Bombast And Broadsides: the lives of George Johnstone PDF
Preview Bombast And Broadsides: the lives of George Johnstone
Bombast and Broadsides You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press. George Johnstone, 1730-1787 (Courtesy of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, Great Britain) You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press. ._. Bombast AND Broadsides The Lives of George Johnstone RobinF. A. Fabel THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA PRESS Tuscaloosa London You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press. Copyright © 1987 by The University of Alabama Press Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487 All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Fabel, Robin F. A., 1934- Bombast and broadsides. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Johnstone, George, 1730-1787. 2. Great Britain- History-George II, 1727-1760. 3. Legislators- Great Britain-Biography. 4. Great Britain. Royal Navy-Biography. 5. WestFlorida-Governors-Biography. 1. Title. DA501.J63F3 1987 941.07'3'0924 [B] 86-19348 ISBN 0-8173-0337-5 British Cataloguing-in-Publication Data is available. 0-8173- 1192-0 (pbk: alk. paper) You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press. Contents List of Illustrations vi Preface Vll Johnstone Family Tree x 1. Man of War 1 2. "Emporium of the New World" 25 3. The Guerrilla of Leadenhall Street 59 4. "Man of Business" 83 5. A Philadelphia Story 101 6. Gunpowder and Port 129 7. The Broad Pendant Wavers 147 8. Final Appointments 165 9. Conclusion 181 Notes 187 Bibliography 221 Index 235 You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press. Illustrations George Johnstone frontispiece Illustrations follow page 119 Map of British West Florida 121 East India House, London 122 William Eden 123 Charles Jenkinson 124 The Curious Zebra 125 Sailors at Porto Praya 126 Charlotte Johnstone and Son 127 Map of Praya Bay 128 You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press. Preface It has been said, probably many times, that when historical topics have been "hitherto neglected," it has usually been for good reason. In the case of George Johnstone's life the most probable reason for the lack of a biog- raphy lies in the difficulty of finding the raw materials for the study of his many-faceted career. There is no collection of George Johnstone papers. The materials pertaining to his life are scattered because his career ranged wide, taking him from his native Scotland to England, the West Indies, Portugal, North America, and South Africa. Moreover, although he never went there, his connection with the East India Company involved him closely in affairs in India, and many documents relating to him originated there. Not only did he acquire acquaintance with a broad variety of places but also with numerous circles of society: naval and military, plebeian and noble, literary and mercantile, diplomatic and legal. He moved particu- larly far in the political world, working amiably, at times, with the Opposi- tion magnificoes Rockingham, Portland, Fox, and Burke, but at others giving welcome support to the treasury bench. There is a note of amazement in J. K. Laughton's comment that "he is, even now, sometimes described as a politician,"l but the designation should have caused no surprise. Although he never held political office Johnstone commanded respect-fear would be more accurate in some cases-as an effective and influential backbencher of a type not unknown to the House ofCommons in the 1980s. As this biography will demonstrate, his political fame rested on various types of expertise, but above all upon his forcefulness in debate. Nothing is more ephemeral than a reputation grounded on oratorical thunder. Burke has retained something ofhis , partly because he made sure that his speeches were fully and accurately available in printed form. Johnstone did not, and most of his deliveries survive only through the chaotic methods of eighteenth-century reporters. Even where the words have been preserved, the fire he gave them has gone. At the time, nevertheless, it hurt grievously to be the target ofa speech from Johnstone, as the testimony ofFox, Burke, North, and Townshend proves. Conversely he was an unusually welcome ally, "a powerful and active ... friend," as Wedderburn put it, "who ... does nothing feebly."2 Most political memorialists of the later eighteenth century wrote of him, and none, as Laughton should have known, assessed him as a political nonentity. Yet his celebrity faded. Except as a sailor Johnstone was forgotten. In the years following his death, few writers except the naval historians Beatson, Charnock, and Ralfe, all ofwhom found his conduct unforgivable, cared to remember Johnstone. His sin had been, on the basis of an unor- thodox theory, publicly to denounce Admiral Howe's failure in battle and then, when he himself obtained a similar opportunity, to do no better. You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press. In modern times there have been three biographical essays on Johnstone. Each is part ofa larger work and none is a well-balanced study of his life. The earliest of these and already mentioned is by J. K. Laughton, yet another naval historian, who was almost exclusively in- terested in Johnstone's career in the Royal Navy: he accords, for example, not one line to Johnstone's work as a colonial governor. Dunbar Rowland, by contrast, wrote of him in 1911 in a preface to a collection of documents 3 relating to West Florida in the 1760s. Understandably, most of what he wrote concerned Johnstone as governor of that province. In the 1960s Ian Christie wrote an excellently researched study of Johnstone for Namier and Brooke's The House ofCommons, 1754-1790. His emphasis was natu- rally on Johnstone's activities as a member of Parliament. Nobody has attempted to trace his political work as a proprietor and director in that other pillar of eighteenth-century England, East India House, nor to plumb his role in the peace commission sent to the warring colonies in 1778. Most important ofall, no historian has tried to assess the ways in which his various careers interacted upon one another and to portray the whole man. Such a consideration is now attempted, greatly facilitated by documents unused in the existing published works on Johnstone, such as the Johnstone family correspondence in the Edinburgh University Library, Johnstone's letters to his brother William in the Huntington Library, San Marino, California, and one letter in particular in the Pennsylvania His- torical Society Library, Philadelphia, which throws completely new light on Johnstone's view of the peace commission on which he served. George Johnstone, nevertheless, remains an elusive figure. The surviv- ing evidence is fragmentary and does not reveal all we should like to know. Who were the mistresses by whom he had five children? What did he actually say to the woman who accused him of trying to bribe con- gressmen? What made him so confident that he would be given cabinet office? The evidence does not say. If lacunae fail to answer questions, discoveries too can be disconcerting; such as that Johnstone had shared 4 quarters with his one-time secretary for thirteen years. No hint ofthe fact is contained elsewhere: we know next to nothing, therefore, about the relation between Johnstone and the man who was probably his best friend. All the same, if incomplete, the surviving evidence, when pieced to- gether, has some coherence and shows a colorful-almost polychromatic-man who had defects aplenty but also a driving force and ability which time and again made him a credible candidate for positions of responsibility to superiors who knew all about his record. Reconstructing his career also offers insight into the way in which colonies were adminis- tered, men advanced, bills passed, governments embarrassed, campaigns spoiled, as well as other processes in the bizarre, subtle, and vital society of Britain in the eighteenth century. You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press. My debts to others in writing this biographical study are innumerable. My creditors range from William Hickey, who thought it worthwhile to record gossip about his contemporary, to my father, who helped me solid- ify my ideas on Johnstone by letting me chat about him. To the staffs of all the several libraries where I worked or from which I obtained research materials I am indebted. Without exception they were courteous and helpful. I ought also to say grateful prayers to those who conceived the interlibrary loan system. More specifically I wish to thank Maggie Fabel for her patience, Larry Owsley for his encouragement, Gordon Bond for his humor, Barbara Mowat for her professionalism, Joe Harrison for his erudition, and Bob Rea, who first drew attention to the need for a life of Johnstone, for his learning and wisdom. The interest of all of these in my efforts has sustained me. I also thank Auburn University for a research grant in the summer of 1975 which facilitated my quest for Johnstone material. R.F.A.F. You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press.
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