Trooping to Minorca 1751

[jon_ystrad]

I know from my studies that the Fougueux was carrying troops to and from Minorca, in the period May-August 1751

The ship's log (kindly provided for me by someone who went to Kew) indicates that Fougueux sailed under a commodore, which to me implies several ships

Given that the army unit I am trying to trace was not aboard the Fougueux but definitely sailed to Minorca in this period, I am becoming pretty sure I need to look for the other ships that sailed with her

But does anybody know what these were?

Thanks
Jon

[Navclio]

Masters kept logs; they are archived in document series ADM52. Captains kept journals, which are archived in series ADM51; but they are often also referred to as "logs." Whichever you have, you could request a copy of the other one. Captains sometimes recorded "ships in company" in their daily entries of "Remarkable observations etc." Sometimes, the master's "remarkable observations" and the captain's are identical, so getting the other might or might not help. Since this was peacetime and Fougueux, a 64-gun French ship of the line captured in 1747, was evidently serving as a troop ship, it's likely that the "commodore" was one by courtesy only, that is, the senior captain in an assemblage of ships, but not an appointed temporary flag officer with the privileges of a rear-admiral and a separate captain to command his flagship. If you know the commodore's name, you could have someone return to Kew and look for his report in the "Admiralty In-Letters" series, ADM1. I think they are filed by year, broken down by the last name of the officer. You could also have someone look in the "out-letters" to him, which I think are filed in the same way in a separate series (if you're not employing a professional researcher who would know this, they or an amateur helping you out could ask the TNA staff). The commodore's report should mention the ships he departed England with, perhaps "per margin" and the orders to him should tell him to take specific named ships under his command.

Apart from Admiralty records, news periodicals recorded some of the comings and goings of navy ships. The London Gazette was (and still is) the organ for official announcements; you can search for the commodore's name during the time period when the troop convoy might have departed; you already have some dates from the "log" you acquired. Gentleman's Magazine and London Magazine were monthlies with monthly notices that might have included the departure of a troop convoy for Minorca. Many years are available on the Internet as PDFs in annual bound volumes; I have complete sets of both for 1739–49. Each monthly issue was published early in the next month and has monthly news digest near the back; the volumes were paginated continuously.

You could also seek notices in the newspapers of the port from which the convoy sailed. I haven't done any of this but some newspapers have been digitized and there is a subscription site for them. Your convoy most likely sailed from Portsmouth but London is a possibility.

[Navclio]

Some other thoughts:

There is sometimes complete congruence between the lieutenants' journals and the captain's journal; they were obviously completed together, and perhaps not by the officers themselves but by the captain's clerk, one of the master's mates, or perhaps some hapless midshipman. A lieutenant's journal might have different information from the captain's or from the master's log, but might not.

If you know what regiments were sent out to Minorca in 1751—you might be able to get this from a history of Minorca, Port Mahon, or Fort St. Phillip—you could look for regimental histories: they might mention the name of the transport(s) that carried the regiment to Minorca in 1751.

A tedious way to find other navy ships (as opposed to hired transports) in the 1751 Fougueux convoy would be to go through all of the entries in Rif Winfield, British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1714–1792. The Fougueux entry mentions "trooping to Minorca, 1751." The ships most likely to have been used as troopships in 1751 were French prizes, especially ships like Fougueux of 64 guns or less, and smaller British warships, that is, those of 60, 50, and 44 guns. Ships in British Warships are arranged chronologically by type (number of guns); you would need to go back to ships completed as early as the 1720s, but you can immediately eliminate any ship with a disposal date before August 1751 before you pore through the operational history. Brand-new ships are not likely to have been used as troopships, so you could probably stop with ships completed about 1746. No guarantees: service as troopships might not have been noted in the records Rif used to compile the operational histories, and there might have been hired ships in the convoy.

[jon_ystrad]

Hi, thank you for your excellent answers. I have a Kindle copy of BWAS and ran a search for "trooping to Minorca" and several answers came up, some of them with wrong dates, and 2 or 3 with probably the right date (not always more than "1751")

From this, I have found that both MONMOUTH (Cap George Edgcombe) and MONARCH (Captain John Amherst) are listed as "trooping to Gibraltar" in 1751, no more specific dates than that. I thought I found a third one, but seem to have lost it, and only have Kindle reader on the computer only so will have to redo the search later.

Thomas Stanhope is Captain of the Fougueux. I certainly know Edgecombe and Amherst from a few years after and the Battle of Minorca, but I have no idea which of the three (and potentially more) would have been most senior?

Best Regards
Jon

[jon_ystrad]

Hi, thank you for your excellent answers. I have a Kindle copy of BWAS and ran a search for "trooping to Minorca" and several answers came up, some of them with wrong dates (I mean not the dates I want, though correct in themselves), and 2 or 3 with probably the right date (not always more than "1751")

From this, I have found that both MONMOUTH (Cap George Edgcombe) and MONARCH (Captain John Amherst) are listed as "trooping to Gibraltar" in 1751, no more specific dates than that. I thought I found a third one, but seem to have lost it, and only have Kindle reader on the computer only so will have to redo the search later.

Thomas Stanhope is Captain of the Fougueux. I certainly know Edgecombe and Amherst from a few years after and the Battle of Minorca, but I have no idea which of the three (and potentially more) would have been most senior?

Best Regards
Jon

[jon_ystrad]

Been going through the Admiralty papers online, and

1) The Fougueux and Monarch sailed from Portsmouth with troops
2) and joined up with the Monmouth sailing from Plymouth with troops

Captain George Edgcumbe of the Monmouth was appointed Commodore and commander-in-chief with a broad pennant, as per

ADM 106/1089/310
Captain George Edgcumbe, Grosvenor Street...is appointed Commander in Chief and will need a broad pennant, a chest of signal colours, and a top lanetern to be supplied by Plymouth Yard.
1751 Apr 24

ADM 106/1096/65
Commissioner Philip Vanbrugh, Plymouth
Receipt of letters and warrants. . . to supply the Monmouth with a top lantern, a broad pennant, and a set of colours in a chest
1751 Apr 28

ADM 106/1091/61
Petition of John Henderson, shipwright at Plymouth.... He has a certificate from Commodore Edgcumbe of his late service on the Monmouth
1751 Aug 23

The three ships are frequently mentioned, with no mention of other ships being readied for trooping. There's a lot of correspondence when they get back about the condition of the beds being filthy with vermin, and what to do with them. Again the 3 ships are mentioned, without any others in this regard.

Best Regards
Jon N Davies

[Navclio]

Ah, so the "commodore" was not aboard Fougueux as I inferred from your original post. You seem to have found the whole convoy, and you don't need to determine the seniority of three captains (whose names are familiar to me from their service in the 1739–48 war) because you know whom the Admiralty appointed. Usually, a designated commodore was senior on the captains' list to all of the other captains who were to serve under him, but that was not a requirement. In fact, Edgecumbe was not highest on the captains' list, but he was the son of an earl and would later inherit the title. So he required a special appointment; otherwise Vanbrugh would have been he convoy commander.
Philip Vanbrugh: captain, 13 January 1744
George Edgecumbe: captain, 19 August 1744
Thomas Stanhope: captain, 12 July 1745

[jon_ystrad]

Edgcumbe is a god for historians! Not so much Amherst or Stanhope unfortunately. Edgcumbe's Monmouth's muster book includes EVERY SINGLE SOLDIER and woman that it carried to Minorca, and every single one it carried back. Unfortunately the Monarch and the Fougueux barely even mention going, let alone who they are carrying with them.