A Kingston Court Martial

[anteros_lmc]

There is something about the dispassionate tone of Admiralty documents that does rather inure you to the reality of the events they relate. (Pellew in particular is a master of the concise understatement.) Every so often however something turns up that stops you in your tracks and brings that reality into stark focus.

Last night nodbear sent me a transcript of the court martial of twelve men of HM Sloop Ferret, Captain George Cadogan, who where tried for mutiny in Port Royal harbour, Kingston, Jamaica on the 8th of October 1806.

The summary verdict of the court martial reads as follows:

"The court is of the opinion that the charges are fully proved against the said Thomas Simpson, Richard Parfrais, John Armstrong, Mark Stalland, John Stanton, Samuel Johnston, John Powell, John Lee, William Whitfield, John Seville, William Kent, but the charges are not proved against John Anderton. Do therefore adjudge the aforementioned are guilty and to be hanged by the neck until dead at the yard arms of such of his majesty's ships and at such time as the Commander in Chief shall think proper to direct and that the bodies of the said William Thomas Simpson, Mark Stalland, John Martin (?), Samuel Johnston, should be afterwards hung in chains in the most conspicuous place the Commander in Chief shall think proper to direct and they are here by severally sentenced to suffer accordingly."

As nodbear rightly commented, the sentence of hanging in chains in the most conspicuous place sounds positively mediaeval. In contrast, when the mutineers of the notoriously insubordinate ship Impetueux met their inevitable fate at the end of a yard arm in Port Mahon Roads in June 1799, Pellew carefully records in his log that their bodies were "committed to the deep".

It's unclear whether such extreme retribution was common in Kingston or whether it was indicative of the seriousness of the offence. The bloody and brutal Hermione mutiny had taken place on the same station within living memory and it's more than likely that the Commander in Chief had no qualms about making an example of any seamen who attempted to follow the Hermione mutineers' example. However that doesn't make it any less unsettling.

Needless to say this unavoidably calls to mind another mutiny, another Kingston court martial, and the very thought really is too awful to contemplate :/

Sorry, this is a completely grim post. Hopefully I'll be back with something a bit more uplifting later.

Comments

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

What a mix, that time was, of brutality and modernity. Not to say that one covered for the other, really. Both real, at the same time. And oh, Archie...

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

What a mix, that time was, of brutality and modernity.
I think that's what makes it so disturbing really. Scratch away the veneer of modernity and its raw brutality underneath.

And oh, Archie...
I know. It really doesn't bear thinking about. This knocked my whole day out kilter :/

[esteven]

It is so difficult to think that this was at a time we would later call the Age of Enlightenment.

To cheer myself up, I had to go and read of a court martial that ended happily

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

this was at a time we would later call the Age of Enlightenment
Indeed. it was certainly a time of great change and contradiction.

I had to go and read of a court martial that ended happily
Thankfully there are a few of those. I like the ones that end with "honorably acquitted." Which one were you reading?

[esteven]

Which one were you reading?
Replied at the other post. :D

It is not often, a court-martial ends up as the major part of a book chapter. :D

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

I guessed ;)

[lady-branwyn.livejournal.com]

It sounds like only some of the bodies were to be hung in chains. Perhaps the men who were seen as the ringleaders? Odd...

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Yes, I believe you're right. I think those whose remains were hung in chains were seen as the ring leaders. nodbear can correct me if I'm wrong but it appears from the Court Martial transcript that it was Simpson the bosun who incited the mutiny. I'll cover this mutiny in more detail in the next installment of George Cadogan's story, though I have no idea when I'll get round to writing it!

[rum-inspector.livejournal.com]

View from the harbour

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Lol! Very good, that made me laugh. Poor Finns what did they do to be treated like that by English Literature?! ;)

[nodbear.livejournal.com]

Yes it was only some of those convicted who had that additional horror inflicted on them - and presumably it was because they were considered ring leaders.
They were very harsh times but not just at sea - and it wasn't until 1834 that there was a substantial change in the law in Britain which removed death as a mandatory sentence for all kinds of lesser crimes ( though in practice many people were transported or imprisoned instead by that time so the law was just catching up really.And hangings at home were of course public so many people had seen them.

Sorry to have brought on a sad thought or two anteros_lmc but the real lives of those men and their families should make us pause I think too.
Have also had Archie in mind though of course.Thanks for sharing your thoughts and looking forward to ypu being able to use the new info in your next Cadogan post in a while.

*hugs*

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

And hangings at home were of course public so many people had seen them.
Indeed. The last public execution in Stirling took place in 1843 and there may well be later ones than that.

The court martial transcript will be invaluable for writing up the next section of George's story. One really has to admire the Admiralty's prowess in record keeping.

And yes, Archie...