Despatches from Lord Combermere, governor of Barbados, and from President J B Skeete,...

Despatches from Lord Combermere, governor of Barbados, and from President J B Skeete, President of the Council together with correspondence from 'offices' (Government departments and other organisations) and from individuals on matters relating to Barbados. Despatches are described at item level; other correspondence is not, and correspondents and subjects are as follows:

Offices:

• Admiralty (has instructed the frigate Spartan to proceed to Lisbon to convey Lord Beresford to Rio de Janeiro and to bring home Lord Combermere from Barbados [two items]);
• Commander in Chief (reports that it is intended to send the 35th Regiment of Foot from Cork to relieve the 2nd Foot at Barbados);
• Privy Council Office (approval of appointment of Richard Skinner and the Reverend J H Gittens to the Barbados Council);
• Foreign Office (returns letter which appears to have been sent in error, forwards Law Officers' opinion on the case of the British vessel Nymph seized by a vessel said to have been sailing under a Venezuelan commission, reimbursement of expenses incurred in providing relief to distressed foreign seamen);
• Home Office (forwards royal pardon for John Baptiste da Costa alias Juan da Costa);
• Treasury (agrees that James and John Vaughan should be freed and the property of Benjamin Vaughan divided between his family, approves Lord Combermere's proposal that supernumeraries of the 1st West India Regiment should be retained in the service during the works at Trinidad and afterwards settled on Crown lands, further to Lord Combermere's request for the fitting of a vessel has asked the Admiralty to fit out the sloop Dasher and to send out an armed transport, seeks instructions on payment of a bill from Lord Combermere to cover salary of his private secretary and stationery expenses [2 items], query concerning army accounts and 'Government Negroes' at Demerara, approval of grant of escheated property of Rebecca Serjeant to her family, claim from James Smith in connection with the conveyance of 'certain negro convicts' to Honduras in his ship the Francis and Mary, claim of Messrs Cavan & Company for exemption from paying colonial duties on supplies provided by them, military works, purchase by Government of land situated within the Garrison of St Anne, claim from President Skeete to cover salary of his private secretary, further on claim of James Smith).

Individuals:

• Robert Aberdeen (seeks seat in Council as usually given to holders of his post of collector of customs);
• M F Alleyne (reports his return to Barbados but requests an additional period of leave on grounds of ill health);
• Major Finch (states that he has had to delay his departure for the West Indies, reports that he has heard from Lord Combermere that the House of Assembly had met and had chosen Mr Griffiths as speaker, states that he had advanced money to Mr Bacon who had stopped at Barbados on his way to Tortola);
• John Gladstone (reports that Messrs Wm Coupland & Company are seeking assistance in recovering sums owed by planters in Barbados);
• Fitzroy Maclean (understands that Lord Combermere wishes to resign and asks to be considered for the post of governor);
• Thomas Molini (requests a passport for Don Fernando de Penalver who wishes to travel to Barbados [2 items]);
• Thomas Moody (has been asked by Lord Combermere to request a meeting);
• James Wormington (papers relating to the 'oppression and injustice' he had suffered from the Spanish authorities at Santo Domingo).

Topics

International

Army

Caribbean

Pay and pensions

Race relations

Crown lands and estates

Navy

Pardons

Americas

Armed Forces (General Administration)

Operations, battles and campaigns