Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick English
Biography and letters of Lt Col Frederick English, Royal Engineers
A Cure for the Heartache is a comedy in five acts by Thomas Morton. It had its premiere at Covent Garden in 1797.
No letters my dear Kate by the last Packet which came to anchor on the 15th Inst. I have been so much accustomed to the same disappointment that I begin now to be doubtful of receiving news from home when the vessel appears in sight, and do not rejoice as I used to. This time ...
Not dated at head, but marked on cover ‘Barbados nineteen July’
It appears to me my dear Kate that I have more than usual to write to you about. Nevertheless, when you have got thro my letter very little out of the usual subject will be forthcoming more than commonly to interest you I suspect, and the feeling that I enjoy of having much to write upon is owing to the spirits the change of climate ...
Here we have the first indication of the friendship between English and the Rt Revd William Hart Coleridge, Anglican bishop of Barbados and the Leeward Islands. Coleridge, a nephew of the poet, had been in the West Indies since 1825, working to reposition the established church in the anti-slavery camp. Historically, the Church’s mission had been to the white population, and any change was ...
The Britannia, a sugar ship, was saved. She was enclosed with planks – ‘imboarded’ – and towed away for repair.
In June 1837, African soldiers of the 1st West India Regiment mutinied at St Joseph, Trinidad, setting fire to buildings and raiding an arms store. Their officers, aided by the militia, subdued them, and the ringleaders were executed.
You will be weary my dear Kate – the Packets ...
Captain Martin was a member of a wealthy family of planters in Antigua. His father-in-law, Sir Reynold Abel Alleyne, was the head of a planter dynasty dating back to the first settlers in Barbados, and at that time speaker of the House of Assembly.
‘Tasty’ was used where we would now say ‘tasteful’.
And now my dear Kate, what have I to scribble out of the usual routine that will be acceptable? ...
Now for a scribble my dear Kate for the Packet sails tomorrow, but what shall I write to the good wife? So little has taken place since the departure of the last vessel, and the want of the Wickham budget I feel exceedingly. It appears a systematic arrangement at our office to forward the letters once a month. I do not think it occurs from any mistake or their reaching the office too late. In the ...
Porters, the plantation house English visits, is on the coast to the north of Bridgetown. It is now a luxury holiday villa.
‘Cuffum’ is a local name for the tarpon (Megalops atlanticus) a large freshwater fish found in tropical and sub-tropical regions on both sides of the Atlantic.
You will be satisfied my dear Kate of my perfect restoration to health and activity when you understand from this ...
James Crichlow of Lears was the attorney for the owner, Sir Francis Ford, 2nd Bart, whose father had acquired the plantation on his marriage into the Anson family. There is still a farm at Lears, but no sugar is grown.
Marking Stockings
My dear Kate, rather a domestic sort of an amusement & not much in my West Indian way. It is done very very inferiorly in comparison with Miss Parker’s stile. ...
A curtain lecture is defined in Johnson’s Dictionary (1755) as ‘a reproof given by a wife to her husband in bed’. It also appears in letters 98 and 124.
John Watson Pringle was a Captain in the Royal Engineers and a veteran of Waterloo. His report to Parliament on the state of the prisons in the West Indies was published in 1838.
Tomorrow my dear Kate I shall be tormented with visitors and ...
Stoke Hall, Ipswich was Mrs English’s family home.
‘Poor Gardiner’ was James, brother of the Roche Court sisters, who had died aged about 25.
So my dear Kate it must be a foolscap sheet of paper and no lopping off the ends – very well I begin to flatter myself that the old Col’s letters are becoming more interesting than heretofore, notwithstanding they do not convey matter relative to ...