Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick English
Biography and letters of Lt Col Frederick English, Royal Engineers
Buckeen is an Irish word – see letter 117 – meaning a social climber. English probably meant to write ‘buckra’ – see letter 83 – a word used by black people to indicate a white.
King Olomule, a dubious reading anyway, has not been traced.
English’s sisters Georgiana and Isabella were in financial difficulties. Georgiana was summoned before the Insolvent Debtors’ Court on 1 ...
The United Service Journal was published from 1829. It was not an official publication.
Georgiana’s affairs were now coming to a crisis. Her case was before the insolvent debtors’ court on 1 April. Jane, who was evidently living with Georgiana and Isabella, may have been unrelated, as no record has been found of a sister of that name. Her presence explains ‘three women’ in letter 80.
Agreeable ...
What days of anxiety were those of the 10, 11, 12 March this time 3 years, my dear Kate, to me. It is matter of wonder how those years have passed so quickly. On your side of the Atlantic the seasons mark the time and call to remembrance what may have passed, Xmas two years or midsummer twelve months. Here all the months appear the same, one continued sunshine even during the periods termed wet ...
Not dated at head, but started at Demerara on 27 March 1837
By Tom Naghten’s report, who was here last evening, a fast vessel sails tomorrow for London, and, altho my dear Kate I write rather under the disappointment of not having heard from Wickham since the 13th or 14th Jany, still I will not lose the chance or wait for the packet’s arrival – she was due on the 26th, ...
My dear Kate: the note from Col Wells now lays before me. The information he gave you in so misterious a stile is just what I have anticipated. When Sir Charles was here he told me he should accept Gibraltar, in fact it is generally understood he is to go there. Capt Elton of the 67 who has joined here within this last week tells me that Sir C Smith did not land on the return from Trinidad, all ...
Begun at Demerara on 13 April 1837
It is vexatious to forward a few lines only my dear Kate or probably I might frequently start off a letter. In the present case I trust I am in time to send this by a fine vessel I observe just going out of the river to lay at the other side of the Bar until ready for sea, I suppose, as she has her boat in tow. Yesterday evening I read your letters of the 27th ...
‘Cad’ means a junior assistant or odd-job man.
Governor MacGregor was indeed a ‘great sufferer from old wounds’. The Clan Macfarlane website relates that ‘he was wounded in seven places when treacherously attacked, with his own sword sheathed, while receiving the surrender of Fort Talneir in India in 1818: receiving severe kris wounds in the left shoulder, left side, and in two places ...
Admiral Sir Francis and Lady Collier were Hampshire neighbours. The admiral had served as a midshipman on Nelson’s Victory, was an ADC to Queen Victoria, Superintendent of Woolwich Dockyard, and Commissioner at Greenwich. He died in command of the China station in 1849. Lady Collier, the admiral’s second wife, was the daughter of Thomas Thistlethwaite MP, of Southwick Park, Hampshire. The ...
It would be a perfect treat my dear Kate to see your hand writing again of a late date. The Schooner I stated in my last letter as missing with letters for me on board I understand has reached Demerara. This intelligence came by a Brig from thence which anchored in the Bay yesterday and reported to the house of Cavans, & so when I dined with the representative Mr Torrance of whom I have written ...
Not dated at head, but begun at Barbados on 10 June 1837
The places mentioned in Major Gordon’s letter are in Dublin.
For the capture of foreign slave ships, see letter 22.
At last my dear Kate, all your letters have reached me. On the 8th Inst the Schooner so long absent returned and anchored in the Bay. Thus the mistery is explained. Yours of the 29th March conveys the ...