Correspondence of the Family of Haddock, 1657-1719 The Camden Miscellany: Volume the Eighth

Part 1

Chapter 13,775 wordsPublic domain

Transcriber’s Note: inconsistencies in spelling, etc are left unaltered.

THE CAMDEN MISCELLANY, VOLUME THE EIGHTH:

containing

FOUR LETTERS OF LORD WENTWORTH, AFTERWARDS EARL OF STRAFFORD, WITH A POEM ON HIS ILLNESS.

MEMOIR BY MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE ON THE LIFE OF HENRIETTA MARIA.

PAPERS RELATING TO THE DELINQUENCY OF LORD SAVILE, 1642-1646.

A SECRET NEGOCIATION WITH CHARLES THE FIRST, 1643-1644.

A LETTER FROM THE EARL OF MANCHESTER ON THE CONDUCT OF CROMWELL.

LETTERS ADDRESSED TO THE EARL OF LAUDERDALE.

ORIGINAL LETTERS OF THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH.

CORRESPONDENCE OF THE FAMILY OF HADDOCK 1657-1719.

LETTERS OF RICHARD THOMPSON TO HENRY THOMPSON, OF ESCRICK, CO. YORK.

PRINTED FOR THE CAMDEN SOCIETY.

M.DCCC.LXXXIII.

WESTMINSTER: PRINTED BY NICHOLS AND SONS, 25, PARLIAMENT STREET.

[NEW SERIES XXXI.]

COUNCIL OF THE CAMDEN SOCIETY FOR THE YEAR 1882-3.

_President_, THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF VERULAM, F.R.G.S.

J. J. CARTWRIGHT, ESQ., M.A., _Treasurer_. WILLIAM CHAPPELL, ESQ., F.S.A. F. W. COSENS, ESQ., F.S.A. JAMES E. DOYLE, ESQ. REV. J. WOODFALL EBSWORTH, M.A., F.S.A. JAMES GAIRDNER, ESQ. SAMUEL RAWSON GARDINER, ESQ., _Director_. J. W. HALES, ESQ., M.A. ALFRED KINGSTON, ESQ., _Secretary_. CHARLES A. J. MASON, ESQ. THE EARL OF POWIS, LL.D. EVELYN PHILIP SHIRLEY, ESQ., M.A. (_the late_) REV. W. SPARROW SIMPSON, D.D., F.S.A. WILLIAM JOHN THOMS, ESQ., F.S.A. J. R. DANIELL-TYSSEN, ESQ., F.S.A. (_the late_).

The COUNCIL of the CAMDEN SOCIETY desire it to be understood that they are not answerable for any opinions or observations that may appear in the Society’s publications; the Editors of the several Works being alone responsible for the same.

CORRESPONDENCE OF THE FAMILY OF HADDOCK 1657-1719

EDITED BY EDWARD MAUNDE THOMPSON

PRINTED FOR THE CAMDEN SOCIETY M.DCCC.LXXXI.

PREFACE.

Settled from remote times in the little town of Leigh, in Essex, at the mouth of the Thames, the family of Haddock, we may be sure, took early to the sea, as was befitting their name. There are traces of Haddocks of Leigh to be found as far back as Edward the Third’s days; but we need not search for earlier generations than those which sprang from Richard Haddock, a captain in the Parliamentary Navy. That the family had followed the sea from father to son in bygone times, and had so established a tradition to be observed by their descendants, might be argued from the regularity with which the Haddocks of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries served in the Navy for upwards of a hundred years. This regularity is only to be equalled by that with which they named their children Richard, to the perpetual confusion of their biographers.

Captain Richard Haddock, to whom reference has been made above, served under the Commonwealth. In 1642 we find him in command of the ship Victory, and in 1652 he received a reward of £40 for good service. He died in 1660 at the age of 79. His eldest son William, also a Parliamentary captain, commanded the ship America in 1650, and the Hannibal in 1653. He survived his father only seven years, dying in 1667, aged 60. Captain Richard Haddock had another son, Richard, who was probably a good deal younger than his brother. He served with distinction in the Dutch war in 1673;[1] and was in all probability the father of William Haddock whom the family papers show to have been a lieutenant in the Cornwall in 1696-1697, and who commanded a ship in the action off Cape Passaro in 1718 (p. 54) and died in 1726.

William Haddock, the Parliamentary captain, had at least four sons: Richard, Andrew, Joseph, and William. Richard will be noticed presently. Andrew is mentioned in the first letter of this Correspondence. William was at sea with his brother Richard in 1657 and 1658. Joseph was a lieutenant in the Lion in 1672, and in the Royal Charles in 1673, and served in the Dutch war in those years; and afterwards held a command in the East Indies, whence he wrote an interesting letter here printed (p. 37). Richard Haddock was born about the year 1629, and must have entered the service at an early age; for in 1657, when the present Correspondence begins, he was already a captain in command of the Dragon frigate, which formed part of the squadron cruising off Dunkirk. In 1666 he was captain of the Portland; but from 1667 to 1671 he appears to have temporarily left the Navy and engaged in trading to the Mediterranean. On the breaking out of the Dutch war, however, he was made captain of the Royal James, the ship on which the ill-starred Earl of Sandwich hoisted his flag in the battle of Southwold Bay. He was one of the few officers of that vessel who survived the day, though he did not escape unwounded. He next commanded the Lion; but early in 1673 he was appointed to the Royal Charles, Prince Rupert’s ship, and within a few weeks followed the Prince into the Royal Sovereign, when the bad qualities of the former ship in action became evident. In July of the same year he was made Commissioner of the Navy; and on the 3rd of July, 1675, he was knighted. In 1682 he was appointed to the command of the Duke and to the chief command of ships of war in the Thames and narrow seas; and in the next year became First Commissioner of the Victualling Office. After the Revolution he was named Comptroller of the Navy, which office he continued to hold till his death, and received a pension of £500 a year. He was one of the joint commanders-in-chief of the fleet in the expedition to Ireland in 1690. He died on the 26th of January, 1715, in his eighty-sixth year, and was buried in his native town of Leigh.

Sir Richard represented the borough of Shoreham in the parliament of 1685-1687. He was twice married, his first wife being named Lydia, probably a member of the family of Stevens, which was settled at Leigh. The maiden name of his second wife Elizabeth is unknown. He probably married her not earlier than 1670, when she was about twenty years of age, the inscription on her tomb recording her death in 1709, at the age of 59.

Sir Richard appears to have had at the least six children, three sons and three daughters. The sons were Richard, William, and Nicholas. Of the daughters the name of only one, Elizabeth, has survived, who married John Clarke, of Blake Hall in Bobbingworth, co. Essex. Another daughter married a Lydell. The third daughter died unmarried. William, apparently the second son, died young. Richard and Nicholas both entered the Navy.

Richard, the eldest son, was, in 1692, fifth lieutenant of the Duchess, and was present at the battle of La Hogue. He afterwards served in the London, and in 1695 was in command of the Rye. At the beginning of 1702 he received his commission as captain of the Reserve, and in the following year succeeded to the Swallow. In the latter ship he served with Sir George Rooke in the Mediterranean. But in 1707 he had the misfortune to be surprised by the French when convoying the Archangel merchant fleet and to lose fifteen ships; and, although appointed to the Resolution early in the following year, he seems to have soon retired from active service. In 1734, however, he re-appears as Comptroller of the Navy, and held the post for fifteen years, dying at an advanced age in 1751. From the entries in Leigh parish registers it seems that he was married thrice and had issue, none of whom, however, survived him many years.

Of Nicholas, the youngest son of Sir Richard Haddock, we first catch sight in the following pages (p. 43) as distinguishing himself at Vigo in 1702, and serving in Spain in 1706. In the following year, on the 7th April, he received the command of the new ship Ludlow Castle, being not yet twenty years old. At the battle of Cape Passaro he fought his ship, the Grafton, with great gallantry; and indeed at all times proved himself a very skilful and dashing officer. He rose eventually to the rank of Admiral of the Blue, and commanded the squadron sent into the Mediterranean to overawe the Spaniards in 1738-1741. He returned to England invalided and did not long survive, dying in 1746, aged 60.

About the year 1723 he purchased Wrotham Place, in Kent, where he occasionally lived. He left three sons: Nicholas, Richard, and Charles. The first died in 1781; Richard served in the Navy; Charles was still living at Wrotham in 1792.

Here the male line of the Haddocks fails; and it is not necessary to follow the family history further. A pedigree, which may be found useful, is appended.[2]

* * * * *

It will be seen that the letters and papers here printed belonged, for the most part, to Sir Richard Haddock. His long life enabled him to embrace four adult generations in his correspondence. The collection of documents from which they have been selected was purchased by the Trustees of the British Museum in 1879, and now forms the Egerton MSS. 2520-2532.

It is to be regretted that the Correspondence is so comparatively scanty, for no doubt at one time the collection was a good deal larger. From Nichols’s _Literary Anecdotes_ (vol. v. p. 376) we know that the Haddock papers were placed in the hands of Captain William Locker, the Lieutenant-Governor of Greenwich Hospital, who contemplated a publication of naval biography which was carried out by Charnock in his _Biographia Navalis_ from the same materials. There is also evidence among the papers themselves, in the form of a letter written by Charles Haddock in 1792, to show that they were placed in Locker’s hands. The fate of borrowed books and papers is a mournful one.

But, few as they are, a selection from the Haddock Papers has been thought worthy to appear in print. As specimens of the letter-writing of a seafaring family of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the letters have a value of their own, even apart from the personal interest which they inspire as the record of long and honourable service.

E. M. T.

_24 March, 1881._

[1] See p. 19 in the Correspondence. Charnock in his _Biographia Navalis_, i. 334, has made him out to be the son of Andrew Haddock, his own nephew.

[2] The best account of the Haddock family is to be found in a paper written by Mr. H. W. King and printed in _The Archæological Mine_, a work relating to Kentish history by A. J. Dunkin, vol. ii., pp. 41-51. Charnock’s _Biographia Navalis_ of course gives particulars of the services of the family; and a number of original naval commissions of its different members are still extant in Egerton MS. 2520. See also _The History of Rochford Hundred_ by Philip Benton, 1872, pp. 35 _sqq._

CORRESPONDENCE OF THE FAMILY OF HADDOCK.

CAPTAIN RICHARD HADDOCK[a] TO HIS FATHER.

Dragon frigᵗ in the Downes, this 30ᵗʰ May, aᵒ 1657.

HONᵈ FATHER,

Sir, these I hope will congratulate yoʳ safe arrivall at Leghorne, wᶜʰ God graunt may be with yoʳ health and well fare, for the continuation whereof I shall ever pray.

I cannot yet forgett my unhapynes yᵗ soe short a tyme and small distance hindred me the inioymᵗ of seeing yoᵘ before you gote out yᵉ Channell, seeing I made it my aime and bussines to performe it, but pleased God to frustrate me of my intended hapynes. I hope yᵗ our next interview may be with the greater ioy and comfort. Indeed, when I returned to Dover, which was the Sonday following yoʳ departure, I was not a little greived when Major Genˡˡ Kelsey[b] tould me yᵉ unwellcome news of yoʳ being past by; and himselfe was very sory when I gave him an accᵗ yᵗ I mett yoᵘ not, and tould me, if I had in yᵉ least desired not to have gone for Zeinhead, he would have ordered an other ship in oʳ roome. I was very thankfull for his respect he exprest towards yoᵘ, but I knew not before yᵗ I might be soe bould wᵗʰ him as to desire such a favor. Yoᵘ saild hence yᵉ Fryday evening; and Satuarday, by 10 in yᵉ forenoone, we were soe neare yᵉ head of Beachy yᵗ noe shipp could or did passe by us, but we spake wᵗʰ in hopes of meeting yoᵘ. Surely the wind blew the harder to deny me yᵗ hapynes. God in mercy goe alongst with yoᵘ and preserve yoᵘ from the rage of unreasonable men. I shall not be wanting, as I am bound in duty, to make it my earnest request to God for yoʳ preservation. My wife, in good health, presents her humble duty to yoᵘ, and hath ever since bine very sorrowfull she stayed not behind to present her duty and respects to yoᵘ at yoʳ departure.

Sir, litle of novelty ofers at present, only of great preparations for yᵉ fitting out seavrall great shipps, as yᵉ Resolution, Naiesby, and Andrew, from Portsmᵒ; yᵉ Tryomph, Victory, Vantguard, and Entrance, from Chatham. I cannot give you an accᵗ, yᵉ occasion or upon wᵗ designe yᵉ shipps are prepared; only suppose it may be to be in a readynes to defend our selves if any treachorus act should be ofered by the Hollander, who will have 70 saile men of warr out very sodainely, as is certainely reported. I hope noe act of hostillity against us is intended. We have iust cause to feare yᵉ worst; and I think, as farr as I am able to aprehend, yoᵘ will have little occasion to trust or put any confidence in them abroad. God send us peace at home and abroad; but, if these faile us, peace wᵗʰ God will beare up our spirits in the greatest dificulties yᵗ doe atend our earthly pilgrimage.

Sir, my wife desires yoᵘ please, at yoʳ arrivall at Venᵃ, to buy for her a foiled stone of the measure I conseave was given by her sisters to Brother Andrew at Leigh; as alsoe a pott ketle and 2 stue panns, one lesser than the other; as alsoe a jarr from Leghorne, with wᵗ other things nessesary for a howse, to yᵉ value of £3 in fower pound in all, which shall be thankfully repayed. I intend to wright yoᵘ to Venᵃ, when [I] conseave you may ataine thither, and what ofers shall not be wanting of advizeing yoᵘ.

My Lord Protector hath denyed yᵉ governmᵗ of the Comonwealth under yᵉ title of King,[c] and since, its established to him in the title he now beares.[d]

I have not heard from home since yoʳ departure. My intire love with my wives remembred to our 3 brothers wᵗʰ all oʳ freinds on bord yoᵘ. Brother Wm., in health, presᵗˢ his humble duty to yoᵘ, wᵗʰ his love to his Broʳ. My saluts to Mr. Holder; and, with my most humble duty presented to yoʳ self, I remayne,

Sir, yoʳ ever lo. and obedient sonne till death,

RICHARD HADDOCK.

My wife being present desires, wᵗʰ yᵉ presenting her humble duty to yoᵘ, to subscribe herselfe yoʳ lo. daughter till death,

LYDIA HADDOCKE.[e]

Since yᵉ wrighting yᵉ above lynes I have recᵈ order to goe over and ryde before Dunkerk, and to take yᵉ comand of yᵗ squadron now riding there. This day is arrived hapy news, Genˡˡ Blake’s burneing and sinking 16 saile of the K. of Spaine’s gallions and shipps at Sᵗᵃ Cruse, most welcome and true.[f]

R. H.

To his honᵈ. father, Capt. Wm. Haddock, Comander of the shipp Hanniball, these present, Livorno.

* * * * *

[a] Afterwards Admiral Sir R. Haddock.

[b] Major-General Thomas Kelsey, commanding in Kent and Surrey.

[c] On the 8th May.

[d] On the 25th May.

[e] Richard Haddock’s first wife. Perhaps her maiden name was Stevens. (See letter of 1 May 1658, in which Haddock sends his duty to “Father and Mother Steevens.”)

[f] Blake’s last victory at Santa Cruz, in the Canaries, 20th April. He died on his voyage home, in sight of land, on the 17th August.

THE SAME TO THE SAME.

Dragon frigᵗ in Dunkirk Road, this 15ᵗʰ June, aᵒ 1657.

HONᵈ FATHER,

Sʳ, my most humble duty wᵗʰ Bro. Wms. presented unto you wᵗʰ oʳ intire loves to oʳ loveing brothers and freinds wᵗʰ you. These only serve to advize yoᵘ of our wellfare, hopeing and earnestly praying to the Lord that yᵉ like good health atends you yᵗ, blessed be God, we injoy. These I hope will find yoᵘ safe arrived at Leghorne. My last from the Downes gave yoᵘ an accᵗ yᵗ we were ordered over hither to take the command of this squadron that now lyes wᵗʰ us before this place.[a] Since oʳ arrivall heere, wᶜʰ is 14 dayes since, not anything of action hath ofered worth yoʳ advice; the good we doe heere is only to keepe there men of warr in yᵗ are in, and prevent those comeing in wᵗʰ there prisses yᵗ are abroad. But they want not harbours in Holland to secure them and wᵗ they ketch from us. I conseave yoᵘ want not letters of caution from yoʳ owners to be carefull of trusting the Hollanders. I feare they will prove treacherous to there ingagemᵗˢ wᵗʰ us in the peace agreed betwixt us. They are almost ready to saile wᵗʰ 50 or upward men of warr, besides 16 saile now in or Channell. My Lord Protector is not wanting to prevent there treacherous actions, if any intended against us. I conseave in 14 dayes we may have upwards of 40 saile, considerable men of warr, in the Downes, to answer any atempt may be ofered by them; and doe beleive both we and the squadron before Ostend may be called of, as soone as we have any intelligence of there redynes to saile.

All oʳ freinds in England, I heare, are in health. My wife still at Deall, and stayes to accompᵃ Aunt Morgan to London; my unkle now being in the Downes, and conseave may saile very sodainely, the wind presenting faire at present. Sir, please at yoʳ arrival at Venᵃ to present my service and respects to my Mr. and Mrs. Hobson, with Mr. Jno. Hobson, junʳ, my saluts; as also to Mr. Jones and his wife.

Sir, I have not else at present worth yoʳ advice. With my earnest prayers to Almighty God to preserve you out of the hands of yoʳ mercyles enemyes, and send yoᵘ a safe returne to the injoymᵗ of yoʳ relations, for the happy accomplishmᵗ whereof itt shall be the earnest request of,

Sir, yoʳ most affetionate and obedient sonne till death,

RICHARD HADDOCK.

To his honᵈ freind Capt. Wm. Haddock, Comander of the ship Hanniball, these present, at Livorno.

* * * * *

[a] By the treaty (23 Mar. 1657) with France against Spain, Cromwell agreed to find 6000 men, with a sufficient fleet, to operate against Gravelines, Mardike, and Dunkirk; the two latter towns, when reduced, to be delivered to the English. Mardike was captured in September of this year, and Dunkirk in June 1658; and both towns were duly handed over to the English forces.

THE SAME TO THE SAME.

Dragon frigᵗ in Dunkirke Road, this 26 Aprill, 1658; Monday.

HONᵈ FATHER,

Sʳ, my most humble duty presented unto yoᵘ wᵗʰ my deare Mother, Grandfather, and Grandmᵒ, wᵗʰ my loveing saluts to my wife, broˢ, sisters, and freinds. My last, of 18 instant, I sent by my Broʳ Wm., whome I gave leave to goe to London; wᶜʰ hope is safely arrived with you. Since wᶜʰ, litle of acction here in these parts. The 21 instant, about midnight, heere escaped out a small pickeron of 4 or 6 guns out this haboʳ, notwᵗʰstanding our vigilancy and indeavors for his surprizall, haveing oʳ boates in wᵗʰ the shore and a small frigᵗ, who gave him chase and fired seavrall guns at him; but the darknes of the night prevented there long keepeing sight of him, and, notwᵗʰstanding they made after him to the best of there understanding, yet he got away and noe sight of him at day light. Last Saturday heere went from Mardike Marshall d’Aumon, Duke of Bouligne,[a] wᵗʰ 13 hundred French souldiers, imbarqued in seaverall vessells, and gone to Oastend, before wᶜʰ place they arrived that night wᵗʰ the Vice Admirall.[b]

If the intelligence given me be true, we shall see a sodaine alteration in Flaunders. Its said yᵗ, for a considerable summe of mony, the towne of Ostend is to be delivered up to yᵉ King of Fraunce by the Governor and inhabitants of sᵈ place, they being in such a sad condition by reasone of the extreame burden yᵗ lyes upon them.

For security of performance there is a considerable man, who hath confirmed the accord wᵗʰ the K. of Fraunce, now wᵗʰ Marshall d’Aumon, that belongs to Ostend, who hath ingaged his life for performance. I pray God they faile not in there undertakeings; and, although treachery be hateful and odious throughout the world, yet doubtles ’twill prove hapye for our poore traders when such a considerable place as yᵗ is, a neast of roages, shall be routed. If it proves efectuall, farwell most pᵗˢ of Flaunders this sumer.