THE NAPIER PAPERS

PHILIP V. BLAKE-HILL

A. THE FIRST SERIES

IN 1956 the Department of Manuscripts incorporated in its collections a series of papers of various members of the Napier family which had been bequeathed by Miss Violet Bunbury Napier, youngest daughter of General William Craig Emilius Napier. They commence with those of the Hon. , 6th son of Francis, 6th Baron Napier of Merchiston, and continue with those of four of his sons, Charles, George, William, and Richard, and Sir Charles's daughter, Emily. They have been arranged in eighty- eight volumes of papers (Add. MSS. 49086-49172) and twenty-four charters, mostly army commissions (Add. Ch. 75438, 75767, 75769-75790). The first series is divided into sub-sections: (i) the Hon. George Napier, (2) Sir , (3) Emily Cefalonia^ and William Craig Emilius Napier, (4) Sir George Thomas Napier, (5) Sir William Francis Patrick Napier, and (6) Richard Napier. The relationship between them is shown in the genealogical table. At the end is a section consisting of papers of other members of the family.

I. Papers of George and Lady Sarah Napier The Hon. George Napier married en secondes noces Lady Sarah Bunbury, daughter of Charles, 2nd Duke of Richmond, and divorced wife of Sir Thomas Bunbury: she was the famous beauty to whom George III had once proposed. Although some of her corre- spondence is included in this section, the majority of the papers are the official documents and letters of Napier in his capacities as Comptroller of the Royal Laboratory, Woolwich (1782-3),^ Deputy Quartermaster General of the Army (1794 8), and Comptroller of Army Accounts, Ireland (1799-1804). The D.Q,M.G. papers mostly relate to the French emtgre troops at Netley, Hampshire, while the Irish papers to a large extent refer to the inquiry, set up by order of the Lord and conducted by Napier, on the expendi- ture of public moneys by the Board of Works. One of the most interesting volumes in this section is Add. MS. 49092, a small vellum- bound book containing the journal of George Napier from 15 March to 29 August 1779. It gives a day-to-day account of the voyage from Leith to New York, to which his company, the Grenadiers Company of the 80th Foot, was bound as reinforcements for General Clinton. His solicitude for his men and his terse comments on the lack of consideration

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•—lOG shown by his superiors for the comfort and health of the soldiers and their families remind one of his son. Sir Charles James Napier, and it is quite clear from whom the latter inherited these same qualities. The journal also possesses some interest for the military historian in that it includes lists of provisions for the voyage on a daily basis^ and of the numbers of troops engaged on various operations in America during 1779. The remainder of this section comprises Napier's notebooks. Most cover his Woolwich period and describe experiments with gunpowder samples and methods of manufacturing gunpowder, shot, etc. Of the other two notebooks the first was compiled during the period of his appointment as D.Q.M.G. and consists of a resume of part of Sir David Dundas's Principles of Military Movements (2nd edition, published in 1795), and the second, written up in the early years of his Irish period, 1799-1801, contains memoranda of matters to be attended to, copies of letters, etc.

2. Papers ofLieut.-Gen. Sir Charles James Napier This section is supplemented by Add. MSS. 54510-63, incorporated in 1968, which will be briefly described later. In the present series, most of the special correspondence, apart from family letters, relates to Napier's Indian service, the earlier years being repre- sented to a greater extent in the second series. Two Governors-General of India are included. Lords Ellenborough and Dalhousie, as are such well-known soldiers as Sir Colin Campbell (afterwards Lord Clyde) and Sir Walter Ralegh Gilbert. The remainder of the special correspondence consists of Napier's correspondence with his sister Lady Bunbury and other members of his family, except for that with his daughter Emily and her husband, which is included in the next section. Sir Charles always regarded the conquest of Sind in 1843 as the highlight of his military career: indeed, 17 February was 'Meeanee Day' to him for the remaining years of his life. He gives a full account of the in two interesting letters, one to Sir George Arthur, the Governor of Bombay, written only two days later (Add.MS. 49115, fol. 49) and the other, embellished by a sketch-map, to his brother. Sir George Napier, on 24 February (Add. MS. 49168, fol. 22). Five weeks later, on 24 March, came the battle of Doaba, and in a letter of 30 March 1843 to his sister, Lady Bunbury, he describes the condition of the province of Sind under the Amirs and the course of that decisive battle (Add. MS. 49109, fol. 144). Two maps are of some interest. Both are of the country around Peshawar and the first, which is engraved and hand-coloured, shows the route taken in 1833 by James Gilbert Gerard, the Bengal surgeon and explorer, from Herat to Peshawar and on to Husun Abdul. The other is a sketch-map of the southern Eusofyze territory, drawn in ink by Edward Barry Conolly, of the Bengal cavalry, assisted by Sergeant Cameron. It seems to have been made about 1840, the year in which Barry was killed near Cabul, since in 1841 there appeared from his pen a posthumous article in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal on the subject of the Eusofyze tribes. Turning to the general correspondence, we find that it includes a number of interesting • 27 topics, the saga of the £n.). 135.9^. being particularly worth recording. On 27 July 1821 the War Office wrote to Napier to the effect that, according to their records, he was overpaid by this amount between 29 May 1806 (when he was appointed to the Cape Corps as Major) and 24 June of the same year. They therefore requested him to reimburse it to Greenwood, Cox & Co., the War Office bankers. Napier was furious. He endorsed the letter, 'An infamous surcharge at a distance of 16 years', and added an avowal that not only did he not receive double pay but also that he clearly remembers having refused to do so. This letter took nearly six months to reach the Ionian Islands and the unreliability of the postal system only served to complicate an already difficult situation between Napier and his masters in . On 14 February 1822 the War Office, apparently failing to realize the postal difficulties, sent a reminder, which did not arrive until 6 June."* Napier replied on the same day, but unfortunately the reply is not now extant in either this or the second series. On 29 June Palmerston himself took up the matter and wrote to Sir Thomas Maitland, the Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands, requesting him to order Napier to remit the money and 'further desire that officer to explain the cause of his inattention to the instructions already communicated to him under my directions from this Office'. On 23 December Palmerston wrote to Sir Frederick Adam, the new High Commissioner, saying that the letter which Napier was said to have written in June had not been received and that Napier had still not remitted the sum to Greenwood, Cox & Co. Palmerston therefore asked Adam to order Napier to 'pay immediate attention to the instructions he had received'. On 4 April 1823 Napier forwarded to Palmerston a copy of his June letter with a covering note saying, ironically, that he was 'not able to secure the regularity of the post' and that Palmerston 'will surely acquit him of inatten- tion or delay'. He ended by requesting Palmerston either to counter the charge or to allow him to postpone further reply until after his return to . On 9 August Palmerston returned to the attack with a letter to Adam, in reply to one which Adam had written on 16 April, fixing a date, 24 December, before which the sum must be paid or proof given that Napier had accounted for it. The copy of this letter, presumably supplied by Adam, was endorsed by Napier with a typical comment, 'I will see you damned first! I never drew the money and won't pay it.' The year 1824 opened with both sides reiterating the old arguments. Palmerston wrote to Adam (8 January), noting that no reply had been received to his letter of 9 August and asking to be informed as to what steps had been taken. The War Office clearly still had not realized the length of the delay in the post, but by the time that this letter reached Adam, Napier was in London and on 11 April 1824 wrote to Palmerston with copies of various documents from the Colonial Audit Office which proved that he had not received double pay. The final communication from Palmerston, dated 26 May, is in the second series of papers (Add.MS. 54540, fol. 153). It is in reply to Napier's letter of 11 April and curtly informed him that the War Office had had a further report from Messrs. Greenwood, Cox & Co. and that 'repayment of the sum ... is not now required'. As Napier tells us in a later endorsement to the original letter of 27 July 1821, 'I found the whole blunder out! I went to War Office and discovered the papers proving that I had never overdrawn a shilling!' The mistake seems to have

28 arisen, as Napier originally suspected, in the chaotic condition of the records of the Paymaster, Royal Staff Corps, in 1806. So, after nearly three years of argument and frayed tempers, Napier's firmness was successful and the War Office had to admit defeat. Sir Charles's letter-books (unfortunately with many gaps) range from his early years as Resident in to the end of his tour of duty as Commander-in-Chief, India, a period of nearly thirty years (1822-50). Three letter-books are of considerable interest. One (Add. MS. 49126) concerns his quarrel with Sir Frederick Adam, the Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands, who, after Napier had left Cephalonia in 1830, had accused him of misrule and injustice, but without making any specific charges. Napier's reforms had made enemies among certain landowners, whose complaints Adam had taken at face value without further inquiry. For nearly two years Napier endeavoured to extract details of the accusations from Lord Goderich, Secretary of State for War and Colonies, but to no effect. Lord Hill, the Commander-in-Chief, offered him the post of Deputy Adjutant General, Canada, and Goderich followed it up with the offer of the Residency at Zante, a higher position than his former Residency at Cephalonia, but he refused both and the letter-book ends with a diatribe against Goderich and all his works. The other two letter-books of interest (Add. MSS. 49133, 49134) concern a private matter. Napier tells the story in detail in the first of them. In 1827 he married Elizabeth, widow of Francis John Kelly. She was very much his senior and, in fact, already had a grown-up family, one son, a Captain in the Army, and three daughters, the youngest of whom had been married in 1809 to a Samuel Laing, of Orkney. Soon after his daughter's marriage Kelly incurred large debts, which, to avoid scandal, Laing paid. He continued to help the family in this way for some years, even paying the debts incurred in 1815 by Captain Kelly's imprudence' (apparently Napier's euphemism for gambling debts). The elder Kelly died in 1826, at about the same time as his son: Laing's generosity then ceased. Just before Napier and his wife returned to England in 1830 Napier received a demand from Laing for repayment of all the moneys advanced to the Kelly family between 1809 and 1826, together with the accrued interest. Not unnaturally, Napier refused and all attempts on Laing's part to obtain the money failed. Napier became so incensed that he even challenged Laing to a duel, but withdrew on the advice of his friends. Sir Alexander Johnston and Lord Napier. Eventually on 8 and 11 November 1830 Napier wrote two letters declining to have any further correspondence on the subject, after which the affair seems to have petered out. Napier's journals (Add. MSS. 49137-40) are few in number but of considerable interest. The first three cover the period 1810-21, while the fourth, dating from March 1840 to May 1847, seems to have been part of a larger work intended for publication but never published. His excellence as a draughtsman is shown by his sketches of places in Portugal, made during the and illustrating his journal for April August 1810 (Add. MS.49137A). In the January of the preceding year he had been taken prisoner at the battle of Coruna, but a year later was released on compassionate grounds on account of his mother's age and infirmity, rejoining his regiment in time for the battles of the Coa and Almeida. A plan of the latter engagement is included in this journal. Other sketches 29 of different places in Europe and India are to be found in his journal for 1821 (Add.MS. 49i3()) and in his sketchbook (Add. MS. 49147), which dates from 1821 to c. 1847.

3. Papers of Emily CefaIonia Napier and William Craig Emilius Napier Emily Cefalonia Napier, the younger of the two natural daughters of Sir Charles Napier by his Greek mistress, Anastasia, was born in Cephalonia in 1827, just before her father's return from England.5 She and her elder sister, Susan, accompanied him on all his travels and both made advantageous marriages, Susan in 1844 to a young officer on Sir Charles's staff. Captain William Montagu Scott McMurdo (afterwards a General and a K.C.B.), and Emily in 1845 to her own first cousin. Captain William Craig Emilius Napier, who also finished his army career as a General. The correspondence of Emily and her husband is mostly with other members of the family. The only special correspondent not even remotely connected with the Napiers is Emily Anne Eliza Shirreff, the pioneer of women's education and, in 1870, Mistress of Girton, whose letters cover a period of over thirty years (c. 1863-r. 1894) (Add.MS. 49161). In addition to the general correspondence of Emily and William (Add.MSS. 49162-5), there is also a volume of letters (Add. MS. 49167) addressed to their fifth daughter, Emily Caroline, who died unmarried in 1919. An interesting letter to Emily Napier is worth noting (Add. MS. 49163, fol. 15). It was written on 5 September 1864 by Captain Frederick Wollaston Hutton, while Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General, Ireland, and it describes the conditions on board a merchantman of Green's company in the East India service during the early 1850s. The letter was in reply to an inquiry from Emily Cefalonia Napier on behalf of an unnamed nephew, probably Robert McMurdo. Hutton says that he cannot recommend the life. For the first three voyages Green . . . charges premiums of £60, £50 and £40 respectively, and your nephew's pay would be i/^ a month, paid to the 'Dreadnought', floating hospital for sailors, in the Thames. The fourth voyage might be as 5th mate, when he would receive the generous pay of j£i a month for the 10 months he was afloat. . . . The next year he would receive £2 a month, and the next £3, living all this time in the midshipman's cabin. On his 7th voyage he might with luck be made 2nd mate, and receive I think £s or ^7 a month. He would most likely remain second mate for two or three years, when he might be made chief mate at £10 a month. The chances of being made captain are very problematical. Green will make no one captain who does not take shares in the ship. . . . Your nephew will meet few, if any, gentlemen among the officers, and he will be lucky if he finds anyone he can make a friend of. ... The bullying is very bad. You may not believe me but it is true that a 'first voyager' seldom dare open his lips, never at meals. I have seen table knives flung at an unfortunate 'first voyager's' head, who ventured to make a remark. . . . The morals of a midshipman's berth are fearful far worse than the forecastle or a barrack room.

He goes on to describe the onerous duties, 'just the same as the sailors', which a mid- shipman has to perform, and the unappetizing, monotonous food - 'pork or pea soup one day, salt beef or duff the next for four months. . . . Milk of course was unheard of from 30 the beginning of a voyage to the end, and our allowance of sugar only lasted for two or three days. ... I would far rather a son of mine enlisted than that he went into Green's service.' Hutton's career in the army, after leaving the mercantile marine, was brief but not without interest. He was commissioned as an Ensign in the 23rd Foot (the Royal Welch Fusiliers) in May 1855, in the middle of the Crimean War, becoming Lieutenant ten months later. He served in India during the Mutiny, being present at the relief of Lucknow. He attained his captaincy in December 1862, and in July 1864 became D.A.Q.M.G., Ireland, based at Castle, where the letter referred to above was written. He sold out in the following year.

4. Papers of General Sir George Thomas Napier In arranging a collection of papers such as this, where several members of a family are involved, the normal practice is to divide it into sections, each under the name of the owner, who would be the recipient of the letters, not the writer. With the first volume of the present section, however, this practice has had to be set aside. It consists of letters from Sir George Napier^ to his brothers, one of whom (Henry Edward) does not possess a section of his own in these papers, while the other (Sir William) is not represented by any other correspondence. Of particular interest are those letters which deal with the presumed death of Charles James Napier at the battle of Coruna in January 1809. Some, in Section i above, are addressed to his mother. Lady Sarah Napier, and others, in the present section, to his brother George. The earliest letter on the subject is from Captain William Clunes, of the 50th Foot (at that time Charles's regiment), who was in the battle and who wrote to George on 29 January, giving an account of the circumstances, as far as he knew them to be correct:

I loose [sic] not a moment in letting you know whatever came to my knowledge relative to the death of your ever to be lamented Brother and my sincere Friend. After the 50th had drawn the enemy out of the village in front of our position, I myself saw him and told him that Major Stanhope was killed, but I never saw him more, and it was not untill [sic] the Regt had advanced ahout 500 yards up the hill which the French occupied that he fell. He was shot in the Breast. Ensign Moore of ours who I fear is dying of his wounds, and a Grenadier of my Com^ were next to him when he was wounded. These are the only people [who] speak positively of his death. (Add. MS. 49169, fol. 7.)

However, the family were not satisfied and made further inquiries, both officially and in private. Lieutenant William Bower, also of the 50th Foot, in a letter of 11 February to George Napier (Add. MS. 49169, fol. 16) described how a private of the Grenadiers 'saw him sitting or lying on a bush . . . wounded both on the arm and the body. He however does not say anything to confirm the report of his death.' A letter written on 22 March by Lieut.-Col. (afterwards Major-General Sir) George Townshend Walker, then on half-pay, quotes one which he had just received from a Captain Bentley, relating how 31 a private of the 5otb and a corporal of the 43rd had made their escape after the battle, disguised as Spaniards, and had seen Napier a prisoner, riding a mule and wounded in the head and arm (Add. MS. 49169, fol. 30). It would appear, however, that the family had already heard strong rumours of Charles's possible survival, since there exists a copy of a letter from George to the French general Lefevre, c. 17 March, requesting permission for his brother William to visit the prisoners taken at Coruna, to ascertain whether or not Charles was amongst them (Add. MS. 49169, fol. 27). A few days later on 20 March Sir George Rupert of the Transport Office wrote to Lady Sarah acknowledging the receipt of her letter enclosing a message for Charles to be forwarded to the Ministre de la Marine in Paris (Add. MS. 49090, fol. 182). On 22 March a Major Hamilton Rose, of the 42nd Foot, wrote to Lord Clancarty (Add. MS. 49090, fol. 183), The account she [Lady Sarah] had heard respecting my having seen him [Charles] after the action is not correct', but he added that an officer told him that he himself had seen Napier alive under the shelter of a bush, thus confirming the account given by the grenadier in Bower's letter. Meanwhile, on 20 March, Charles had regained his liberty, having given his parole not to rejoin his regiment until officially exchanged for a French prisoner-of-war, and he reached England at the end of the month. Among the letters of congratulation on his release was one from the famous surgeon James Moore, the brother of Sir John Moore, Napier's former commander who was killed in the battle (i-. 31 March: Add.MS. 49090, fol. 189).

5. Papers of General Sir William Francis Patrick Napier There is no correspondence in this section, its only volume consisting of an early draft of Sir William Napier's Conquest ofScinde, which was published in 1845 and 1846 as an answer to his brother's critics.^

6. Papers of Rtchard Napier The single volume which comprises this section is divided into two parts: (i) corre- spondence with Richard Baily and his wife and eldest son, 1817-48, and (ii) general correspondence, 1809-68. Richard Baily, a clerk in the War Office, seems to have been one of those unfortunate individuals who, often through no fault of their own, are constantly in trouble. Just as constantly he was in financial straits, usually through his own lack of prudence. The War Office had made him redundant in 1820 and three years later we find him unhappily situated in a junior capacity in the Excise Office at Reading. Eventually he left England and settled in Hanover with his family, but he met with no greater success there than he had in England. From time to time he importuned Napier for assistance, mainly financial, which was provided. Finally, in January 1833, he died as the result of injuries sustained in a street accident in Hamburg. To his credit, Baily had always done his best to repay some of the capital and interest, but Napier tells us in a note, written after he 32 had finally severed all connections with the family, that he ended by being out of pocket to the tune of ^^ 1,200. About a year after Richard Baily's death, Napier agreed to advance money to his eldest son, Richard Adye Baily, to enable him to emigrate to the United States and start a farm in Michigan. He sailed in March 1834, but by October of the following year he was back in England, never having started the farm for which the money was intended. Indeed, he had not even left New York, owing, as he later told Napier, to a combination of circumstances - ill health and the necessity to await the arrival of a further remittance from England. All this time he was living on Napier's loan and, when that was nearly exhausted, he took a steerage passage back to England with his American wife, whom he had married shortly before his departure. In the following year, 1836, he seems to have settled down, since he then obtained a post as a clerk in the Accountant's Office of the Bank of England. However, in 1848, financial troubles again beset him and he tried once again to borrow money from Napier, but this time without success. The correspondence closes abruptly on this note. However, as the memorandum referred to above suggests, Napier was clearly sorry for the family and in all fairness explained that the letters of the elder Baily if'read on their own, might make him seem a bad creditor'. The remainder of the volume comprises Richard Napier's general correspondence, which spanned no less than sixty years, from 1809 until his death in 1868.

7. Papers of other members of the Napier Family The last volume of the papers^ consists of letters (1805-1933) mostly written to or by various members of the family who are not represented in the above sections. They include letters to Sir William Napier and Captain Henry Edward Napier, R.N., Lady Louisa Conolly, Lady Bunbury, Sir William McMurdo (husband of Sir Charles's daughter Susan) and various younger members of the family, ending with a letter, written as late as 1933, from Emily's son, Charles James Napier, to his sister Hester.

SYNOPSIS

I. Papers of George and Lady Sarah Napier

Add. MSS. Vol.

49086, 49087 I, II Correspondence and papers of George Napier as Comp- troller of the Royal Laboratory, Woolwich; Apr.-Oct. 1782; Nov. 1782-3 49088 111 Correspondence and papers of George Napier as: (1) Deputy Quartermaster General; 1794-8 (2) Comptroller of Army Accounts, Ireland; 1798-1804 49089 IV (i) Correspondence of George and Sarah Napier with Francis, 2nd Earl of Moira; [?i792]-i8o9

33 [49089] (2) Correspondence with Elizabeth, Dowager Countess of Moira; 1789-1805 (3) Letters to their eldest son, Charles James Napier; 1801-9 49090 V General correspondence; [c. i765]-i8i7 49091 VI George Napier's 'List of Papers, Official and Private', 1795-1801 with additions in 1802 and 1803 4909-2 VII Journal of George Napier's voyage from Leith to New York in 1779 VIII-XVII Notebooks of George Napier as Comptroller, Royal Laboratory, Woolwich; 1782, 1783 49103 XVIII Notebook as D.QM.G.; 1795 49104 XIX Notebook as Comptroller of Army Accounts, Ireland; I799-I80I

2. Papers of Lieut.-Gen. Sir Charles James Napier

49105 XX Correspondence with Edward, Earl of Ellenborough, Governor-General of India; 1842-53 49106 XXI Correspondence with James, Marquess of Dalhousie, Governor-General of India; 1849-51 49107 XXII Correspondence with Capt. Frederick Robertson, R.A.; 1833-53 49108 XXIII Letters from: (1) Sir Colin Campbell [Lord Clyde]; 1850-3 (2) Sir Walter Ralegh Gilbert; 1849, 1850 (3) Lieut.-Col. Reginald Ranald Macdonald, D.A.G., Bombay; 1842-4 (4) Lieut.-Col.John Pitt Kennedy; 1850-3, preceded by verses [?i829], addressed to C.J.Napier (5) Lieut. Gore Boland Munbee, Bombay Engineers; 1842,1843 49109, 49110 XXIV, xxv Correspondence with Lady Bunbury (sister); 1801-43; 1844-53 49111 XXVI Correspondence with: (1) Sir William Napier (brother); 1834-53 (2) Richard Napier (brother); 1813-53 (3) Various members of his family; 1801-53 49112-49117 xxv 11-XXXII General correspondence; 1801-23; 1824-30; 1831-9; 1842-9; 1850, 1851; 1852,1853 49118 XXXIII Two maps of Peshawar and the surrounding country; 1833; [r. 1840] 49119 XXXIV Register of official letters received in Cephalonia; 1818-25 Letter-books; 1822-50 49120-49131 xxxv-XLVi 49132 xLvn List of the contents of Add. MSS. 49120-49125, and of other letter-books not now in the collection

34 49134 XLViii, XLIX Letter-books relating to the Laing affair; 1827-30 49135 L Letter-book relating to the Aubigny Estates; 1833-41 49136 LI Constitution of the Ionian Islands 49137A-4914O LI I-L VI Journals; 1810; 1810, 1811;1819, 1820; 1821;1845-7 4914I-49144 LVIl-LX Notebooks; 1808-52 49145 LXI Notebook on mathematics; 1815 49146 LXII Miscellaneous literary papers, mostly by Sir C. J. Napier; 1824-49 LXIII Miscellaneous drawings by Napier; i82i-[ir. 1842]

3. Papers of Emily Cefalonia Napier and her husband. General William Craig Emilius Napier 49148-49150 LXIV-LXVI Correspondence with Sir C.J.Napier; [?i833]-i847; 1848-Mar. 1850; Apr. 1850-3 49151-49156 LXVII-LXXII Correspondence of Emily Napier with her husband, William; 1844; 1845; 1846-54; 1855; 1856-63; 1864-9 49157 LXXIII Correspondence with Susan and William McMurdo;

49158 LXXIV (1) Correspondence with Louisa Mary Napier; [.^1835]- 1855 (2) Letters from Emily Napier to her daughter, Emily Caroline; 1878-85 49159 LXXV (1) Correspondence with Sir G.T.Napier; 1842-55 (2) Correspondence with Richard Napier; 1838 64 (3) Correspondence with Lady Bunbury; i844-[?i862] 49160 LXXVI (1) Letters from Capt. John Moore Napier; 1843 (2) Family correspondence; [.^i835]-i892 49161 LXXVII Letters from: (1) Sarah Craig; i845-[?i882] (2) Emily Anne Eliza ShirrefT; [.?i863]-[?i894] 49162, 49163 LXXVIII, LXXIX General correspondence of Emily Cefalonia Napier; 1837-63; 1864-1906 49164, 49165 LXXX, LXXXI General correspondence of William Craig Emilius Napier; 1835-59; 1860-1902 49166 LXXXII Map of Easthampstead Plains, co. Berks., drawn by W.C.E.Napier;[f. 1835] 49167 LXXXIII General correspondence of Emily Caroline Napier; [before 1873]-1903

4. Papers of General Sir George Thomas Napier

49168 LXXXIV Letters to: (1) Sir Charles James Napier; 1834-53 (2) Sir William Francis Patrick Napier; 1828-52 (3) Capt.Henry Edward Napier, R.N.; 1824-49 (4) Richard Napier; 1810-55 491^ Lxxxv General correspondence; 1809-55

5. Papers of General Sir William Francis Patrick Napier 49170 Lxxxvi Early draft of Sir W.Napier's The Conquest of Scinde, published in 1845 6

6. Papers of Richard Napier 49171 Lxxxvii (i) Letters from Richard Baily, of the War Office, and correspondence with his wife and eldest son; 1817-48 (2) General correspondence; 1809-68

7. Papers of the Napier Family 49172 LXXXVIII General correspondence of various members of the family; 1805-1933

B. THE SECOND SERIES

In 1968 a further series, consisting only of Sir Charles Napier's papers, was acquired and arranged in fifty-four volumes (Add. MSS. 54510-63). A certain amount of duplication and overlapping with those of Section 2 of the first series was inevitable, since it was not possible completely to rationalize the arrangement owing to the fact that the first series had been incorporated and divided into a fixed and unalterable number of volumes some twelve years before the second was acquired. Nevertheless, a minor rearrangement was possible - the transfer of the manuscript copy of part of Sir Charles's Defects, Civil and Military, of the Indian Government from Add. MS. 49170 to 54560. The latter volume already contained an imperfect draft of the book and it was only logical to place both manuscripts together, particularly as the change was capable of being effected without difficulty. The supplementary papers begin with a volume relating to the American prize money. During the American war of 1812-14 Napier was in command of a detachment of the 102nd Regiment of Foot and the 2nd Battalion, Royal Marines, attached to the squadron of Rear-Admiral Sir George Cockburn. In July 1813 they captured two American ships, the Anaconda and the Atlas, for which feat the prize money was awarded. The Prince Regent's warrant for the award was dated 24 May 1816, but it was not until February 1819 that details of the distribution were finally settled. This volume is followed by one of special correspondence from two of his colleagues in the Ionian Islands, where he was first (1819-22) inspecting field officer and then (1822-30) Resident of Cephalonia. After nearly a decade in the military wilderness, Napier was next appointed to the command 36 of the Northern District during the Chartist troubles and three volumes of special corre- spondence relate to this period (1839 41), being mostly reports in the form of letters. Some of the correspondents (e.g. Sir Colin Campbell and Lieut.-Col. Wemyss) continue into one or both of his periods in India. There are two volumes of formal reports and returns for the Northern District, one of which is an extra large volume also containing papers from his Indian periods which are too large for inclusion in the relevant volumes. The years of his first command in India (1841-7) are covered by volumes of the special correspondence and parts of the two volumes of army returns. The first of the volumes contains correspondence with two Governors-General, Lords Ellenborough^ and Hardinge, and the second comprises correspondence with Sir George Arthur, the Governor of Bombay. The later Indian period (1849-51), when he was Commander-in- Chief, India, is represented only by a few army returns, apart from some letters in the Campbell volume and in the general correspondence. The second part of the papers consists of family and private correspondence. All his brothers and their wives are represented, together with Napier's second wife, Frances, his daughters and their husbands, and other members of his family. These occupy twelve volumes and are followed by three volumes of correspondence with friends and one with his stockbrokers and agents. Twenty-one volumes of general correspondence, both official and private, span no less than fifty years between 1802 and 18 51. Then follow four volumes of miscellaneous papers - literary fragments, commonplaces, accompts, etc.^^ One of the more interesting documents in this series is a letter written by Napier to his daughters on 16 February 1843, the eve of the battle of Miani (Add. MS. 54532, fol. 65). It is addressed 'Susan and Emily Napier in case of my death' and begins, 'I am going to give Battle to a large Army with a very small one tomorrow or next day and may be killed'. After the battle he added to the back of the letter the names of three of his opponents: ^Golam Ali Talpoor, doubtful. Ali Khan Talpoor, killed. Jaffa Khan Murry killed.' An amusing example of Napier in one of his more peppery moods is his endorsement to a letter of 3 October 1846 from a certain noble Lord (Add. MS. 54555, fol. 140b): Tou d d hypocritical son of a bitch, I won't answer you.'" The collections abound with similar remarks, showing how incapable Napier was of suffering fools gladly.'^ The hterary manuscripts in this series (Add. MS. 54560) are very fragmentary. There exist only the first and second drafts of Appendix i and a draft of Appendix 35 of Napier's The Colonies (1833), some very rough notes for a speech, delivered apparently after the conquest of Sind in 1843, and imperfect drafts of his Defects, Givil and Military, of the Indian Government, edited and published in 1853, after Sir Charles's death, by his brother. Sir William Napier. To this last manuscript has been added the copy from the first series, as mentioned above.

37 SYNOPSIS

I. Official correspondence and papers of Sir C.J, Napier

Add. MSS. Vol 54510 I Correspondence and papers relating to the American Prize Money; 1816*19 545" II Letters from: (1) Capt.J.Macphail; 1823-48 (2) Sir J.Rudsdell; 1824-32, n.d. 54512 III Letters from Lieut.-CoI.T.J. Wemyss; 1839-48 54513 IV Letters from: (1) G. M. Phillipps on behalf of Lord John Russell, followed by a letter from Napier to Russell; 1839, 1840 (2) Sir Willoughby Gordon; 1839-46 (3) F. Barlow; 1840 54514 Letters from: (1) Sir Colin Campbell [Lord Clyde]; 1839-50 (2) Lieut.-Col. H.Custance; 1839-41 (3) Capt. E.B. Patten; 1840 (4) Capt. J.H. Rutherfurd; 1840, 1841 54515 VI Reports on Barracks, Northern District; 1840 54516 VII (1) Confidential Reports, Northern District; 1839 (2) Monthly Reports, Northern District; 1840 (3) Miscellaneous Returns (extra large, from 54521 and 54522); 1843-50 54517 V111 (1) Letters from Edward, Earl of EUenborough, Governor-General of India; 1846-9 (2) Correspondence with Henry, ist Viscount Hardinge, Governor-General of India; 1844-8 54518 IX Correspondence with Sir George Arthur, Governor of Bombay; 1842-6, n.d. 54519 X (r) Correspondence with Lord FitzRoy Somerset; 1831- 49. (2) Letters from Lieut.-Col. J.L.Pennefather; 1842-9 54520 XI (1) Letters from L.C.C.Rivett and his wife, Juliana; 1840-8, n.d. (2) Letters from J.Ramsay; 1842-8, n.d. (3) Correspondence with General Sir James Simpson; 1844-8 5452 I Xll (1) Adjutant-General's Returns, India; 1843, 1850 (2) Returns of Troops, India; 1843-50 54522 Mil (1) Ordnance Returns, India; 1843 (2) Commissariat Returns, India; 1843 (3) Quartermaster-General's Returns, India; 1850 (4) Sick Returns, India; 1850 38 2. Family and Private Correspondence

54523 XIV Letters from: (i) Frances Napier (second wife); 1837-48, n.d. {2) Louisa Mary Napier (half-sister); 1822-49, n.d. 54524 XV Letters from: (1) Sir George Napier (brother) and his wives, Margaret and Frances; 1812-49 (2) Capt. John Moore Napier (nephew) and wife, Maria (step-daughter); 1835-43 (3) Sarah Clarke (niece) and husband, T.H. Shadwell Clarke; 1836-48 54525 XVI Correspondence with Sir William Napier (brother); L 1831-Sept. 1848 54526 XVII (1) Correspondence with Sir William Napier; II. Oct. 1848-9, n.d. (2) Letters from his wife, Caroline Amelia Napier;

54527 XVIII Letters from Richard Napier (brother) and his wife, Anne Louisa {formerly Staples); 1809-48 54528 XIX Letters from Henry Edward Napier (brother) and his wife, Caroline; 1826-48 54529-54531 xx-xxii Letters from Emily Bunbury (sister) and her husband. Sir Henry Edward Bunbury; 1813-29; 1830-44; 1845-9 54532 XXIII Letters from: (1) Susan Sarah McMurdo (daughter); 1833-49, "-d-, including a letter written to both his daughters by Napier (2) Sir William Montagu Scott McMurdo; 1842-8 54533 XXIV Letters from: (1) Emily Cefalonia Napier; 1839-49 (2) William Craig Emilius Napier; 1843-9 54534 xxv (1) Letters from Adm. Sir Charles Napier (cousin) and his wife, Eliza; 1835-48 (2) Letters from Sir Alexander Johnston (cousin); 1826-46 (3) General family correspondence; 1801-49 54535 XXVI Letters from John Pitt Kennedy; 1824-49, n.d. 54536 XXVII (1) Letters from Capt. Frederick Robertson, R.A.; 1820- 48, n.d. (2) Correspondence with Edward Curling; 1828-48 (3) Letters from Thomas Falconer; 1836, 1837 (4) Letters from J.Hamilton Browne (wine-merchant); 1840-8 39 54537 xxvni Letters from: (1) Maria Byng; 1833-48, n.d. (2) Eliza Kelly (step-daughter); 1834-49 (3) Frances Turner; 1834-7, n.d. 54538 XXIX (1) Correspondence with Messrs. Drummond (stock- brokers); 1818-45 (2) Letters from Charles Hibbert& Co. (agents); 1841-8 n.d.

3. General Correspondence 54539-54559 XXX-L General correspondence; 1802-21; 1822-6; 1827-June 1830; Aug. 1830-July 1833; Aug. 1833-1835; 1836- Mar. 1839; Apr.-Aug. 1839; Sept.-Dec. 1839; Jan.- May 1840; June-Dec. 1840; 1841; 1842-May 1843; June-Oct. 1843; Nov. 1843-July 1844; Aug. 1844- June 1845; July 1845-Mar. 1846; Apr-Dec. 1846; 1847; Mar.-July 1848; Aug.-Dec. 1848; 1849-51, n.d.

4. Miscellaneous Papers 54560 LI Literary fragments, published or intended for publica- tion; 1830-50 54561 LII (1) Miscellaneous military papers; 1817-50, n.d. (2) Miscellaneous political and other papers; 1827-39 54562 LIU Commonplaces; [WM. i8oi]-i839, n.d. 54563 L I V Accompts; 1805-47 54564 LV Correspondence and papers of Capt. W.H. Williams; 1890-3, n.d.

1 Whenever Emily Napier signed her full name, she 1823 for 1822 in the date of the letter - it would spelled her second name with an 'f\ 'Cefalonia', be better to rely upon Napier's own endorse- though printed sources invariably spell it ment. 'Cephalonia', 5 He had been recalled to England by the death of 2 The official title, as given by the commission of his mother. Lady Sarah, in t826. I Apr. 1782, was "Comptroller of His Majesty's 6 It will be noticed that Sir George's writing radi- Fireworks'. cally changed early in his career, owing to the 3 e.g. 'Tuesday, 4 Lbs. Biscuit, 4 Gils, [gallons] fact that he lost his right arm at the battle of Small Beer, 8 Lbs. Beef. Ciudad Rodrigo in January 1812. 4 Napier's endorsement on his letter is to the 7 There is a misprint on p. 225 of the printed ver- effect that he received it on 6 June and replied sion, which reads, *As early as the 20th of Dec- on the same day. However, the copy of ember, he had informed Lord Ellenborough he Palmerston's letter to Adam of 23 Dec. 1822 thought the desert was the place to strike at'. The gives the date of the reply as 5 June, but as date given in the manuscript is the 2nd not the the copyist had already made one mistake - 20th. 8 It should be pointed out that since the papers 10 The Williams Papers (Add. MS. 54564), pre- were rearranged in May 1972, certain modifica- sented with the second series by the RoyaTl tions have been carried out. One was the elimina- United Service Institution, do not in fact belong tion of the volume of maps, most of which were to the Napier Papers, transferred to the Map Library. ti The euphemistic dash in 'd d' is Napier's. 9 Most of Lord Ellenborough's letters in this 12 On Sir Charles and his brothers see P, Napier, series were written after his retirement from the Revolution and the Napier Brothers, 1820-1840 Governor-Generalship, (1973)-