Britain Against Napoleon

by Roger Knight

  12. Burnham and McGuigan, British Army against Napoleon, pp. 7–9.

  13. Ward, ‘French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars’, p. 18, quoting TNA, WO 30/68, 1–72; 30/76, 106–203.

  14. Glover, Britain at Bay, pp. 151–8, quoting York to Keith, 18 Oct. 1803, TNA, WO 30/75; Keith to York, 21 Oct. 1803.

  15. Cookson, Armed Nation, pp. 42–4.

  16. 19 Aug. 1803, Ross, Cornwallis, Vol. III, p. 500; Cookson, Armed Nation, pp. 42–4.

  17. Hanger, Menaced Invasion, p. 73.

  18. Cookson, Armed Nation, p. 46, quoting York to Hobart, 25 Aug. 1803, National Archives of Scotland, Melville Papers, GD51/1/982, 1.

  19. Wheeler and Broadley, Napoleon and Invasion, Vol. II, p. 129.

  20. Ward, ‘Defence Works’, p. 21, quoting duke of York to Lord Hobart, 25 Aug. 1803, TNA, WO 30/76.

  21. Bunbury, Narratives, pp. 176–7; Ward, ‘Defence Works’, p. 2.

  22. Fedorak, ‘In Defence of Great Britain’, p. 92.

  23. Linch, ‘East Sussex and Invasion’, pp. 53, 56, quoting 23 Aug. 1803, TNA, HO 58/88, 23.

  24. Colley, Britons, pp. 378–81.

  25. Rodger, Command of the Ocean, p. 639.

  26. Rodger, ‘War as an Economic Activity’, pp. 5–6.

  27. Jupp, Grenville, p. 369; Muir, Defeat of Napoleon, pp. 14.

  28. Cookson, Armed Nation, p. 50; Fedorak, ‘Defence of Great Britain’, p. 96.

  29. Linch, ‘East Sussex and Invasion’, p. 53, quoting Military General Meeting, 14 Jan. 1803, East Sussex Record Office, LCG/EW1.

  30. Fontana, ‘British/Irish Militia’, p. 131.

  31. Haythornthwaite, ‘Militia Insurance’, p. 57.

  32. Muir, Defeat of Napoleon, quoting Fortescue, County Lieutenancies, pp. 196–7; Linch, Wellington’s Army, p. 50.

  33. Hall, ‘Addington at War’, p. 308.

  34. See Colley, Britons, pp. 314–15, for the progress of the Buckinghamshire Militia.

  35. Digest of Services 1803–1908, West Essex Militia, TNA, WO 68/257.

  36. Militia Pay Lists, TNA, WO 13/2123.

  37. Haythornthwaite, ‘Volunteer Force’, p. 193; Cookson, Armed Nation, pp. 77–80.

  38. Clammer, ‘Dorset Volunteers’, pp. 10, 14.

  39. Haythornthwaite, ‘Volunteer Force’, pp. 193–5.

  40. Rogers, ‘Sea Fencibles’, p. 53; Cookson, Armed Nation, p. 9; Colley, ‘Reach of the State’, pp. 170–72, 181; Newman, ‘London Defence Volunteers’, p. 82.

  41. Glover, Britain at Bay, pp. 44, 46.

  42. Harvey, Collision of Empires, p. 180; Wheeler and Broadley, Napoleon and Invasion, Vol. II, p. 131, both quoting Gentleman’s Magazine, 1803, pp. 974–7.

  43. Glover, Peninsular Preparation, p. 57, quoting 6 Apr. 1804, HO 50/397.

  44. Fedorak, ‘In Defence of Great Britain’, pp. 101, 103; Glover, Peninsular Preparation, pp. 52–8.

  45. Ward, ‘Defence Works’, p. 19, quoting TNA, WO 30/70, p. 235.

  46. Glover, Britain at Bay, p. 210, quoting 14 Mar. 1804, TNA, HO 50/397.

  47. Linch, ‘British Volunteer Movement’, p. 212.

  48. Yarker, Georgian Faces, pp. 64–5; Clammer, ‘Dorset Volunteers’, p. 11.

  49. Royal Monmouth and Brecon Order Book, 23 Apr. 1808.

  50. Hudson, ‘Volunteers in Sussex’, pp. 167, 170.

  51. Vine, London’s Lost Route, pp. 36–7.

  52. Linch, ‘East Sussex and Invasion’, p. 56.

  53. Ibid., p. 57, quoting 23 Sept. 1803, Lord Gage Papers, Sussex Archaeological Society Collection, East Sussex Record Office, SAS/GM/26.

  54. Ibid., quoting 7 Dec. 1803, East Sussex Record Office, SHR 91; Hudson, ‘Volunteers in Sussex’, pp. 167, 173.

  55. Linch, ‘East Sussex Volunteers’, p. 58; Hudson, ‘Volunteers in Sussex’, p. 173.

  56. Rogers, ‘Sea Fencibles’, p. 45, quoting 43 Geo. III, c. 62, 24 June 1803.

  57. Ibid., pp. 44–5.

  58. Steel’s Navy List, corrected to Nov. 1804, p. 42.

  59. Rogers, ‘Sea Fencibles’, p. 43.

  60. Ibid., p. 46, quoting TNA, ADM 1/581, fols. 19, 53, 71.

  61. 18 Sept. 1805, Lloyd, Keith Papers, Vol. III, p. 153.

  62. 1 Sept. 1803, NMM, ADM BP/23b.

  63. 13 Sept. 1803, Croker Papers, NMM, CRK/13/45.

  64. 18 Oct. 1803, NMM, ADM BP/23b.

  65. Haythornthwaite, ‘Volunteer Force’, p. 199.

  66. Annual Pay and Musters, Somerset Place Volunteers, 1804, TNA, WO 13/4465.

  67. Woodman, ‘Trinity House Volunteer Artillery’, pp. 393–4.

  68. Crimmin, ‘Trinity House Artillery’, p. 92.

  69. Cookson ‘Service without Politics?’, p. 351.

  70. Makepeace, East India Company’s London Workers, p. 126; Bank of England, M6/32 papers from Freshfields.

  71. ‘Soldiers and Soldiering’ website, Keith Oliver, quoting TNA, HO 50/357, and Shropshire Record Office, Leeke Papers, 81/323.

  72. Glover, Peninsular Preparation, p. 237.

  73. Hanger, Menaced Invasion, pp. 147–8.

  74. Wheeler and Broadley, Napoleon and Invasion, Vol. II, pp. 105–6.

  75. Guy, ‘Pendennis Castle’, p. 119; Boyden, ‘Fire-Beacons’, p. 131.

  76. Glover, Britain at Bay, p. 210, quoting General Fox to Calvert, 14 Mar. 1804, TNA, HO 50/397.

  77. 18 Dec. 1803, Ross, Cornwallis, Vol. III, p. 509; Glover, Peninsular Preparation, p. 237.

  78. Newman, ‘London Volunteer Regiments’, p. 75.

  79. Collins, War and Empire, pp. 234–5.

  80. Navickas, ‘Manchester and Liverpool in 1803’, p. 64.

  81. Hanger, Menaced Invasion, pp. 139–42.

  82. Cookson, ‘English Volunteer Movement’, p. 875; Navickas, ‘Manchester and Liverpool in 1803’, p. 62.

  83. Newman, ‘London Volunteer Regiments’, p. 85, quoting Anon., A Few Lines Relative to the Parish of Hackney, Hackney Archives Department M3598.

  84. Fedorak, ‘In Defence of Great Britain’, p. 99, quoting 1 July 1803, TNA, WO 1/625.

  85. Cookson, Armed Nation, p. 33, quoting Dropmore,Vol. IV, pp. 47–8.

  86. Bunbury, Narratives, p. 177.

  87. Linch, ‘East Sussex and Invasion’, p. 60; Bunbury, Narratives, p. 176.

  88. Douet, Barracks, p. 75.

  89. 24 Mar. 1805, Paget, Paget Papers, Vol. II, p. 169.

  90. Bunbury, Narratives, p. 179fn.

  91. 9. Sept. 1804, Thorne, House of Commons, Vol. V, p. 496.

  92. Watson to Sturges Bourne, 4 Oct. 1805, commissary-general’s secret letter-book, TNA, WO 58/170.

  93. Hicks, ‘Napoleon, Tilsit’, pp. 126–7.

  94. Glover, Britain at Bay, quoting from Correspondance de Napoléon 1er, Nos. 13,708, Mar. 1808; 16,916, 17 Sept. 1810; 18,039, 16 Aug. 1811; The Times, 11 July 1811.

  95. Ward, ‘Defence Works’, p. 27.

  96. Seymour, Ordnance Survey, p. 24; Ward, ‘Defence Works’, p. 21, quoting Ross, Cornwallis, Vol. II, p. 507.

  97. Saunders, Fortress Britain, pp. 142–4.

  98. Ward, ‘Defence Works’, p. 20.

  99. Ibid., quoting Chatham to Camden, 30 Dec. 1804, TNA, WO 783.

  100. 43 Geo. III, c. 55, sec. 10, quoted in Ward, ‘Defence Works’, p. 22; Oman, Moore, Chapter 8.

  101. Ward, ‘Defence Works’, p. 24.

  102. Ward, ‘French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars’, p. 26.

  103. Ward, ‘Defence Works’, p. 28.

  104. Holland Rose and Broadley, Dumouriez and the Defence of England, p. 216.

  105. Knight, Pursuit of Victory, pp. 408–16.

  106. Ward, ‘French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars’, p. 22, quoting TNA, WO 68, pp. 97–107.

  107. Ward, ‘Defence Works’, p. 31.

  108. Ibid., p. 32; Mead, ‘Martello Towers’, p. 213.

  109. Saunders, Fortress Britain, pp. 141–3; Coad, Dymchurch Martello Tower, pp. 10–12; Clements, Martello Towers, pp. 22–30.

  110. Ward, ‘French Revol
utionary and Napoleonic Wars’, p. 14.

  111. Ward, ‘Defence Works’, pp. 30, 33.

  112. ‘Soldiers and Soldiering’ website, Richard Dickens, quoting TNA, WO 13.

  113. J. Beckett, Whitehall, to Francis Moore, 4 May 1808, TNA, WO 13/4564.

  114. Ward, ‘Defence Works’, p. 25.

  115. Vine, Military Canal, pp. 62–5.

  116. Ibid., p. 74.

  117. 20 Oct. 1805, Pellow, Addington, Vol. II, p. 396.

  118. Evans, Arming the Fleet, pp. 35, 248–9.

  119. Cookson, Armed Nation, pp. 61–2.

  120. Ward, ‘Defence Works’, p. 30.

  121. Ibid., p. 27; Saunders, Fortress Britain, pp. 144–5.

  122. Coad and Lewis, ‘Fortifications at Dover’, p. 155; Saunders, Fortress Britain, pp. 139–41.

  123. Ibid., p. 154, quoting 30 June 1797, TNA, WO 55/778.

  124. Ibid., p. 177, quoting 23 Sept. 1813, TNA, WO 55/779; Saunders, Fortress Britain, p. 141.

  125. Cornwallis to Lieutenant-General Ross, 23 July 1804, Ross, Cornwallis, Vol. III, p. 514.

  126. ‘Digest of Services of the Tipperary Royal Field (Reserve) Artillery, formerly 1st, or South Tipperary, Artillery (Militia)’, TNA, WO 68/68.

  127. Kerrigan, ‘Shannonbridge’, pp. 235, 238–41; Saunders, Fortress Britain, pp. 149–50.

  128. Cookson, Armed Nation, p. 58; Clements, Martello Towers, pp. 69–89.

  129. Kerrigan, ‘Shannonbridge’, pp. 244–5.

  130. Ward, ‘French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars’, p. 23, quoting 26 June 1804, TNA, WO 30/62.

  131. Ibid., p. 24, quoting Wellington to General Sir James Murray, 6 Nov. 1845, TNA, WO 80/5.

  132. 1 Jan. 1811, TNA, WO 30/80.

  133. Cookson, Armed Nation, p. 65.

  10 Intelligence, Security and Communications 1803–1811

  1. Gray, Perceval, p. 164, quoting Perceval Papers, now in BL, Add. MSS 49173–95.

  2. Durey, Wickham, p. 136.

  3. Sparrow, Secret Service, p. 293.

  4. Ibid., p. 299.

  5. Durey, Wickham, pp. 89–90; Tissot-Pontabry, ‘Les Espions au service de la France’, pp. 46–67.

  6. Elting, Swords around a Throne, p. 85.

  7. 3 Aug. 1805, TNA, WO 43/292.

  8. Durey, Wickham, pp. 135–7; Sparrow, Secret Service, p. 306.

  9. Durey, Wickham, pp. 179, 189–95.

  10. Marsden, Brief Memoir, p. 104.

  11. E.g., the secretary of state’s correspondence with the Admiralty for 1804; see TNA, ADM 1/4195, 4198, 4199; for indexes for 1807, ADM 12/34.

  12. Davies, ‘Intelligence’, pp. 26, 29, 31.

  13. Ibid., pp. 38–9.

  14. Balleine, D’Auvergne, pp. 96–100, 109–10.

  15. Daly, ‘English Smugglers’, p. 31.

  16. Daly, ‘City of Smugglers’, p. 343, quoting 1 July 1811, TNA, CUST 54/25.

  17. Glover, Britain at Bay, p. 161, quoting 17 Feb. 1804, TNA, HO 50/396.

  18. Ward, ‘French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars’, pp. 28–9.

  19. 30 Apr. 1811, TNA, ADM 1/4073.

  20. Daly, ‘City of Smugglers’, pp. 342–3, quoting 1 July 1811, TNA, CUST 54/25.

  21. Glover, Britain at Bay, p. 162, quoting 11 Sept. 1811, TNA, ADM 1/226; p. 163, quoting [n.d.], TNA, ADM 1/224.

  22. Mackesy, War in the Mediterranean, p. 405, Appendix 6; Rodger, Command of the Ocean, p. 550.

  23. Quoted in Mackesy, War in the Mediterranean, p. 396.

  24. Ibid., pp. 360–61.

  25. Robinson, Carrying British Mails, pp. 313–14.

  26. Trinder, Harwich Packets, p. 155; Robinson, Carrying British Mails, p. 103.

  27. Robinson, Carrying British Mails, p. 99, quoting POST/Falmouth letter-books, Vol. III, p. 215.

  28. Dr von Hesse to Mr Stanhope, comptroller of the Foreign Department of the Post Office, 25 Apr. 1806, TNA, FO 33/36.

  29. Trinder, Harwich Packets, pp. 53, 55.

  30. Prince of Wales log, 13 Feb., 16 Mar. 1805.

  31. 18 July 1804, 17, 18, 21, 22 July 1808, TNA, POST 43/7; postmaster-general to the Treasury, 12 Oct. 1804, TNA, T1/929.

  32. Trinder, Harwich Packets, pp. 111–13.

  33. Ibid., Harwich Packets, p. 104.

  34. Freeling to Croker, 31 Dec. 1810, TNA, ADM 1/4073.

  35. J. P. Morier to Freeling, 14 Sept. 1814, TNA, POST 43/9.

  36. 20 Mar. 1813, TNA, POST 43/8; 5 Feb., 29 July 1814, TNA, POST 43/9.

  37. Woodman, Britannia’s Realm, p. 20.

  38. Robinson, Carrying British Mails, pp. 80–81; Woodman, Britannia’s Realm, pp. 228–30.

  39. 3 Oct. 1810, NMM, YOR/7.

  40. 1 Apr. 1815, Melville, Huskisson Papers, p. 101.

  41. 15 Oct., 6 Nov., 10 Nov. 1807, TNA, ADM 7/589.

  42. Ibid., Barrow to Admirals, etc., 2 May, 27 Aug. 1809.

  43. Ibid., 24 Nov. 1810.

  44. Ibid., Croker to Admirals, etc., 14 July 1810.

  45. 15 Apr. 1812, TNA, ADM 1/4073.

  46. Mallinson, Semaphore, p. 136.

  47. Glover, Britain at Bay, p. 165, quoting Collingwood to W. W. Pole, secretary to the Admiralty, 20 July 1809, TNA, ADM 1/415.

  48. W. W. Pole to D’Auvergne, 13 Feb. 1809, TNA, FO 95/623.

  49. Dundonald, Autobiography, pp. 163–7; Mallinson, Semaphore, pp. 131–2.

  50. Admiralty Rough Minutes, 7, 18 June 1804, TNA, ADM 3/150.

  51. W. W. Pole to Vice-Admiral Bowen, Dublin, 8 Dec. 1807, TNA, ADM 7/589.

  52. Kitchen, ‘Signal Stations’, pp. 337–43.

  53. Log of the Warning, 30 Mar. 1811–31 Mar. 1812, TNA, ADM 51/2974.

  54. Hamilton and Laughton, Gardner, pp. 252–3.

  55. Mallinson, Semaphore, pp. 69, 161.

  56. Ibid., pp. 81, 87.

  57. Hawkesbury to Treasury, 3 July 1804, TNA, T/1/925.

  58. Morrison, Systèmes de communication, pp. 32–4.

  59. Barrow, Autobiography, p. 289; also Mallinson, Semaphore, pp. 190–91.

  60. Grenville to the marquis of Buckingham, 25 Aug. 1807, HL, STG 38 (3).

  61. Munch-Petersen, Copenhagen, pp. 86–8, 98–106.

  62. Ibid., pp. 107–8, quoting Castlereagh to Admiralty, 18 July 1807, TNA, WO 6/14.

  63. Munch-Petersen, Copenhagen, p. 209.

  64. Ibid., pp. 117–41.

  65. Hinde, Canning, p. 175, quoting 15 Nov. 1807, Dropmore, Vol. IX, pp. 144–5.

  66. Ibid., p. 180, quoting 22, 26 Aug. 1807, Harewood MSS.

  67. John Campbell to Lord Mulgrave, 27 Sept. 1807, ‘Précis of Papers on Scheldt’, TNA, ADM 1/3987.

  68. Rodger, Command of the Ocean, p. 562.

  69. Epin, Ouvriers des Arsenaux, p. 16.

  70. Sondhaus, ‘Napoleon’s Shipbuilding’, p. 361.

  71. Epin, Ouvriers des Arsenaux, pp. 9–10, 81–5.

  72. Henwood, Bagnards à Brest, pp. 18, 69.

  73. Bond, Grand Expedition, p. 16, quoting 1 Mar. 1810, Parliamentary Debates, Vol. XV, Appendix, col. 522; Bew, Castlereagh, pp. 250–51.

  74. Minute, 25 Mar. 1809, TNA, ADM 1/3975.

  75. Bond, Grand Expedition, p. 16, quoting 3 June 1809, Castlereagh’s Correspondence, pp. 270–71.

  76. TNA, ADM 1/3975: file on naval Scheldt intelligence, 65 items, including Lieutenant John Campbell to Lord Mulgrave, 27 Sept. 1807; Decrès to Napoleon, intercepted 7 Dec. [1808]; Campbell to Mulgrave, 17 Jan. 1809.

  77. Bond, Grand Expedition, p. 17, quoting 1 July 1809, TNA, ADM 1/3987.

  78. Davies, ‘Intelligence’, p. 38, quoting Don to Charles Smith, 20 May 1811, TNA, FO 27/82.

  79. Captain John Hancock to Sir Joseph Yorke, 24 April 1811, NMM, YOR/20.

  80. 27 Apr. 1811, NMM, YOR/20.

  81. 6 May, 1 Sept. 1811, NMM, YOR/20; also 21 Dec. 1811, TNA, ADM 1/3976.

  82. 20 June 1811, NMM, YOR/20.

  83. Captain Robert Mansel to Yorke, 12, 19 Sept. 1811, NMM, YOR/11.

  84. Glover, Britain at Bay, pp. 189–90, quoting Corresp
ondance de Napoléon 1er, No. 19,488, 23 Jan. 1813.

  85. Epin, Ouvriers des Arsenaux, pp. 170, 177–80.

  86. 15–16, 4 Aug. 1814, Vesey Hamilton, Byam Martin, Vol. III, p. 338.

  11 Government Scandal and Reform 1803–1812

  1. Harcourt, Rose Diaries, Vol. II, pp. 336, 338.

  2. p. 169.

  3. Ward, ‘French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars’, p. 25

  4. Harling, ‘Old Corruption’, pp. 105, 134; Harling and Mandler, ‘“Fiscal-Military” State’, p. 46.

  5. Harling, ‘Old Corruption’, p. 133.

  6. Parris, Constitutional Bureaucracy, p. 47.

  7. Morriss, Royal Dockyards, p. 182.

  8. Cole, Arming the Navy, p. 38; Evans, Arming the Fleet, pp. 33–5.

  9. Commission of Military Enquiry, Sixth Report, p. 300.

  10. Gray, Perceval, p. 328, quoting BL Herries MSS, letter-books, Vol. III, p. 117.

  11. Parliamentary Papers, 1830–1831 (92), p. 3.

  12. Hogg, Arsenal, Vol. I, p. 493; Vol. II, p. 1,289.

  13. Sheldon, ‘Victualling Office at Portsmouth’, p. 43.

  14. Morriss, Royal Dockyards, p. 106.

  15. Wilkin, ‘Portsmouth Dockyard’, p. 54.

  16. Gwyn, Ashore and Afloat, p. 127, quoting NMM, ADM BP/34b.

  17. NMM, Dockyard Lists.

  18. Crook and Port, King’s Works, pp. 537–41.

  19. Holl to Wellesley-Pole, 28 Sept. 1809, NMM, ADM BP/29B; Coad, Royal Dockyards, pp. 34–5, 72.

  20. Duke of York to Castlereagh, 3 Aug. 1805, TNA, WO 43/292; Holl to William Wellesley-Pole, 27 Sept. 1809, NMM, ADM BP/29B.

  21. 3 Dec. 1805, HL, STG 148 (21). See Appendix 2.

  22. Commission of Naval Revision, Tenth Report, p. 14.

  23. Crook and Port, King’s Works, quoting TNA, WORKS 1/10.

  24. Gray, Perceval, p. 325.

  25. Commission of Military Enquiry, Thirteenth Report, p. 9.

  26. 15 July 1803, NMM, ADM BP/23B.

  27. 12 Mar. 1806, HL, STG 147 (5); 16, 19 Sept. 1806, 167 (38 and 39).

  28. 5 Oct. 1806, HL, STG 151 (24).

  29. 14 Nov. 1806, NMM, ADM BP/26.

  30. 22 Aug.1807, NMM, ADM BP/27; 28 Dec. 1807, 28 Mar. 1808, BP/28.

  31. Barrow, Autobiography, p. 258.

  32. Ashworth, ‘System of Terror’, p. 68.

  33. Morriss, ‘St Vincent and Reform’, p. 270.

  34. Ibid., p. 274, quoting Melville Papers, National Archives of Scotland, GD/51/2/940, 1804.