Nelson & His World

The diaries of Elizabeth (Betsey) Wynne, who married Captain Thomas Fremantle, have long been of interest to enthusiasts of the Nelson period. Many volumes of the diary remain unpublished, but plans are in hand to make them available.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/bristol/hi/ ... 936527.stm

Interesting Anna.

It's great that we will eventually learn more about Betsey Wynne / Elizabeth Freemantle, although I think perhaps what has already been published does include her whole time at sea with her husband.

I have a particular interest because the subject of my research, my 4xgreat-grandparents, were both at sea in the same fleet and at the same time as Betsey Fremantle, as Captain Mansfield was also a frigate captain with his wife on board at the time. He also narrowly escaped the action at Santa Cruz as St Vincent initially assigned his frigate to the squadron, but later replaced her with the Emerald. Of course, things might have been different if he had been there...

He would have met Fremantle again at Trafalgar.

Tony

When I read this my first thought was "There's more . . . . .!!??"

Well there obviously is - lots more. But I think you may be right that the content of direct interest to us may have already been published.

Having said that there will be doubtless be lots of other little gems of more general interest.

Very much looking forward to seeing them.

MB

I was interested to see that Dr Chalus, who is editing the forthcoming volumes, became interested in Betsey Fremantle when she bought a copy of the published diaries at Priddy Folk Festival. Priddy is a village at the top of the hill you can see from the back of our house, and is well known for its Folk Festival and its even more famous sheep fair that has been held there since the 14th century.

I just wanted to say hello. It's lovely to see the interest that Betsey's diaries have sparked.

As one of the earlier contributors has noted, the diaries relevant to Betsey's time at sea with Fremantle and Nelson in the 1790s have largely been published. The project for which I have been granted funding goes beyond this period and draws on Betsey's extensive diaries and the letters and correspondence of her family to write a monograph that looks at the creation of a successful naval family -- an intimate history of empire, so to speak. Unfortunately, at this point in time, there are no plans to publish Betsey's entire diary, although I will be talking once again to the Cottesloe family about the possibility of doing so, as there seems to be a public appetite for it.

And, yes, I did find the book which started the quest for the diaries at the Priddy Folk Fair a few years ago....

Welcome to the forum! And thank you for clarifying the work you will be undertaking on Betsey's diaries. Let's hope that the entire diary will be published in due course. Although the focus of the forum is on Nelsonand his navy, you'll see that many of us are interested in the wider social and cultural aspects of the era. For example, you'll find lots of discusssion on Margarette Lincoln's book 'Naval Wives and Mistresses' in numerous threads.

I'm always happy to give a 'puff' to forum members' books so here's a link to a volume co-edited by Dr Chalus that might be of interest to some members:



http://www.amanda-foreman.com/gender.shtml

Thanks for the warm welcome (and the puff)! I'm looking forward to learning more from the forum members as well, and I'll be checking out the various other threads.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/diaries-tell-forgotten-story-of-nelsons-nurse-2066146.html

For information: the Indie also published, as promised.

Having (many years ago) been to school at Swanbourne House School (I believe the property is still owned by the Fremantles), I was amazed to read that 'the journals were rediscovered at her ancestral home, Swanbourne House'. Is this correct - if so, whereabouts were they found?!? Or were they found at another of the Fremantle's houses at Swanbourne?

Ah, maybe I have figured it out? The 'Old House' was previously Swanbourne House, and the Swanbourne House that I know was built by the Fremantles c1865, and is still owned by the family now, but they moved back to the 'Old House'? The 19th C Swanbourne House was very grand, but rather faded glory when I knew it!

The journals were never lost, in actual fact, as the family always had them in their possession: the 'rediscovery' is, I'm afraid, journal-ese for the fact that historians didn't seem to know where they were, or if they were still extant, and I was able to trace them down to the family at Swanbourne.

Yes, you're right about the different houses at Swanbourne. The school, which is still operating and looked rather swish when I was there a couple of years ago, is in the house that was built in the mid-19C by Betsey's eldest son, Tom, 1st Baron Cottesloe. Betsey never lived there herself. Her house was the 'old' house, which is in the centre of the village and is still occupied by the family.

I've just had a quick look at Fremantle's wiki entry which notes that Betsey was a Catholic. This surprised me as I recall reading in David Howarth's 'Trafalgar:the Nelson touch' that Fremantle sent a brisk instruction to his wife about the name to be given to their expected child: 'If it is a boy you will have him christened Stephen, and if it is a girl....Louisa. I can't bear your popery names.' I had taken his use of 'your' to be a general use of the term rather than a pointed reference to Betsey's personal faith.

I really must buy a copy of the published diaries. In the meantime, can anyone (ehchalus?!) say more about Betsey's religion? Did she give up her faith on marriage or did she retain it ? To Fremantle's disapproval, it would seem.

ehchalus:

You and the news of the diaries have almost a full page spread in this week's edition of our local paper, the Cheddar Valley Gazette!

Here's a link to the text. The newspaper edition also has a portrait of Betsey and a nice photograph of you and your dog!

http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk/news/Na ... ticle.html

PS I've ordered a copy of the diaries and should have it in a day or two.

Well they had three marriage ceremonies to make sure they were properly married in the eyes of all concerned - especially her mother's!