspondence; 1801-23; 1824-30; 1831-9;

1842-9; 1850, 1851; 1852,1853Two maps of Peshawar and the surrounding country;

1833; [r. 1840]Register of official letters received in Cephalonia; 1818-25Letter-books; 1822-50List of the contents of Add. MSS. 49120-49125, and of

other letter-books not now in the collection

34

49134 XLViii, XLIX49135 L49136 LI49137A-4914O LI I -L VI4914I-49144 LVIl-LX49145 LXI49146 LXII

LXIII

Letter-books relating to the Laing affair; 1827-30Letter-book relating to the Aubigny Estates; 1833-41Constitution of the Ionian IslandsJournals; 1810; 1810, 1811;1819, 1820; 1821;1845-7Notebooks; 1808-52Notebook on mathematics; 1815Miscellaneous literary papers, mostly by Sir C. J. Napier;

1824-49Miscellaneous drawings by Napier; i82i-[ir. 1842]

3. Papers of Emily Cefalonia Napier and her husband. General William Craig Emilius Napier

49148-49150 LXIV-LXVI

49151-49156 LXVII-LXXII

49157

49158

49159

LXXIII

LXXIV

LXXV

49160

49161

49162,

49164,

49166

49167

49163

49165

LXXVI

LXXVII

LXXVIII, LXXIX

LXXX, LXXXI

LXXXII

LXXXIII

Correspondence with Sir C.J.Napier; [?i833]-i847;1848-Mar. 1850; Apr. 1850-3

Correspondence of Emily Napier with her husband,William; 1844; 1845; 1846-54; 1855; 1856-63;1864-9

Correspondence with Susan and William McMurdo;

(1) Correspondence with Louisa Mary Napier; [.̂ 1835]-1855

(2) Letters from Emily Napier to her daughter, EmilyCaroline; 1878-85

(1) Correspondence with Sir G.T.Napier; 1842-55(2) Correspondence with Richard Napier; 1838 64(3) Correspondence with Lady Bunbury; i844-[?i862](1) Letters from Capt. John Moore Napier; 1843(2) Family correspondence; [.^i835]-i892Letters from:(1) Sarah Craig; i845-[?i882](2) Emily Anne Eliza ShirrefT; [.?i863]-[?i894]General correspondence of Emily Cefalonia Napier;

1837-63; 1864-1906General correspondence of William Craig Emilius

Napier; 1835-59; 1860-1902Map of Easthampstead Plains, co. Berks., drawn by

W.C.E.Napier;[f. 1835]General correspondence of Emily Caroline Napier;

[before 1873]-1903

4. Papers of General Sir George Thomas Napier

49168 LXXXIV Letters to:(1) Sir Charles James Napier; 1834-53(2) Sir William Francis Patrick Napier; 1828-52

(3) Capt.Henry Edward Napier, R.N.; 1824-49(4) Richard Napier; 1810-55

4 9 1 ^ Lxxxv General correspondence; 1809-55

5. Papers of General Sir William Francis Patrick Napier

49170 Lxxxvi Early draft of Sir W.Napier's The Conquest of Scinde,published in 1845 6

6. Papers of Richard Napier

49171 Lxxxvii (i) Letters from Richard Baily, of the War Office, andcorrespondence with his wife and eldest son; 1817-48

(2) General correspondence; 1809-68

7. Papers of the Napier Family

49172 LXXXVIII General correspondence of various members of thefamily; 1805-1933

B. THE SECOND SERIES

In 1968 a further series, consisting only of Sir Charles Napier's papers, was acquired andarranged in fifty-four volumes (Add. MSS. 54510-63). A certain amount of duplicationand overlapping with those of Section 2 of the first series was inevitable, since it was notpossible completely to rationalize the arrangement owing to the fact that the first serieshad been incorporated and divided into a fixed and unalterable number of volumes sometwelve years before the second was acquired. Nevertheless, a minor rearrangement waspossible - the transfer of the manuscript copy of part of Sir Charles's Defects, Civil andMilitary, of the Indian Government from Add. MS. 49170 to 54560. The latter volumealready contained an imperfect draft of the book and it was only logical to place bothmanuscripts together, particularly as the change was capable of being effected withoutdifficulty.

The supplementary papers begin with a volume relating to the American prize money.During the American war of 1812-14 Napier was in command of a detachment of the102nd Regiment of Foot and the 2nd Battalion, Royal Marines, attached to the squadronof Rear-Admiral Sir George Cockburn. In July 1813 they captured two American ships,the Anaconda and the Atlas, for which feat the prize money was awarded. The PrinceRegent's warrant for the award was dated 24 May 1816, but it was not until February1819 that details of the distribution were finally settled. This volume is followed by oneof special correspondence from two of his colleagues in the Ionian Islands, where he wasfirst (1819-22) inspecting field officer and then (1822-30) Resident of Cephalonia. Afternearly a decade in the military wilderness, Napier was next appointed to the command

36

of the Northern District during the Chartist troubles and three volumes of special corre-spondence relate to this period (1839 41), being mostly reports in the form of letters.Some of the correspondents (e.g. Sir Colin Campbell and Lieut.-Col. Wemyss) continueinto one or both of his periods in India. There are two volumes of formal reports andreturns for the Northern District, one of which is an extra large volume also containingpapers from his Indian periods which are too large for inclusion in the relevant volumes.The years of his first command in India (1841-7) are covered by volumes of the specialcorrespondence and parts of the two volumes of army returns. The first of the volumescontains correspondence with two Governors-General, Lords Ellenborough^ andHardinge, and the second comprises correspondence with Sir George Arthur, theGovernor of Bombay. The later Indian period (1849-51), when he was Commander-in-Chief, India, is represented only by a few army returns, apart from some letters in theCampbell volume and in the general correspondence.

The second part of the papers consists of family and private correspondence. All hisbrothers and their wives are represented, together with Napier's second wife, Frances,his daughters and their husbands, and other members of his family. These occupy twelvevolumes and are followed by three volumes of correspondence with friends and one withhis stockbrokers and agents. Twenty-one volumes of general correspondence, both officialand private, span no less than fifty years between 1802 and 18 51. Then follow four volumesof miscellaneous papers - literary fragments, commonplaces, accompts, etc.^^

One of the more interesting documents in this series is a letter written by Napier tohis daughters on 16 February 1843, the eve of the battle of Miani (Add. MS. 54532,fol. 65). It is addressed 'Susan and Emily Napier in case of my death' and begins, 'I amgoing to give Battle to a large Army with a very small one tomorrow or next day and maybe killed'. After the battle he added to the back of the letter the names of three of hisopponents: ^Golam Ali Talpoor, doubtful. Ali Khan Talpoor, killed. Jaffa Khan Murrykilled.'

An amusing example of Napier in one of his more peppery moods is his endorsementto a letter of 3 October 1846 from a certain noble Lord (Add. MS. 54555, fol. 140b):Tou d d hypocritical son of a bitch, I won't answer you.'" The collections aboundwith similar remarks, showing how incapable Napier was of suffering fools gladly.'^

The hterary manuscripts in this series (Add. MS. 54560) are very fragmentary. Thereexist only the first and second drafts of Appendix i and a draft of Appendix 35 of Napier'sThe Colonies (1833), some very rough notes for a speech, delivered apparently after theconquest of Sind in 1843, and imperfect drafts of his Defects, Givil and Military, of theIndian Government, edited and published in 1853, after Sir Charles's death, by his brother.Sir William Napier. To this last manuscript has been added the copy from the first series,as mentioned above.

37

SYNOPSIS

I. Official correspondence and papers of Sir C.J, Napier

Add. MSS.

54510

5 4 5 "

5451254513

Vol

I

II

III

IV

54514

5451554516

54517

54518

54519

54520

5452 I

54522

VI

V I I

V111

IX

X

XI

X l l

M i l

Correspondence and papers relating to the AmericanPrize Money; 1816*19

Letters from:(1) Capt.J.Macphail; 1823-48(2) Sir J.Rudsdell; 1824-32, n.d.Letters from Lieut.-CoI.T.J. Wemyss; 1839-48Letters from:(1) G. M. Phillipps on behalf of Lord John Russell,

followed by a letter from Napier to Russell; 1839,1840

(2) Sir Willoughby Gordon; 1839-46(3) F. Barlow; 1840Letters from:(1) Sir Colin Campbell [Lord Clyde]; 1839-50(2) Lieut.-Col. H.Custance; 1839-41(3) Capt. E.B. Patten; 1840(4) Capt. J.H. Rutherfurd; 1840, 1841Reports on Barracks, Northern District; 1840(1) Confidential Reports, Northern District; 1839(2) Monthly Reports, Northern District; 1840(3) Miscellaneous Returns (extra large, from 54521 and

54522); 1843-50(1) Letters from Edward, Earl of EUenborough,

Governor-General of India; 1846-9(2) Correspondence with Henry, ist Viscount Hardinge,

Governor-General of India; 1844-8Correspondence with Sir George Arthur, Governor of

Bombay; 1842-6, n.d.(r) Correspondence with Lord FitzRoy Somerset; 1831-

49.(2) Letters from Lieut.-Col. J.L.Pennefather; 1842-9(1) Letters from L.C.C.Rivett and his wife, Juliana;

1840-8, n.d.(2) Letters from J.Ramsay; 1842-8, n.d.(3) Correspondence with General Sir James Simpson;

1844-8(1) Adjutant-General's Returns, India; 1843, 1850(2) Returns of Troops, India; 1843-50(1) Ordnance Returns, India; 1843(2) Commissariat Returns, India; 1843(3) Quartermaster-General's Returns, India; 1850(4) Sick Returns, India; 1850

38

2. Family and Private Correspondence

54523

54524

54525

54526

54527

54528

54529-54531

54532

54533

54534

5453554536

XIV

XV

XVI

XVII

X V I I I

XIX

xx-xxii

X X I I I

XXIV

xxv

XXVI

XXVII

Letters from:(i) Frances Napier (second wife); 1837-48, n.d.{2) Louisa Mary Napier (half-sister); 1822-49, n.d.Letters from:(1) Sir George Napier (brother) and his wives, Margaret

and Frances; 1812-49(2) Capt. John Moore Napier (nephew) and wife, Maria

(step-daughter); 1835-43(3) Sarah Clarke (niece) and husband, T.H. Shadwell

Clarke; 1836-48Correspondence with Sir William Napier (brother);

L 1831-Sept. 1848(1) Correspondence with Sir William Napier; II. Oct.

1848-9, n.d.(2) Letters from his wife, Caroline Amelia Napier;

Letters from Richard Napier (brother) and his wife, AnneLouisa {formerly Staples); 1809-48

Letters from Henry Edward Napier (brother) and hiswife, Caroline; 1826-48

Letters from Emily Bunbury (sister) and her husband.Sir Henry Edward Bunbury; 1813-29; 1830-44;1845-9

Letters from:(1) Susan Sarah McMurdo (daughter); 1833-49, "-d-,

including a letter written to both his daughters byNapier

(2) Sir William Montagu Scott McMurdo; 1842-8Letters from:(1) Emily Cefalonia Napier; 1839-49(2) William Craig Emilius Napier; 1843-9(1) Letters from Adm. Sir Charles Napier (cousin) and

his wife, Eliza; 1835-48(2) Letters from Sir Alexander Johnston (cousin);

1826-46(3) General family correspondence; 1801-49Letters from John Pitt Kennedy; 1824-49, n.d.(1) Letters from Capt. Frederick Robertson, R.A.; 1820-

48, n.d.(2) Correspondence with Edward Curling; 1828-48(3) Letters from Thomas Falconer; 1836, 1837(4) Letters from J.Hamilton Browne (wine-merchant);

1840-8

39

54537

54538

xxvni

X X I X

Letters from:(1) Maria Byng; 1833-48, n.d.(2) Eliza Kelly (step-daughter); 1834-49(3) Frances Turner; 1834-7, n.d.(1) Correspondence with Messrs. Drummond (stock-

brokers); 1818-45(2) Letters from Charles Hibbert& Co. (agents); 1841-8

n.d.

3. General Correspondence

54539-54559 XXX-L General correspondence; 1802-21; 1822-6; 1827-June1830; Aug. 1830-July 1833; Aug. 1833-1835; 1836-Mar. 1839; Apr.-Aug. 1839; Sept.-Dec. 1839; Jan.-May 1840; June-Dec. 1840; 1841; 1842-May 1843;June-Oct. 1843; Nov. 1843-July 1844; Aug. 1844-June 1845; July 1845-Mar. 1846; Apr-Dec. 1846;1847; Mar.-July 1848; Aug.-Dec. 1848; 1849-51,n.d.

4. Miscellaneous Papers

54560 LI

54561 L I I

545625456354564

LIUL I V

LV

Literary fragments, published or intended for publica-tion; 1830-50

(1) Miscellaneous military papers; 1817-50, n.d.(2) Miscellaneous political and other papers; 1827-39Commonplaces; [WM. i8oi]-i839, n.d.Accompts; 1805-47Correspondence and papers of Capt. W.H. Williams;

1890-3, n.d.

1 Whenever Emily Napier signed her full name, shespelled her second name with an 'f\ 'Cefalonia',though printed sources invariably spell it'Cephalonia',

2 The official title, as given by the commission ofI Apr. 1782, was "Comptroller of His Majesty'sFireworks'.

3 e.g. 'Tuesday, 4 Lbs. Biscuit, 4 Gils, [gallons]Small Beer, 8 Lbs. Beef.

4 Napier's endorsement on his letter is to theeffect that he received it on 6 June and repliedon the same day. However, the copy ofPalmerston's letter to Adam of 23 Dec. 1822gives the date of the reply as 5 June, but asthe copyist had already made one mistake -

1823 for 1822 in the date of the letter - it wouldbe better to rely upon Napier's own endorse-ment.

5 He had been recalled to England by the death ofhis mother. Lady Sarah, in t826.

6 It will be noticed that Sir George's writing radi-cally changed early in his career, owing to thefact that he lost his right arm at the battle ofCiudad Rodrigo in January 1812.

7 There is a misprint on p. 225 of the printed ver-sion, which reads, *As early as the 20th of Dec-ember, he had informed Lord Ellenborough hethought the desert was the place to strike at'. Thedate given in the manuscript is the 2nd not the20th.

8 It should be pointed out that since the paperswere rearranged in May 1972, certain modifica-tions have been carried out. One was the elimina-tion of the volume of maps, most of which weretransferred to the Map Library.

9 Most of Lord Ellenborough's letters in thisseries were written after his retirement from theGovernor-Generalship,

10 The Williams Papers (Add. MS. 54564), pre-sented with the second series by the RoyaTlUnited Service Institution, do not in fact belongto the Napier Papers,

ti The euphemistic dash in 'd d' is Napier's.12 On Sir Charles and his brothers see P, Napier,

Revolution and the Napier Brothers, 1820-1840(1973)-