Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick English
Biography and letters of Lt Col Frederick English, Royal Engineers
Not dated at head, written from Demerara 26 August 1836
I had written the greater part of my letter to you my dear Kate at my own home when I was sent for by the Govr as usual for some trifling affair but it made me so late that under the supposition the return Mail boat would leave this at two oclock, on my return I was forced to write away as fast as possibly my official letters for Barbados ...
English suggests that a local bank might prove a profitable investment. At this time, the planters, most of whom were heavily in debt, were in need of capital to pay their newly emancipated slaves. In the event, banks which set out to meet this need usually failed.
No date at head, written at Demerara 29 August 1836
I was much disappointed at Mr Glen’s to find that my letter, after writing with ...
Leguan is one of a number of islands in the Essequibo estuary.
John Gabriel Stedman, half Scottish, half Dutch, took part in a Dutch expedition to put down a slave rebellion in Surinam. His book, Narrative of a Five Years’ Expedition against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam, 1796, was widely read and much cited by campaigners against slavery.
Does Fred shoot?
The Underwood Capt Underwood, Tom Naghten ...
This letter is addressed to ‘Mrs English, 24 New Millman St, London’
Frances Trollope was the mother of a large family including the novelist Anthony. Finding her husband, a lawyer, unable to support them, she embarked on a successful career of writing both fiction and non-fiction. The book English has been reading is Paris and the Parisians in 1835. See letter 107.
St. Petersburgh, Constantinople ...
Georgetown lighthouse, on the eastern shore of the estuary, was built in 1830.
Mr W, ‘that Horse Artillery youth’, is of course Mr Wilmot whom we have met before. See, for instance, letters 52 and 63. He was evidently influenced by the Oxford Movement and their Tracts for the Times, published from 1833.
Princess Victoria’s eighteenth birthday, 24 May 1837, had special significance apart ...
‘Fred’s departure’ seems to refer to the fact that his regiment, the 35th of Foot, was about to be sent to Mauritius. It is, however, clear from later letters that he did not accompany them.
You observe my dear Kate that I have been again on the move and am now seated at Mr Molesworth’s desk to dispatch only five lines that you may be assured I am well. On thursday last the Stormond ...
The Mail Boat is about to sail my dear Kate sooner than expected & I have been so overwhelmed with work in the way of writing that I could not give even half an hour to the pleasure of private correspondence. All came together as is often the case. End to the year, quarter & month, long disputes between Molesworth & his Clerk of Works at Berbice which I had to settle, reporting thereon ...
English made a mistake in dating this letter: it is clear from the context, Mrs English’s note on the cover and the postmark that it was written on 13 January 1837. It demonstrates that he was right in preferring to use merchant ships in preference to packets while he was in Demerara; this letter arrived in Wickham after 38 days and overtook the previous one sent by the packet.
A signal is now ...
Yet another rumour of a brevet, but this time it proved to be true, though it was some weeks before English knew his fate. The date of the brevet was 10 January.
It has just been reported to me my dear Kate that the Nautilus sugar Ship sails at ½ past 4 this evening, by which I will at all event acknowledge the receipt of your letters up to the 30th Novr or as we term it the 1st ...
This letter has the date 27th January 1837 in English’s handwriting on the cover. It is clear that the date Jan 7 is an error.
The letters will come so numerous by the Wickham post that I think my dear Kate you will ‘cry hold hard’. However, here I am at it again. The last forwarded by Nautilus sugar ship did not quit the River as promised but fully two days afterwards. This shall go by the ...