Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick English
Biography and letters of Lt Col Frederick English, Royal Engineers
To commence my dear Kate I will remark that the Express Packet has arrived about half past seven this morning, but no letters have reached me yet. If yours are even half as charming as the last I shall verily be in most enviable spirits. Capt Rutherfurd came in soon after reading your Wickham dispatch with budget of officials, and what is a rare occurrence with me, but I could not resist giving ...
Major-General Sir George Arthur, Governor General of Upper Canada and an opponent of devolved government, suppressed several rebellions around this time, some of them supported by elements from the USA.
John Gibson Lockhart, for many years associated with the publishing house of John Murray, published his Life of Scott in seven volumes in 1837-38. It immediately took its place among ...
Not dated at head, but begun on 22 July 1838
‘The heart burning caused by the division of worldly goods’ refers to a lawsuit of 1832, when a niece of Mrs English’s father contested the interpretation of her grandfather’s will, and was awarded £1000 against her aunts.
The Emancipation Act decreed that apprentices, as the former slaves were called, were to be freed after six years in ...
‘Junior Club’: the reference is probably to the Junior United Service Club, later merged with the Senior Club, but now defunct.
John Alleyne Beckles, a member of a prominent family of planters, was President of the Legislative Council of Barbados.
Frances Trollope’s Vienna and the Austrians had just been published. English had enjoyed her book on Paris – see letter 64.
Lady Knighton ...
We can only speculate as to the nature of Georgiana’s ‘last vicious measure’ which has so alienated her from her brothers.
It is interesting that English felt certain that war with the United States over Canada and slavery was imminent. He also predicts here that the successful revolt in Haiti under the freed slave Toussaint L’Ouverture – he uses the old French name St Domingue – ...
Not dated at head, but presumably begun on 8 September 1838
The heat my dear dear Kate is so oppressive that it requires much exertion to take pen in hand on private matters, even the great pleasure I at all times experience when writing to you is at the present moment scarcely a sufficient stimulant, but in truth I start my letter in a sorry humour and out of spirits, and on reference to your ...
Ah! my good dear Kate, you are little aware of the feelings an unfortunate fellow has to encounter in hot climate, and I trust you never will be brought to such punishment, but the commencement of your last letter caused the reflection and the closing did not tend to cool the temperament one has to endure from morning until night and night until morning. However, today it is more to be tolerated ...
The long awaited parcel from home has at last arrived via Jamaica. Port Royal was the chief port of the island until the earthquake of 1692, since when it was eclipsed by Kingston. It was, however, still in use as a naval base.
Lieutenant-Colonel Henry John William Bentinck, Coldstream Guards, later served with distinction in the Crimea. He reached the rank of General and was knighted.
Fitchett ...
No date at head, started on 1 November 1838
Dudeen is an Irish word meaning a clay tobacco pipe.
Sir Andrew Halliday’s theory of vacuums as a cause of hurricanes is in chapter 3 of his book, The West Indies: The Nature and Physical History of the Windward and Leeward Colonies. English correctly points out that he offers no explanation for the cause of the vacuums.
The ‘delicate youth’ ...
Thomas Parry was appointed Archdeacon of Antigua by Bishop Coleridge in 1824 to help bring the Anglican church whole-heartedly into the emancipation camp. He succeeded Coleridge on his retirement from the diocese in 1842. His presence in Bridgetown suggests that he was deputising while Coleridge was in England.
RW is Robert Wiltshire, husband of Mrs English’s sister Mary – see letter 44; ...