Charles William Paterson Papers: Finding Aid

Finding aid prepared by Mary L. Robertson, December 10, 2011.

The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens

Manuscripts Department

1151 Oxford Road

San Marino, California 91108

Phone: (626) 405-2129

Email: reference@huntington.org

URL: http://www.huntington.org

Overview of the Collection

Title: Charles William Paterson Papers

Dates (inclusive): 1777-approximately 1858

Bulk dates: 1793-1798

Collection Number: mssHM 76748-76787

Creator: Paterson, Charles William, 1756-1841.

Extent: 43 pieces. 1 box.

Repository: The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Manuscripts Department

1151 Oxford Road

San Marino, California 91108

Phone: (626) 405-2129

Email: reference@huntington.org

URL: http://www.huntington.org

Abstract: This small collection contains papers of British Naval officer Charles William Paterson (1756-1841), who became Admiral of the White in 1837. The twin cores of this collection are six letters from Paterson in 1793-1794 to family during his naval service chiefly in the Mediterranean, and the Navy Board's various administrative letters to Paterson in 1798.

Language: English.

Access

Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.

Administrative Information

Publication Rights

The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item]. Charles William Paterson Papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Provenance

Purchased from Richard Ford Manuscripts Ltd., London, September 2011.

Biographical Note

Charles William Paterson (1756-1841), British naval officer and ultimately Admiral of the White, began his career in North American waters serving under Admiral Lord Howe during the Revolutionary War. He was appointed to the store-ship Gorgon in 1793 and served under Lord Hood at Toulon Bay, was promoted post captain in January 1794, commanded the Ariadne and the Melpomene in the Mediterranean, and returned to England in 1795. In 1798 he was appointed to the Admiral de Vries and supervised its repair and refitting at the Chatham naval dockyard. From 1800 to 1802 Paterson commanded the Montagu and then the San Fiorenzo in the English Channel, and later in the war served at Portchester Castle and Spithead. He was promoted Vice Admiral in 1819, and Admiral of the White in 1837.

Paterson married Jane Ellen Yeats in March 1801; they had at least one son, George Yeats Paterson, also an officer in the Royal Navy. Charles William Paterson died, probably at his home near Portsmouth, in March 1841.

Scope and Content

The twin cores of this small collection consist of (1) six letters from Captain Paterson to his uncle Charles William Tonyn (d. 1805, rector of Radnage in Buckinghamshire) and to his grandmother, written chiefly from the Mediterranean in 1793-1794, mentioning in passing the French Royalist uprising at Toulon in November 1793, Sir william Sidney Smith's attack on the French naval fleet and arsenal in the Inner Harbor at Toulon, and Paterson's own concerns for his family, patronage, and promotion, and (2) the Navy Board's various letters to Paterson concerning the personnel, supplies, and refitting of the ship Admiral de Vries at Chatham Yard in 1798. Other than a brief testimonial and a list of his promotions, there is virtually nothing about Paterson's earlier service in North America or his activities during the remainder of the Napoleonic Wars.

Related Materials in the Huntington Library

George Grenville, Marquess of Buckingham letter to "Sir," an unidentified job printer, refusing to pay for an order placed fraudulently, 1795, November 15. (Call number: mssHM 71380)

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in chronological order.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Huntington Library's Online Catalog.

Subjects

Buckingham, George Nugent Temple Grenville, Marquess of, 1753-1813.

Paterson, Charles William, 1756-1841.

Smith, W. Sidney (William Sidney), Sir, 1764-1840.

Stockdale, John 1749?-1814.

Admiral de Vries (Ship)

Chatham dockyard (Great Britain)

Gorgon (Ship)

Great Britain. Board of Ordnance.

Great Britain. Commissioners for Sick and Wounded Seamen.

Great Britain. Navy Board.

Great Britain. Royal Navy -- History -- 18th century -- Sources.

Great Britain. Victualling Office.

Navy- yards and naval stations -- Great Britain -- History -- 18th century.

France -- History -- 1789-1815 -- Sources.

Great Britain -- History -- 19th century -- Sources.

Toulon (France)

Forms/Genres

Business letters -- Great Britain -- 18th century.

Cartes-de-visite (card photographs) -- Great Britain.

Letters (correspondence) -- Great Britain -- 18th century.

Visiting cards -- Great Britain -- 19th century.

Additional Contributors

Collier, George, Sir, 1738-1795, correspondent

Tonyn, Charles William, d. 1805, recipient.

Sheerness dockyard (Great Britain), correspondent.

Box 1

mssHM 76748-76787

1773, Feb. 19. Collier, George, Sir, 1738-1795. Certification (1 p.) to the Navy Board of Charles William Paterson’s diligent service under his command on board the Flora. HM 76748

1793, Oct. 30. Paterson, Charles William, 1756-1841. Letter (2 p.)to Charles William Tonyn. HM 76772

1793, Nov. 21. Paterson, Charles William, 1756-1841. Letter (2 p.) to Charles William Tonyn, HM 76773

1793, Dec. 5. Paterson, Charles William, 1756-1841. Letter (3 p.) to “My dear Grandmama,” mentioning the French Royalist rising at Toulon. HM 76774

1793, Dec. 21. Paterson, Charles William, 1756-1841. Letter (3 p.) to Charles William Tonyn, Mentioning Sir W. Sidney Smith’s raid on the French fleet and arsenal at Toulon. HM 76775

1794, Mar. 18. Paterson, Charles William, 1756-1841. Letter (1 p.) to Charles William Tonyn. HM 76776

1798, Mar. 19. Great Britain. Commissioners for Sick and Wounded Seamen. Letter (1 p.) to Charles William Paterson. HM 76751

1798, Apr. 2. Great Britain. Commissioners for Sick and Wounded Seamen. Letter ( 1 p.) to Charles William Paterson. HM 76752

1798, Apr. 3. Great Britain. Victualling Office. Letter ( 1 p.) to Charles William Paterson. HM 76766

1798, Apr. 10. Great Britain. Board of Ordnance. Letter (1 p.) to Charles William Paterson. HM 76749

1798, Apr. 18. Paterson, Charles William, 1756-1841. Letter (2 p.) To Charles William Tonyn, concerning the scandalous affair of a fraudulent order for handbills placed with the London printer/publisher John Stockdale, 1749?-1814, purportedly by “The Marquess” [George Nugent Temple Grenville, Marquess of Buckingham, 1753-1813]. HM 76777

1798, Apr. 25. Great Britain. Victualling Office. Letter (1 p.) to Charles William Paterson. HM 76767

1798, May 10. Great Britain. Victualling Office. Letter (1 p.) to Charles William Paterson. HM 76768

1798, May 14. Great Britain. Navy Board. Letter (1 p.) to Charles William Paterson. HM 76753

1798, May 16. Great Britain. Navy Board. Letter (2 p.) to Charles William Paterson. HM 76755

1798, May 24. Great Britain. Navy Board. Letter (1 p.) to Charles William Paterson. Printed form, filled in. HM 76756

1798, May 25. Great Britain. Board of Ordnance. Letter (1 p.) to Charles William Paterson. HM 76750

1798, May 26. Great Britain. Navy Board. Letter (1 p.) to Charles William Paterson. Printed form, filled in. HM 76757

1798, July 5. Great Britain. Navy Board. Letter (1 p.) to Charles William Paterson. HM 76758

1798, July 6. Great Britain. Navy Board. Letter (1 p.) to Charles William Paterson. HM 76759

1798, July 10. Great Britain. Victualling Office. Letter (1 p.) to Charles William Paterson. Printed form, filled in. HM 76769

1798, July 14. Great Britain. Navy Board. Letter (1 p.) to Charles William Paterson. Printed form, filled in. HM 76760

1798, July 17. Great Britain. Victualling Office. Letter (1 p.) to Charles William Paterson. HM 76770

1798, July 21. Great Britain. Navy Board. Letter (1 p.) to Charles William Paterson. Following the above: draft reply dated July 24, 1798, not in Paterson’s hand, on dorse of sheet. HM 76761

1798, July 24. Great Britain. Navy Board. Letter (1 p.) to Charles William Paterson. HM 76762

1798, Aug. 2. Great Britain. Navy Board. Letter (1 p.) to Charles William Paterson. HM 76763

1798, Aug. 3. Great Britain. Victualling Office. Letter (1 p.) to Charles William Paterson. HM 76771

1798, Sep. 19. Great Britain. Navy Board. Letter (1 p.) to Charles William Paterson. Printed form, Filled in. HM 76764

1798, Sep. 19. Sheerness Dockyard (Great Britain). Letter (1 p.) to Charles William Paterson. HM 76780

1798, Sep. 22. Great Britain. Navy Board. Letter (1 p.) to Charles William Paterson. HM 76765

[ca. 1800]. Note of naval signal flags (1 p.) HM 76781

[ca.1801]. Note of the sailings and arrivals of His Majesty’s Ship San Fiorenzo, Charles William Paterson commanding, between March and July 1801. HM 76782

[1802?]. Paterson, Charles William (1756-1841). Pocket notebook of names and addresses, recipes, aphorisms, a list of the officers of the Montagu in 1800, etc. (29 p.) HM 76778

1806, Apr. 23. Paterson, Charles William, 1756-1841. Note re the death in 1805 of his uncle the Reverend Charles William Tonyn. (1 p.) HM 76779

1811, Oct. 1. Brief list of the wines of [ Irwin?]. (1 p.) HM 76783

[ca. 1822?]. “Ariosto”: [fragment of a poem beginning “Forget thee! Ask the midnight hour…”] (2 p.). HM 76784

1826. Note of the successive naval promotions of Charles William Paterson. (1 p.) HM 76785.

[ca.1858]. A statement of the services of the late Admiral Charles William Paterson, father of Lieutenant George Yeats Paterson, Lieutenant in Her Majesty’s Navy. (4 p.) HM 76786

Undated. Ephemera, 4 pieces: Visiting cards of Vice Admiral Paterson and his wife, a carte-de-visite (card photograph) of an unidentified man by Poate & Co., Portsmouth, and an empty envelope addressed to C. W. Paterson, Esq., Gosport, postmarked May 24, 1899. HM 76787