Add MS 40018-40055

NAPIER PAPERS: private and official correspondence and papers of Admiral Sir Charles Napier, K.C.B. (b. 1786, d. 1860). Napier entered the navy in 1799, was promoted Lieutenant 1805, Commander 1807, Captain 1809, Rear-Admiral 1846, Vice-Admiral 1853 and Admiral 1858. In 1833, under the assumed name of Carlos de Ponza, he accepted the command of the Portuguese Regency fleet against Dom Miguel, with the rank of Vice-Admiral and Major-General of the Portuguese Navy, and for his services was by the Portuguese government created Visconde and afterw. Conde do Cabo de S. Vicente, a title later changed to Conde de Napier de S. Vicente. In 1840 he was in charge of the English squadron off the Syrian Coast during the war against Mehemet Ali; in 1847-9, as Commander-in-Chief on particular service, he was employed chiefly off the coast of Ireland, 1848, and on a mission to Morocco against the Rif pirates, etc,., 1848-1849. In 1854 he was placed in command of the fleet in the Baltic during the Crimean war. Many of the letters have been printed by Napier in his Account of the War in Portugal, 2 vols., 1836, and The War in Syria, 2 vols., 1842. Many of those on the state of the Navy, addressed to various newspapers and politicians, copies of which occur chiefly in Add. MSS. 40037, 40053 and 40054, were edited by W. Napier, The Navy : its past and present state, 1851. The papers have also been used and extracts printed by G. B. Earp, History of the Baltic Campaign of 1854, 1857 ; E. Napier, Life and Correspondence of Adm. Sir C. Napier, 2 vols., 1862; H. N. Williams, Life and Letters of Adm. Sir C. Napier, 1917 ; etc. The papers of Napier passed, on his death, to his only daughter, Mrs. Eloïse Fanny Harriet Jodrell, who presented a portion of them, chiefly relating to the Baltic expedition of 1854, to the Public Record Office in 1901 (Giuseppi, Guide to the Public Records, i, p. 349). The present papers, which formed the remainder of the collection, were presented to the Museum by her daughter Mrs. Mary Campbell Gooch. Thirty-eight volumes arranged as follows:-