‘My Dearest Tussy’: Coping with Separation during the Napoleonic Wars — the Fremantle Papers, c.1800–14.
4:15pm - 6:15pm /
Thursday 24th November 2016
/ Venue: Lecture Room 1
9 Abercromby Square
Liverpool
L69 7WZ Abercromby SQ (south)
Type: Lecture /
Category: Department
- Dr Mark Towsey
- Suitable for: Staff, students and members of the public with an interest in this field of research.
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While many naval historians are familiar with the diaries of Elizabeth (Betsey) Wynne Fremantle (1778-1857) as a rich source of information on life aboard ship in Nelson’s navy, before and immediately after her marriage to Captain Thomas Francis Fremantle (1765-1819) in January 1797, less is known about the subsequent, more representative period of her life as a naval officer’s wife at home in England, often on her own for extended periods of time, during the remainder of the Napoleonic wars. This paper draws upon Betsey’s largely unpublished diaries for 1801–14 and the Fremantles’ surviving correspondence for the period in order to examine a working naval marriage that developed into a trusted, complementary partnership — and the strategies they employed to advance the family in navy and society.
The Fremantles were representative of many ambitious naval couples of the time, striving to better themselves and their families’ future prospects: they were energetic, hard-working, and committed — committed to each other, to their children, and to their shared familial and professional goals. When Fremantle left to take up his command in 1800, he left his pregnant twenty-one-year-old wife and three small children (the youngest less than three months old) on her own to manage on their house and estate, act as the family representative socially and politically, and forward his career. By the time that the war was finally over, the family had grown to eight living children, the estate had been expanded, and the family’s place in the new imperial service elite was established. This paper considers the human side of the story of naval service in Nelson's navy — the way that families coped with loneliness and loss, and sustained intimacy, sometimes over years apart. It looks at the strategies that Betsey Fremantle used during these years to create a virtual family circle that bound ship to shore, building her husband into the family and forwarding the family interests through both the education of her children and astute use of the social arena.
The Fremantles were representative of many ambitious naval couples of the time, striving to better themselves and their families’ future prospects: they were energetic, hard-working, and committed — committed to each other, to their children, and to their shared familial and professional goals. When Fremantle left to take up his command in 1800, he left his pregnant twenty-one-year-old wife and three small children (the youngest less than three months old) on her own to manage on their house and estate, act as the family representative socially and politically, and forward his career. By the time that the war was finally over, the family had grown to eight living children, the estate had been expanded, and the family’s place in the new imperial service elite was established. This paper considers the human side of the story of naval service in Nelson's navy — the way that families coped with loneliness and loss, and sustained intimacy, sometimes over years apart. It looks at the strategies that Betsey Fremantle used during these years to create a virtual family circle that bound ship to shore, building her husband into the family and forwarding the family interests through both the education of her children and astute use of the social arena.