Bartholomew, who appears to have passed in June last, but declines serving without promotion. The letters are written in rather a superior style, but in a presuming tone, and Lord St. Vincent thinks the gentleman’s address will be more properly deposited with you; on the other side, you will find the different residences of this personage, according to his letters. I have the honor to be, &c.
At the top of this letter, Captain John Markham, then one of the Lords of the Admiralty, wrote:
“Dr Richbell, – The undermentioned appears to be a proper subject for you. – Your’s truly,
“Send him to the Nore as soon as you can catch him.”
On the following morning, Lieutenant Robert Dunham, superintending one of the press-gangs under Captain Richbell’s orders, was ordered to look out for Mr. Bartholomew, and cautioned “not to let him slip through his fingers; as it would be a feather in his cap if he caught him.” The manner in which he was kidnapped will be seen by the evidence of John Lill, midshipman of the gang, when examined before a Select Committee of the House of Commons, May 28, 1805.
“It was our day at the Admiralty. We went there once a week; and coming up in the boat. Lieutenant Dunham said he had orders to impress a Mr. Bartholomew. When we got to the Admiralty, he shewed me the letter, saying he was to be found at the Golden Cross. I went there; he had been gone about ten minutes; I came back, and informed Lieutenant Dunham of it. I saw his address in the letter; I said I had better go there; it was somewhere in King’s Road, Pimlico. I went there and rung the bell, and a lady came to the door, and asked my business. I told her I came from the Admiralty, and wanted to see Mr. Bartholomew. She took me through the garden into a house, where I saw the gentleman. He asked me what I was; I told him an Admiralty messenger; it was an invention of my own to get him there. He asked me whether he was going to be promoted; I answered most likely: he said he would come directly. I came back, and told Lieutenant Dunham he was coming. It was not three minutes after his arrival at the Admiralty, when a man took hold of each arm, and led him down to the galley. He said, that if Lord St. Vincent had ordered him on board the tender he would have gone, without being taken by the gang. He was very genteelly dressed, but not in the naval uniform.”
Having thus noticed this solitary instance of a First Lord of the Admiralty giving orders for any particular individual to be impressed, we shall conclude with an extract from the
