John Graves Simcoe, 1752-1806 Page 26

  For Christmas 1804, the family took a holiday in Bath, a departure from their usual vast house parties where Simcoe staged masquerades on patriotic themes. Eliza, now twenty, was the recorder. (Her diary, with sketches, belongs to descendant Margaret Partridge.) “Papa,” Eliza wrote on 29 November, was not well enough to go to the Pump [Room].” Instead he “sent for the waters,” which were supposed to restore the imbiber to good health. On 11 December Major Henry Darling, the General’s A.D.C., joined them, bringing dispatches. On 21 December, “Papa, Major Darling and Francis went to the top of Malvern where is the remains of an old camp…”10 The view from the top of the Malvern Hills was very fine (thought to have been the inspiration for the work of Sir Edward Elgar, patriotic music Simcoe would have admired). Francis had just completed his first term at Eton. In contrast to his father’s experience, under the popular headmaster, the Reverend Joseph Goodall, Francis passed some of the happiest days of his life.11

  DUELLING OVER DUNG?

  Returning to his work, Simcoe confronted a trivial problem, again the question over who should benefit from dung left where large numbers of horses congregated. The dung in question was on Woodbury Common, his adversary, no surprise, was Lord Rolle. As the principal landowner in the area, Rolle complained that Simcoe had authorised the removal of the dung but, as the lord of the manor, the dung was his, to sell or distribute to local people. Rolle wanted clarification on the question of “importance to every British Subject whether the orders of a General is to overturn the Lord of the Manor’s established right etc.”12

  The tedious correspondence reinforces the picture of Simcoe as a man with a patient streak, as the letters over clarification piled up. Lord Rolle’s staff had blocked some who attempted to remove more dung. Finally, the matter was referred to the Duke of York. The vague response from His Grace’s Quartermaster General Brownrigg was: “conceiving it was the custom to dispose of it for the advantage of the public.” No one had the right to dispose of the dung without the authority of the commander in chief, but, general practice was that dung usually formed part of the remuneration given to the proprietors or occupiers of land under culture and the lord of the manor where it was common land. The purchase price should be reclaimed and placed at Lord Rolle’s disposal.

  Simcoe probably expected this verdict — after the defense of property rights from the circular on the subject that he had received. Records showed that, elsewhere in the country, dung had been sold and the proceeds passed to the quartermaster general’s office. Finally, from Whitehall, Simcoe received orders dated 4 July 1805:

  …in making arrangements for ground on Woodbury Common … the dung made at camps shall be at the disposal of the Proprietor care being taken that the sum of money to be paid by the public is decreased in Proportion to the calculated amount of this advantage.13

  The relationship between Simcoe and Rolle grew so bad that John Bailey, in his idiosyncratic spelling, recalled Rolle’s challenge: “… there was a duel chaling but Lord role offered to fight with his fiestes but that way general simcoe would not except…” He was quite right. Gentlemen used swords or pistols; fists were for ruffians. (At the coronation of Queen Victoria, Lord Rolle, nearing age ninety, tripped on his robes while ascending the steps of the throne and rolled to the bottom. Thus fell the rolling Rolle, fair game for punsters.)

  NEW HOPES

  In March, 1805, the Earl of Moira informed Simcoe that the death of the member of Parliament for Honiton left an “open seat” and he offered him the chance to stand as candidate. Simcoe declined, as he had already told Mr. Flood to “exert himself in favour of [candidate] Mr. Bradshaw.” He gave Moira to understand that had His Lordship been in Pitt’s administration his response might have been different.14

  Simcoe, meanwhile, dreamed of a magnificent library to house his growing collection of fine books. He had asked an Exeter man, John Kendall, to prepare plans. John was the son of Edward Kendall, who had been stonemason for the Dean and Chapter house of Exeter Cathedral. John Kendall, in his father’s footsteps, had been Cathedral stonemason. He had also studied under James Paine of London, a designer of country houses. On 23 July 1805, Kendall submitted his plans, with the estimated cost £170.15 The record does not show whether Simcoe accepted the offer, but John Bailey later wrote of a magnificent room at Wolford Lodge, created during renovations.

  Robert Clifford, now at 10 Welbeck Street, London, had acquired two more “military works” for his friend. He had also approached a stonemason about a window Simcoe had designed for his library, which would cost £200.16

  Life was now comparatively quiet at Wolford Lodge. Simcoe had given up hope of a more prestigious command, preferably active service overseas, but he continued doing his duty as commander of the West of England. Military exercises were still important in the training of his troops. He received Lord Fortescue’s permission to use suitable areas at East Budleigh, Budleigh Salterton, Colaton Raleigh and Aylesbeare — all convenient to his coastal retreat.

  A weak point in his defences was Berry Head. Despite failing health, Lord Lennox visited the site and reported to Simcoe that the steep ascent from the beach was “not so cut away as to prevent people ascending and descending” but it could be defended adequately with “hand-grenades and pikes”…17 (Berry Head was not put to the test, except by large colonies of sea birds who assault the cliffs annually.)

  Life in the West of England was reasonably calm, but news from overseas signalled great rejoicing. Lord Nelson had been victorious at the Battle of Trafalgar; euphoria dampened by Nelson’s death. John Bailey recalled that people within earshot mistook Simcoe’s exuberant celebrations for the arrival of the French:

  … genereal simcoe sent to captain pearce to send the Luppitt artulery with thare cannon at the end of St. sirues hill thare to fire a salute it wase then 8 o’clock at night the people of honiton was rather alarmed hearing the cannon so very near them the guns wase herd very plain at axminster and many parts of devonshire general simcoe hade a very grand dinner party all the head gentery of the neiburhood wase present the greet new room wase fitted up buetefule moor than five hundred lamps lighted up in the room….

  The lamps were set up to form a crown and G.R. (George Rex). Some fifty carriages brought guests to a grand ball. Outside Wolford Lodge, round a great bonfire, more cannons were fired, Bailey recorded, with “greet joy.” The servants worked very had because the following morning they had to prepare for a “Young Ladys ball.”

  Wolford Lodge was then undergoing renovations. Lady Clifford enquired how the work was progressing. To help out, Lord Clifford was sending the General “Sir Joshua Reynolds account of Vanbrough buildings” for his perusal. “Pardon all faults, (Amase?) is strumming the harp and all the children dancing and making such a noise I can hardly write.”18

  William Mudge was still working on the survey of Devon. On 14 November 1805, Lawrence Palk of Haldon, south of Exeter, informed Simcoe that he had sent Major Mudge’s plans to Major Darling’s office at Exeter as “you will direct that Lord Clifford may convey them to Wolford Lodge.” Palk had penciled in some alterations and added a new road that ran from Exminster over the Exminster Marsh to the River Exe where there was a regular ferry to Topsham. Robert Clifford may have studied the plans in his capacity of consultant to John Cary, the map publisher. Palk was enthusiastic over an idea Simcoe had for a triumphal arch, to be erected on the Plymouth Road in honour of the late Lord Nelson.19

  Simcoe was on his way to London when Lord Nelson’s body arrived, preserved, not in the good navy rum of legend, but in a cask of good French brandy. The funeral was set for 9 January 1806 at St. Paul’s Cathedral. To his chagrin he was:

  … ranked as a squire because I came too late to town to go with the Commander-in-Chief … [At St. Paul’s] I deserted the low company I was in & got between two Highland Centinels.

  He found the ceremony impressive but “too theatrical.” He had seen Admiral Berkeley, the Duke of Kent, Lord Sidmouth an
d Colonel William Spencer, who had agreed to assist with the “determination of Francis.” Spencer offered to help Francis, then fourteen, obtain a commission in the army. Simcoe had decided not to have his elder son enter the navy.20

  Hopeless as his wish for an active command seemed, Simcoe persisted. He maintained that the Duke of York had promised him Plymouth and then broken his word. Addington, now Sidmouth, had also promised him Plymouth, but that went by the way with the return of Pitt. He had once been promised the governor generalship of Canada, but that, too, had come to nothing.

  On 10 February, his luck began to change. Pitt had died on 23 January. The new ministry was a coalition led by William Wyndham Lord Grenville, brother of his dear friend, the Marquis of Buckingham. Lord Sidmouth was now Lord Privy Seal in what was known as the Ministry of All the Talents, whose motive was reform. Simcoe suggested a command in Italy, but on 10 May, Lord Moira, now master general of ordnance in the new government, wrote that he was being “saved for better things.”21

  Francis, meanwhile, had decided on his future. He wrote to his mother on 28 June 1806 from Eton that he would make the army his career, and Lord Moira was going to assist him. William Walcot had advised him to follow a legal career, but fifteen-year-old Francis was not interested. “Cholwich,” whom he had told of his decision, had attended a cricket match. He had also met “Sir J. and Lady Poole, Mr. Osgood[e] and Mr. and Mrs. DeLuke.”22 He meant Jean André Deluc, the eminent Swiss geologist, author of a three-volume work, Geological Travels. His journeying that summer included visits to Mary Anne Burges, who introduced him to the General. Her friend Miss Elliott also offered him hospitality. A daughter of Admiral and Mrs. Elliott of Colchester, she was now living at Egland House, near Wolford Lodge.

  Oddly, Francis did not mention his father in his letter, nor suggest that his mother pass a greeting to him. This was not the only instance where Francis appeared to distance himself from his father. Simcoe’s daughters wrote “Father” but Francis put “My Father” when he mentioned him at all. The Lieutenant General’s expectations may have been hard on the boy. They were alike in many ways, and Simcoe himself would have been amazed had he suspected his elder son was afraid of him. He loved all his children without reserve but, not unusual, tension existed between father and heir.

  Jean Deluc visited the Simcoe house in Budleigh Salterton. The General took time off for an excursion and loaned him John Bailey as a guide. On a Simcoe horse, with Bailey and Miss Elliott’s gardner, Henry Rowe, as his escort, Deluc set off for the home of Sir John Trevelyan at Nettlecombe, Somerset. They stopped at Simonsburrow, above Hemyock, to examine a “burrow believed to be the grave of a Saxon warrior Sigmund.” He was particularly intrigued by the fossils he examined in the limestones and shales of the Blackdown Hills. Deluc found Simcoe impressive: “I shall never forget that excellent man, whose character endeared him more to me even than the services of which I was then indebted to him.”23

  At the time, for Simcoe, life was quickening. In November 1805, India and Great Britain signed a peace treaty. A Board of Control, usually called the India Board, was created to monitor British possessions in the East Indies and the affairs of the East India Company. On the board was Lord Sidmouth’s brother, John Addington, which may account for Simcoe’s name being suggested for the Indian command. Lord Moira, in a personal letter, enquired whether his friend wanted to be Commander in Chief in India. Moira had not spoken to anyone as yet, until he could know Simcoe’s reaction. Then the Marquis of Buckingham wrote that his brother, Thomas Grenville, President of the India Board of Control and First Lord of the Admiralty, wanted him to take the position in India.24

  On 27 July, Simcoe wrote Thomas Grenville:

  I cannot hesitate a moment in saying that the command therein pointed out is not suited to my inclination nor to that experience nor sort of ability that I believe myself to possess.

  With surprising haste, his sense of duty and patriotism overwhelming him, Simcoe had a change of heart. On the 28th he informed Moira:

  My Lord,

  Mr. Grenville, through the marquis of Buckingham, sounded me in respect of India. This Command I declined by last night’s post, thinking the communication private and optional. Today I received a very flattering letter from Mr. Grenville stating that Lord Minto was as desirous as himself of the appointment, & that such were the sentiments of the Duke of York I cannot but consider the Commander-in-Chief’s opinion as a command & therefore have consented.

  He warned Moira that his letter was confidential, although if the Duke of York knew, it would not be a secret. “I wait with great composure to learn whether in the interim between my acceptance & prior refusal, any other person volunteers a banishment to India …“25

  Word of Simcoe’s appointment soon spread. On 7 August, Robert Clifford wrote to his sister-in-law, Mary Lady Arundell of Wardour Castle near Salisbury, that Simcoe had been named C. in C. in India and would shortly be arriving in London. Robert Russell, the helpful Exeter carrier/banker, sent his congratulations.26

  Simcoe would have preferred a command in Europe rather than “gain the treasures of the East” as he had told Thomas Grenville. King and Country came before his personal feelings, especially as the order came from the Duke of York. Gilbert Elliot-Murray Knynymound, 1st Earl of Minto, would be the new Governor General. Plans were interrupted when the administration learned that Napoleon was intending to invade Portugal to dethrone the Royal family and partition the country. A naval squadron must be sent immediately to Lisbon with Admiral Lord St. Vincent and Lieutenant General Sir James St. Clair Erskine, 2nd Earl of Rosslyn, to report on whether Britain should support Portugal by sending troops. Simcoe would be going. Moira told him he would have rank as a full General in Portugal.

  Simcoe left for Plymouth to embark on H.M.S. Illustrious. He took Eliza with him as far as Ugbrooke, at the invitation of Lady Clifford. Eliza had been unwell, and Elizabeth trusted that the change of air would restore her. Writing from Ugbrooke to Miss Hunt, Eliza recalled her mother’s distress over the Portugal venture: “ … to have a husband torn from her and sent on an expedition is hard.” The family felt that he was fit to go to India, but not to undertake the mission to Portugal. Eliza was the first person her father had told when he thought he would be sent to India, and she had been flattered that he had confided in her.27

  On 2 September, Simcoe wrote to Elizabeth from Lisbon. He was taken ashore and for a short while he convalesced at Coimbra. He wrote to Eliza from there that he was feeling somewhat better.28 To Elizabeth he admitted that he had been ashore, and had gone to St. Vincent’s ship Britannia to visit the naval surgeon:

  … & well I did so, for I was seized with the asthmatic paroxysm on my return, which lasted seven hours, during which period I exhausted the whole artillery of medicine for my recovery, but being skilfully attended by the faculty, & most affectionately nursed by my friends & servants, I thank God that I am perfectly convalescent.

  He admitted the cause of his illness, which he blamed on the “Hurry of the voyage” crowded into one cabin with eight other men. While they were aboard, the Illustrious was being painted “white lead on the outside & verdigris [green oxidated copper] within.” In fact, he was being slowly poisoned.29

  St. Vincent could see that he was dying. On 25 September he ordered him home — on the very vessel that had been the cause of his suffering.30 The Illustrious reached Tor Bay on 20 October, where Simcoe was carried to a sloop stationed there to protect the Brixham fishing fleet. From Topsham on the River Exe, he was taken to Archdeacon Moore’s house in Cathedral Close. An express message reached Elizabeth, who was in London with Eliza and Charlotte, shopping in preparation for India. They hastened to Exeter, arriving in time to find him still alive. He died on 26 October 1806, about the time that Mary Anne Burges, her own health poor, arrived to comfort her friend.

  Sir John Kennaway, aided by Colonel James Coleridge and Major Henry Darling, implemented funeral plans worthy of so high-
ranking an officer, plans prepared by Simcoe himself. Kennaway arranged for the Sidbury and Sidmouth companies of artillery, with two guns, to fire one minute guns from twelve noon until one o’clock. There could be no military displays in Exeter itself because an election was in progress. Soldiers must not be permitted to intimidate voters. The Exeter Flying Post reported on 6 November, a Thursday, on the funeral two days before:

  On Tuesday the remains of the late much lamented General Simcoe, were removed from his apartments, at the rev. Archdeacon Moore’s in this city, to his family seat at Wolford Lodge, for interment. The funeral was most respectably attended; three mourning coaches followed the hearse, in which were the chief mourners, the confidential friends of the late general, and his servants. After them came the general’s carriage attended by two servants in deep mourning on horseback. In succession we noticed the following gentlemen in carriages: Generals Thewlis and Thomas, with the staff, lords Clifford and Graves, sir Stafford Northcote, sir Wm. Pole, sir John Kennaway, the High-sheriff, admiral Richard Graves, Mr. Baring, Mr. Morshead, colonel Chester, colonel Coleridge, major Dickenson, Mr. Dalrymple &c. All the troops having quitted this city on account of the election, the Exeter regiment of volunteers assembled at the three mile stone on the Honiton road, to pay a compliment to the departed general. From thence his remains were escorted by a squadron of dragoons, the volunteers assembling at various passes to line the road, whilst the procession passed on. At Honiton the troops were all drawn out, and minute guns fired. In short, every respect which could be paid to an esteemed, and much lamented commander was shown on this occasion. The body was interred by torch light, about six in the evening.31