Volume 2

Guide to the materials for American history, to 1783, in the Public Record Office of Great Britain / by Charles M. Andrews.

  • Andrews, Charles McLean, 1863-1943.
Date:
1912-1914
    scattered about, as will be seen later, in Whitehall and the City. Nearly all of these offices have left records of their business, which show that the leading branches were organized as subdepartmental boards, with correspondence, minutes, registers, and accounts. The directive branch of the Admiralty consisted of the Lord High Admiral, with commissioners under him, or later the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty with their secretary. The board met daily, and in times of urgency twice daily, and carried on the routine work of directing the business of the navy. It shaped the policy of the government, generally under the direction of the king, as expressed in orders in Council, or in instructions from the Secretary of State, controlled the movement of the ships, determined the times of sailing, and kept a watch upon the execution of its orders. It corre¬ sponded with the admirals, vice-admirals, captains, commanders, and lieuten¬ ants of the squadrons, and after 1762 kept elaborate digests of the contents of letters received from them. It made appointments and signed warrants, not only for the higher officers but for carpenters, gunners, pursers, boatswains and their deputies, and even cooks. It administered to naval officers the oath and the test, generally by deputations sent to Chatham or Portsmouth, granted protection from impress, and furnished passes required by the merchant ves¬ sels for trading in the Mediterranean. Regarding convoys, imprests, trans¬ port, and supplies, it was in constant communication with the four principal branches of the administration—Navy Board, Victualling Board, Board for Sick and Wounded, and Transport Office—and it issued orders and instruc¬ tions either directly or, as was frequently the case with the Victualling Board, indirectly through the Navy House. It kept in touch with other subordinate officers, rendezvous lieutenants, prize commissioners, and paymasters of marines, and watched over Chatham Chest and Greenwich Hospital. It received recommendations, reports, and representations from the subordinate boards, and in its turn drafted memorials and representations to the Privy Council and the Treasury. It requested the Bishop of London to name suitable persons as chaplains of the fleet, and authorized all issues of money for the upkeep of the navy and the payment of its members, civil and naval. Having control over vice-admiralty jurisdiction, it was in very close touch with the High Court of Admiralty, issuing commissions for vice-admiralty officials and taking cognizance of all difficulties that arose in the exercise of vice¬ admiralty jurisdiction. It issued warrants for letters of marque, controlled the holding of courts-martial, and had immediate supervision of the marines in all parts of the world. The Admiralty and the Navy Board had a regular counsellor whose busi¬ ness it was to give advice in matters of law, and a solicitor who conducted prosecutions against “ pirates, embezzlers of the queen’s stores, and other offenders ”.1 In the early years one solicitor acted for all the principal offices, but later, as admiralty law business increased, the Navy and Victualling boards were allowed solicitors of their own. The Admiralty called for reports on cases from the judges and advocates of the High Court of Admiralty, and from the attorney general and solicitor general, chiefly concerning questions relating to vice-admiralty courts and jurisdiction, prize cases, droits of ad¬ miralty, letters of marque, and the like.2 It also corresponded with the 1 House of Lords Manuscripts, new series, V. 209-215. 2 The functions of the Admiralty as officially defined may be found in the statutes, 2 William and Mary, sess. 2, c. 2 (1690), and George II., c. 33 (1749), and in the many commissions entered on the Patent Rolls. See also Collection of Statutes relating to the Admiralty, Navy, Ships of War, etc. (London, 1768). Though consulting these sources, I have in the main depended on the records of the Admiralty itself.
    Secretary of State, the Treasury, the Commissioners of the Customs, the Ordnance Board, the General Post Office, and the Secretary at War. Though at first the Admiralty refused to have any direct communication with the Board of Trade and demanded that all business be done through the intermediation of the Privy Council, yet in time a less formal procedure was followed and the two boards became mutually co-operative. The Board of Trade sent to the Admiralty a great amount of information regarding illicit trade, fisheries, naval stores, convoys, privateers, pirates, and vice-admiralty courts, and aided the Admiralty in the enforcement of trade laws and em¬ bargoes. It called on the Admiralty to assist in all matters involving the wel¬ fare of trade and plantations, such as convoys for merchant vessels, the transportation of governors and other royal officials, the furnishing of frigates and small craft for the protection of the colonies, the carrying of packets and letters, and other similar matters. The Admiralty, in conjunction with the law officers of the crown or the High Court of Admiralty, prepared the clauses in the governors’ instructions that concerned Admiralty jurisdic¬ tion, and transmitted them to the board for recommendation to the Privy Council. It corresponded directly with colonial governors, and the latter wrote letters to the Admiralty that are often quite as important as are those written to the board itself. The Navy Board had direct charge of the management of the navy. It built, equipped, and repaired the ships, fitted them for sea and paid the bills; it reported on their general condition, prepared estimates, hired extra boats, and had some control over the impressment of seamen; it looked after the building of docks and yards, took charge of prizes at the great stations, fitted up hospital ships, reported on the personnel of those employed in the land ser¬ vice, and had the care of lighters and tenders and their equipment. In the main the board was held accountable for the general condition of docks, yards, and ships, for the conduct and efficiency of all seamen and employees, who were not ranked as fighting men, and for all contracts connected with the building, repairing, or stocking the ships of the navy. On certain days the Navy Board attended the Admiralty and took part in its proceedings; at other times it submitted reports on questions referred to it, or sent in repre¬ sentations on its own account. It had no authority over the other subordinate boards; it could issue requests or express desires, but it could not order or require. To other departments, such as the Ordnance Office, with which it had dealings, it generally expressed its wishes through the Admiralty. The Victualling Board consisted of five, and later seven, members and was appointed by commission under the great seal, after warrants had been issued by the Admiralty to the attorney general who prepared the bill. It was first instituted in 1683, victualling before that time having been done by contract. The board took its orders only from the Admiralty, though such orders might actually be delivered through the Navy Board; and in turn it made all its reports and representations to the Admiralty only. The functions of the Victualling Board need no description here. The Transport Board, or Commissioners for Transportation, was first established in 1688 and was abolished and reorganized several times after¬ ward. No records of its activities exist for the colonial period, and exact knowledge of its functions can be obtained only from the records of other departments. The office had charge of the transport service to Holland, Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar, and to the colonies, or in general to any point to which soldiers, supplies, clothing, ammunition, and the like needed to be carried.
    The Board for Sick and Wounded Seamen, later known as the Medical Board, had its origin in the period of the Commonwealth, but was permanently established in 1740 to take care of sick and wounded seamen, superintend medical stores supplied by the apothecary general for the use of the navy,1 manage naval hospitals, ashore and afloat, examine and appoint naval sur¬ geons, and maintain and exchange prisoners of war. The Sick and Wounded Board attended the Admiralty whenever requested, and like the Victualling Board and the Transport Board took its orders only from the higher authority.2 The multiplication of boards and offices and the absence of any efficient and responsible central authority—for the Admiralty Board itself can hardly claim to have exercised a co-ordinating control over the unwieldy system of which it was in a sense the centre and head—must have had a disastrous effect upon the despatch of business. Procedure was clumsy and complicated and func¬ tions were badly defined and frequently overlapped. In the execution of any project so many authorities were involved that responsibility was dissipated and effective action rendered difficult. On one occasion when certain persons wished to be transported to Gibraltar and Minorca, the matter was brought to the attention of the lieutenant general of ordnance; he informed the Sec¬ retary of State, the secretary acquainted the Admiralty, the Admiralty sent its orders to the Navy Board, and the Navy Board wrote to the Victualling Board. Business was hampered not only by such roundabout methods but also by the difficulty of determining exactly the relations of one board to another, and of all to outside boards and officials. When in 1775 Generals Howe, Clinton, and Burgoyne were to proceed to North America, the king, probably through the Secretary of State, informed the Secretary at War, who made a repre¬ sentation to the Admiralty desiring that a vessel be provided. The Admiralty ordered the Navy Board to provide a vessel and to victual it; the Navy Board ordered its officers at Deptford to fit out a vessel and desired the Victualling Board to stock it. The Victualling Board ordered that notice be given to the proper officer to carry out the desires of the Navy Board. The difficulties of administration were enhanced by the scattered location of the various offices. In early times the Admiralty had no fixed place of abode, but met wherever most convenient, sometimes in the residence of the Lord High Admiral and sometimes at sea. Upon the appointment of the Duke of Buckingham in 1619 the Admiralty first settled at Wallingford House, on the site of Mrs. Kirke’s lodgings, which adjoined Horse Guards Yard on the north. Here Buckingham lived during the remainder of his life and here after his death the board continued to meet till 1649. After the Restoration, when Wallingford House was resigned into the hands of the second duke, the board met in various places—from 1660 to 1674 in the Council Chamber and Robes Chamber of the old palace of Whitehall, except during the plague when it removed to Greenwich; from 1674 to 1684 in Derby House in Channel Row, Westminster; from 1684 to 1689 in Secretary Pepys’s rooms in York Build- 1 Apothecaries Hall was on the east side of Blackfriars. “ There were prepared vast quantities of medicines for the apothecaries and others and particularly the surgeons of the fleet do here make up their chests.” Hatton, New View of London, II. 593_594> and Regulations and Instructions relating to His Majesty’s Service at Sea (9th ed., 1767)1 pp! 212-213. See below, pp. 195, 227, 247, 274, where the apothecary general’s service for the army is noted, and, on the subject as a whole, Barrett, History of the Society of Apothecaries of London (190$). 2 The names of many of the officials of these boards can be found readily in the List of Declared Accounts from the Pipe Office and Audit Office (1893). The rolls there listed contain a great deal of valuable information.
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