Gibraltar viewed from across part of the isthmus, with the typical cloud caused by easterly winds, shrouding the site of the Rock Gun
The ruins of the Spanish Fort St Barbara, looking south towards the eastern and northern sides of Gibraltar
Looking from the hills above Algeciras to Gibraltar in a print of 1840. The town of Algeciras is just beyond the aqueduct and the Green Island lies to the right
San Roque viewed from the Governor’s Palace. In the distance, on the left, is Gibraltar and on the right is the Spanish coast with Cabrita Point and Algeciras. Ape’s Hill in Barbary rises above the layer of mist. The chimneys of an oil refinery (right) mark the site of the Carteia Roman ruins
The Governor’s Palace at San Roque, the headquarters of the Spanish military campaign during the siege
A view northwards to Spain from Signal Hill towards Middle Hill and the site of the Rock Gun. On the right is the sheer eastern side and the Mediterranean
Barbary macaques largely inhabited the inaccessible eastern side of Gibraltar
Looking from Willis’s battery (now with World War Two structures) towards the north front of the Rock. The protruding rock on the left is ‘the Notch’, towards which Ince was mining a tunnel in 1782
The Landport gate and tunnel through which the soldiers passed during the sortie of November 1781. The stone bridge was demolished a few months later, and the sally port in the ditch (bottom left) was used instead
Looking through the original Southport gate from the town
One of the larger floating batteries moving into position
A brass cannon on a wooden gun carriage, made by Bowen in 1758, now in the Alameda Gardens, in front of the Wellington monument
A brass howitzer, made by the Verbruggens at Woolwich in 1778, looking at the muzzle down which gunpowder and ammunition were loaded. It now forms part of a large monument in the Alameda Gardens dedicated to Eliott
British officers, one with a telescope, watching the floating batteries burn. In the distance are white tents of the French and Spanish camp
Obverse of a halfpenny token showing the head of General Eliott (spelled Elliot). The reverse has a fleur-de-lys with the words ‘Birmingham Halfpenny 1792’
A Dutch medal commemorating (left) the sinking of the Royal George and the loss of Admiral Kempenfelt and (right) the floating batteries attacking Gibraltar
WEIGHTS, MEASUREMENTS AND MONEY
On Gibraltar, all weights and measurements used were imperial ones, and so for those better acquainted with a metric system, the following may be useful:
Linear
12 inches (in.) = 1 foot (ft)
3 feet = 1 yard (yd)
6 feet = 1 fathom
22 yards = 1 chain
10 chains = 1 furlong
1760 yards = 1 mile
8 furlongs = 1 mile
Capacity
2 pints = 1 quart
4 quarts = 1 gallon
36 gallons = 1 barrel
54 gallons = 1 hogshead
Weight
16 ounces (oz) = 1 pound (lb)
14 pounds = 1 stone
8 stone = 1 hundredweight (cwt)
20 hundredweight = 1 ton
Some metric equivalents:
1 inch = 2.54 centimetres
1 foot = 30.48 centimetres
1 yard = 0.91 metres
1 mile = 1.61 kilometres
1 pint = 0.568 litres
1 gallon = 4.54 litres
1 ounce = 28.35 grams
1 pound = 0.45 kilograms
Money
¼ penny = 1 farthing
½ penny = 1 halfpenny
12 pence or pennies (12d.) = 1 shilling (1s.)
2 shillings and sixpence (2s. 6d.) = half a crown
20 shillings = £1 (one pound)
£1 1s. = 1 guinea
Approximate equivalents in decimal coinage are one guinea = £1.05; one pound = £1.00; one shilling = 5p; sixpence = 2.5p, and one penny = 0.416p. In terms of purchasing power, a penny at that time was worth about 26p today, a shilling (1s.) was worth about £3, and one pound about £62 (using The National Archives currency converter, which translates prices in 1780 to values in 2005). See also Chapter 5 for the local currency used on Gibraltar.
CHRONOLOGICAL OVERVIEW
This list of dates is a summary of a few key events relating to the Great Siege and other selected episodes in Britain’s history.
1713
March: Treaty of Utrecht
1760
25 October: George III becomes king
1771
March: Nelson joins the Royal Navy
1773
16 December: Boston Tea Party, when American colonists protest against the unjust taxation of tea imports
1774
10 May: Accession of Louis XVI as King of France
1775
19 April: American War of Independence (American Revolutionary War) begins, with the British defeat at Lexington
16 December: Jane Austen is born
1776
4 July American Declaration of Independence
1778
6 February: The French become allies of America
10 July: France declares war on Britain
1779
16 June: Spain declares war on Britain
21 June: The Great Siege of Gibraltar begins with a Spanish blockade
11 July: The first shot of the Great Siege is fired from Fort St Barbara
August to September: Attempted invasion of Britain by a combined French and Spanish fleet
12 September: The first shot is fired from the garrison of Gibraltar
30 October: The Peace and Plenty is destroyed
14 November: The Buck arrives
1780
16–17 January: Moonlight Battle
18 January: Rodney’s fleet and relief convoy arrive
7 June: Fireship attack
2–9 June: Gordon Riots in London
October: Spanish siegeworks start on the isthmus
20 December: Britain declares war on the Netherlands
1781
12 April: Darby’s fleet and relief convoy arrive; the Spanish bombardment begins
22 July: Mrs Green returns to England
19 August: Invasion of Minorca; the siege of Fort St Philip begins
19 October: Surrender at Yorktown
27 November: The Great Sortie
1782
4 February: On Minorca, Fort St Philip surrenders
12 April: Battle of the Saintes
25 May: The first tunnel in the Rock is started
12 August: Comte d’Artois arrives
29 August: The Royal George sinks
12 September: The combined fleet arrives in the Bay of Gibraltar
13 September: Attack by floating batteries
11 October: Hurricane; the San Miguel surrenders
Howe’s relief convoy arrives
1783
2 February: The Great Siege of Gibraltar ends
12 March: Eliott and Crillon meet
31 March: Crillon visits Gibraltar
23 April: Celebrations on St George’s Day
3 September: Peace of Versailles between Britain, France, Spain and America. Britain, France and Spain each recover lost territories. Britain recognises American independence
1790
6 July: George Augustus Eliott dies
NOTES
ABBREVIATIONS
BL :British Library, London
BL Add MS: British Library Additional Manuscripts
DALSS: Devon Archives and Local Studie
s Service
NMM: National Maritime Museum (Royal Museums, Greenwich)
GNA: Gibraltar National Archives
REM: Royal Engineers Museum, Gillingham
TNA: The National Archives, Kew
The spelling in eyewitness accounts has occasionally been corrected, since the way words were spelled at that time was often fluid, such as ‘robbery and marauding’ spelled as ‘robery and moroding’. Punctuation and style have sometimes been modernised as well, particularly the tendency to use dashes instead of full-stops, ampersands (&) instead of ‘and’, and upper-case letters for the start of many words. Most quotations have been only slightly altered, if at all, and the words and meaning have not been changed. For further background on this book, see www.adkinshistory.com.
PROLOGUE: DISASTER
1. TNA ADM 34/365, which says ‘Complement 867 men’.
2. Payn 1885, pp. 29–30. He also says: ‘In a letter which Miss Martineau once showed me, from a relative of hers, long dead, addressed to her great-niece from Southsea, near Portsmouth, and dated August 9, 1782’. The date ‘9’ should be ‘29’. Many thanks to members of the Martineau Society for trying to identify the letter writer and recipient.
3. United Services Magazine (1839), pp. 419–20.
4. Anon 1834, p. 175. TNA ADM 34/365 says ‘Jas. Ingram Ord AB’. He was discharged to the Ruby on 29 August 1782.
5. Anon 1834, p. 175. Ned Carrell was presumed drowned, but TNA ADM 34/365 has a ‘Hez. Carroll AB’, who survived.
6. Anon 1834, pp. 175–6.
7. Anon 1834, p. 176.
8. Anon 1834, p. 176.
9. BL Add MS 36493. Cumberland initially wrote 200, but changed it to 400.
10. BL Add MS 36493.
11. Anon 1834, p. 176.
12. Anon 1834, p. 176.
13. There is no record of a surviving seaman called ‘Horn’ in the Royal George muster book TNA ADM 34/365. He may have been sailing under a false name or was not on board that morning. Essex Standard 16 December 1836 says ‘Horn’s wife and seven other married women were permitted to go out with their husbands to assist the surgeons in case of an engagement’.
14. BL Add MS 36493.
15. BL Add MS 36493.
16. Adkins 2008, pp. 153–64.
17. Vernon 1792, pp. 9–10.
18. Anon 1834, p. 176.
19. Derby Mercury 5 September 1782.
20. BL Add MS 36493.
21. Anon 1834, p. 176.
22. Garstin 1925, pp. 60, 62.
23. Derby Mercury 26 September 1782.
CHAPTER ONE: BEGINNINGS
1. From ‘The Contrast by a Soldier in Gibraltar’, BL Add MS 38606.
2. REM 5601.49.1.
3. Drinkwater 1785, p. 45.
4. 346M/F22, with kind permission of Devon Archives and Local Studies Service.
5. Drinkwater 1785, p. 49. War was declared by Spain on 16 June 1779.
6. Drinkwater 1785, p. 51; BL Add MS 50256.
7. Skidmore 2013, pp. 54–6.
8. Ayala 1782, appendix XI.
9. Hills 1974, p. 104. Isabella died in November 1504. Joanna was known as Joan the Mad.
10. Payne 1793, pp. 315–16. Portugal had held Tangier since 1471. Muley Ismail became ruler of Morocco in 1672.
11. Payne 1793, pp. 114–15.
12. The Ceuta siege lasted from 1694 to 1720 and 1721 to 1727.
13. It was reported that mayonnaise was prepared for a banquet in honour of Richelieu (who commanded the French troops).
14. McGuffie 1955, p. 217; Stead 2000, p. 208. Because of peace negotiations in February 1778, it was decided the 72nd should help with fortifications at Gibraltar.
15. Budworth 1795, p. vi.
16. The first action was between the Belle Poule and Arethusa.
17. Drinkwater 1785, p. 55.
18. Russell 1965; McGuffie 1965.
CHAPTER TWO: BLOCKADE
1. Tayler 1914, p. 316. The Duffs travelled to Gibraltar in early January 1778; Helen was ill in bed for a week after their arrival.
2. Bell and Ayala 1845, p. 174.
3. Bell and Ayala 1845, pp. 174–5.
4. GNA 1777 census.
5. The Town Range barracks were built 1740 and survived the siege. The South Barracks were built 1730–5.
6. Their son William-Smith was born on Gibraltar in January 1761.
7. Bell and Ayala 1845, p. 173. Green laid out the garden in 1777. See also Garcia 2014, pp. 104, 109–10.
8. REM 5601.49.1a.
9. REM 5601.49.1. Three of Mrs Green’s journals are in the Royal Engineers Museum, with overlapping dates. Much was published as Kenyon 1912a and 1912b. We have used the original.
10. 1398 feet.
11. Carter 1777, pp. 230–1. He lived there in 1772.
12. Carter 1777, pp. 250–1.
13. Hills 1974, pp. 222–5. This was Article X.
14. Anon 1782, p. 13.
15. James 1771, p. 382. He lived in Gibraltar 1749–55.
16. BL Add MS 50256.
17. TNA WO 1/286; BL Add MS 45188; TNA PRO 30/85/1.
18. TNA PRO 30/85/1; BL Add MS 45188.
19. 346M/F104, with kind permission of Devon Archives and Local Studies Service. Letter of 26 February 1776, signed ‘Bob Boyd’.
20. Cornwallis was a veteran of the Battle of Culloden in 1746.
21. Horsbrugh married Margaret Bell on 29 September 1762; she died at Cupar in August 1782. One daughter was called Christian Arabella Penfold, born 5 February 1776. Boyd Horsbrugh was born in 1770.
22. Conolly 1866, p. 239; Harvey 1961.
23. Charles Ross was from Morangie, Ross-shire, born about 1729. See Harvey 1961.
24. BL Add MS 50260.
25. BL Add MS 50260.
26. Conolly 1866, p. 239.
27. TNA PRO 30 85/1.
29. REM 5601.49.1; BL Add MS 50256; BL Add MS 45188 says ‘Three Dover Cutter privateers 16 to 20 guns each’. Dover had a reputation for building fine cutters.
30. Drinkwater 1785, pp. 55–6.
31. BL Add MS 50256; REM 5601.49.1.
32. BL Add MS 45188.
33. Westminster Magazine 2 (1779), p. 478; BL Add MS 50256.
34. REM 946.8ʹ1799ʹ (‘Journal of the Blockade and Siege of Gibraltar which commenced 21st June 1779 and continued until the 2nd February 1783 by C.Lt. RE Holloway’). Only Holloway’s first diary is available in REM, but others were seen by Porter when writing a history of the Royal Engineers (Porter 1889).
35. REM 5601.49.1.
36. REM 5601.49.1.
37. Drinkwater 1785, p. 58.
38. TNA PRO 30/85/1. See also Spilsbury 1908, p. 2.
39. Drinkwater 1785, p. 60; Landmann 1852, p. 25. The caricature was set in his library.
40. TNA PRO 30/85/1; Anon 1785, p. 5; REM 946.8ʹ1799ʹ.
41. Drinkwater 1785, p. 61.
42. TNA PRO 30/85/1; BL Add MS 50256.
43. Drinkwater 1785, p. 61.
44. Kendall 2012, pp. 116–17.
45. BL Add MS 50256; BL Add MS 45188.
46. BL Add MS 45188; TNA PRO 30/85/1; GNA 1777 census.
47. BL Add MS 45188.
48. REM 5601.49.1.
49. REM 5601.49.1.
50. REM 5601.49.1.
51. BL Add MS 45188.
52. Drinkwater 1785, p. 63.
53. BL Add MS 45188.
54. REM 946.8ʹ1799ʹ.
CHAPTER THREE: INVASION
1. Patterson 1960; Syrett 1998.
2. Ellis 1958, pp. 60–77; Patterson 1960, p. 96.
3. BL Add MS 24173.
4. Herbert 1967.
5. McGuffie 1965, p. 58; Macdonald 1906, pp. 35–41.
6. Macdonald 1906, p. 42.
7. Drewry’s Derby Mercury 27 August 1779.
8. Hampshire Chronicle 23 August 1779.
9. Macdonald 1906, pp. 42–3.
10. Hampshire Chronicle 23 August 1779.
11. Patterson 1960, p. 89; Syrett 1998, p. 76.
12. Hampshire Chronicle 23 August 1779.
13. Rutherford 1941.
14. Eliott-Drake 1911, p. 313.
15. Eliott-Drake 1911, pp. 313–14.
16. Patterson 1960, p. 183–4; Syrett 1998, p. 76. Rear-Admiral Francis William Drake was brother of Sr Francis Henry Drake.
17. Fortescue 1928a, p. 411.
18. Barnes and Owen 1936, pp. 89–90.
19. Vernon 1792, p. 12.
20. Wright 1837, p. 37.
21. Donne 1867, p. 282.
22. Barnes and Owen 1936, pp. 93–4.
23. Barnes and Owen 1936, pp. 94–5.
24. Barnes and Owen 1936, p. 97.
25. Scots Magazine 41 (1779), p. 503.
26. D’Arneth and Geffroy 1874, pp. 355, 357.
27. Annual Register 1780, p. 15.
CHAPTER FOUR: FIREPOWER
1. REM 5601.49.1.
2. Spilsbury 1908, p. 4.
3. Stonehouse 1839, p. 387.
4. Carter 1777, pp. 142–3.
5. BL Add MS 50256.
6. REM 5601.49.1.