Sir Henry Kellett
On 15 September1828 he was commissioned First-Lieutenant. And it was in 1831 that he first served under the infamous Sir Edward Belcher, on board HMS Aetna, a surveying ship off the coast of Africa.
Mystery enters his life in 1835, when he marries Alice Fletcher in County Durham, England. The people in his home town, and his family, never knew about her. I have yet to research her name in the census records to see when she died, or to look in the Parish Records to see if they were divorced. Watch this space!
RECENT RESEARCH HAS CLEARED UP THIS MYSTERY! WHEN I DID MY FIRST RESEARCH INTO THIS ISSUE, I DID NOT MAKE A COPY OF THE MARRIAGE RECORD WHEN I FOUND IT IN DURHAM. I CHECKED THE SIGNATURE, SAW THAT IT WAS CAPTAIN HENRY KELLETT'S SIGNATURE, AND MADE MY NOTES ABOUT THE ENTRY BEFORE GOING HOME. Since then, two descendants of the Kellett family have queried this finding, which prompted my taking a second look. This time I had the record photo copied so that I could compare the signatures. I have several examples of Captain Kellett's signature in log books and reports, and after I studied the signatures, I asked two other researchers to do the same. While the signatures are remarkably similar, there are a very few and minute differences that raise doubt as to whether or not the signatories were the same man. [It is rather amazing that a north country miner and an Irish land holder and aristocrat could have so similar a hand. If they lived in the same area, or were from the same social class, one could almost believe that they learned to write from the same teacher. But that is impossible...Perhaps their teachers learned at the same institution? Still a small mystery, but not one as big as the possible marriage!] This prompted my return to the Public Records Office at Kew, London, to review once again the naval record that led me to believe Kellett was on leave during the time of the marriage in Durham. The records of Henry Kellett's commissions did leave doubt as to whether or not he was serving onboard a ship that season, so with the help of another researcher, we found the pay records for Kellett throughout his career. Here we found the difinative answer. IF Kellett had been ashore during the time frame for the wedding of Henry Kellet to Alice Fletcher, then he would have been on half pay; if he had been serving on a ship, he would have been on full pay. During the month of the wedding, Captain Henry Kellett was on full pay, having already left Britain earlier in 1835 than the nebulous date of his commission aboard STARLING. Since Henry Kellett was serving as the commander of HMS STARLING, and on full pay, there is no possible way he could have married Alice Fletcher.
Therefore, I must negate the above statement that this mystery ever entered our Henry Kellett's life. He did indeed never marry, and did not produce any direct heirs. This will be the information that I include in the new, non-fiction book about RESOLUTE that I am currently writing. Also, in future editions of the novel, I will correct this section of his biography that I include in the historical notes at the end of the novel. HOWEVER: I still think it sad that such a good man never knew the joys and companionship of an immediate family, a wife and child. Therefore, I will not change the story line in the novel. Also, for currently published copies I will insert a correction.
Between 1835 and 1841, Lieutenant Kellett served on HMS Starling. He arrived in China for the first time in 1840, after a trip around Cape Horn and visits to Tahiti and the Salomon Islands, among other stops.
In 1841, during the Opium War, he had the misfortune to serve again under Belcher, on board Nemesis and Calliope. During the battle against the forts at Chuenpee he distinguished himself, destroying 13 ward junks, for which Belcher highly commended him. He was also commended by Sir Gordon Bremer for his gallantry in battle when the Royal Navy captured the forts at Boca Tigris.
Henry Kellett received his promotion to Commander on 16 May 1841. A year later he joined the first British naval expedition up the Yangtze River. During that expedition, he worked alongside Richard Collinson, surveying the approaches to Woosung. He participated in the bombardment of the fort at Woosung, and advanced to Post-rank in December of that year.
To honour him for his services rendered during the Opium War, Queen Victoria created him a Companion of the Order to Bath. He spent the next 2 years in England. He returned to the sea in 1845, as Captain of HMS Herald, commissioned to do surveying works in the Pacific.
In 1848, Kellett was one of the first men sent by the Admiralty to try to re-supply Sir John Franklin. He searched unsuccessfully for any sign of Franklin or his men, completing three summer voyages, in 1848, 1849, and 1850, through the Bering Strait, where Franklin was expected to break free from the ice having completed the North West Passage. Kellett returned to Britain in 1851 without any trace of the men.
This brings us to the time of our story, when he serves under Belcher again, as the Captain of HMS Resolute from 1852 - 1854. After his Court Marital, Kellett is appointed Commodore at the Jamaica station in early 1855, and takes on the responsibilities of the North America and West Indies Station in August of that year. It is during this time that Kellett is commissioned to monitor and disrupt the slave trade, as I write about in the book. Since Commodore is an appointment to a certain job, and not a rank, Kellett is still a captain at this time.
I do not know if Kellett's responsibilities as the Commodore of the North America and West Indies Station included the build up of vessels off the American waters when the tensions between Britain and America were at the breaking point, since there is no direct reference to this in the Admiralty Records. But it isn't too much of a stretch to believe that he certainly would have known about it, and he may even have been in over-all command of that squadron, but there is no evidence that Kellett himself was actually in the midst of that build-up. This is one of the few things I change for dramatic effect, and to avoid having to bring in new characters so late in the story. There were enough characters already to keep my readers busy!
Kellett is promoted to Rear-Admiral in 1862. He serves as the superintendent of the Malta Dockyard from 1864 -1867. He attained the rank of Vice-admiral in April of 1868, and in June of 1869 he is nominated Knight Commander of the Bath.
His last active commission is in China from 1869-1871, where he was the Commander-in-Chief. He died on March 1st, 1875, at his home in Clonacody, and is buried in the churchyard of the Holy Trinity Church in Fethard, County Tipperary, Ireland.
From The Royal Navy, vol.6, by William Laird Clowes, Chatham Publishing.
Pp.521-522
"…Richard Collinson, the pupil of Foster and of Beechey, showed in his Chinese service, the importance of a thorough scientific training as marine surveyor, for at least a proportion of officers in every fleet, in time of war. Henry Kellett was another example. Receiving his training under Owen and Skyring, he was with the latter officer when he was killed on the coast of Africa. Collinson was engaged for 3 years, in the Plover and Young Hebe, in the survey of the China coasts, from Chusan to Hong Kong, including Formosa; Kellett was equally indefatigable in the Starling. Science was then, as unfortunately it is now, despised and depreciated by ignorance in high places; but when the war broke out in China, scientific officers were found to be indispensable in the persons of Collinson and Kellett. It was then that Sir William Parker turned, for the success of his operations, to the scientific surveyors. Collinson was appointed Surveyor to the Fleet, and it was Kellett who led the flagship up the Yangtze Kiang to Nankin."
Sir Edward Belcher
Sir Edward Belcher was born in 1799 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was the grandson of William Belcher, the Chief Justice and Governor of Halifax, and the great-grandson of Jonathan Belcher, Esq., Governor of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, & New Jersey in the colonial period. He entered the Royal Navy in 1812, at 13 years of age, and was rated midshipman at the end of that year. He saw action during the War of 1812.
In 1816, he fought at the Battle of Algiers, under Captain Charles Ekins, on HMS Superb. He makes his first commission as Lieutenant in July of 1818, and heads to the Africa Station for the first time in 1819. In the spring of 1820, he becomes so ill, he cannot continue his duties, and is invalided out. He does not return to active duty until the autumn of 1821, when he begins a 3 year service on the Halifax Station.
He serves on HMS Blossom under Captain Beechey in 1825, and works as his Assistant-Surveyor. He returns to Britain in 1830, and marries Diana Joffe, the step-daughter of Captain Peter Heywood, of the mutiny on the Bounty fame. He is then given command of HMS Aetna, and between the years 1830 and 1833 Aetna is employed as a surveying ship off the coast of Africa. Kellett serves under him on this commission. It is during this time that the first records of his sadistic personality come to light. He is actually brought before a court martial for the way he treated his men. His methods of intimidation and torture are preserved forever in the Admiralty Records of the Royal Navy.
He spends the next three years after his court martial in home waters, and then in 1836 he is given the command of HMS Sulphur. After keeping their eye on him and keeping Belcher on a short leash, Sulphur is sent on a round the world voyage, about which he write his first self-aggrandising book. On his return trip, when he is in Singapore, he is diverted to China, because of the Opium War.
He and his men serve valiantly during this conflict: taking part in several battles. He is awarded Post rank in May, 1841, and he and his men take part in exploits such as that which took place on 23 May 1841. Prior to the second capture of Canton, they complete reconnaissance for the landing of troops, causing the destruction of 28 enemy vessels; they land at a mandarin temple at Tsingpoo, spiking & throwing five guns into sea. He is made Commander of the Bath on 14 October 1841, and arrives back in Britain in mid 1842.
Sir Edward serves again in the East Indies from 1842 to 1846, during which time his is knighted, returning again to Britain in either 1846 or 1849, depending on the source, and is paid off. His next commission is the 1852 Belcher Expedition, which is chronicled in my book. After his court martial, he was never again given an active commission, although in the course of just staying alive, he attained his flag through the seniority system then in place in the Royal Navy.
He attains his rank of Vice-Admiral in 1866, is Knighted Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1867, is made Admiral in 1872, and dies 18 March 1877.
Fairfax Abraham and his family
All the members of the Quaker Abraham family in my book are fictional, but based on historical facts. The New England Quakers were some of the most prominent whaling families in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Quakers were also in the forefront of the Abolition movement in both America and Britain. While the British Abolition movement never had to face the issue of whether or not their actions were bringing them into direct conflict with the long-standing and well known Quaker Peace Testimony, this IS something that Quakers had to face in the decade leading up to the American Civil War.
I bring this conflict of values into focus in the story line that follows the relationship between Fairfax Abraham III (Father Abraham) and Fairfax Abraham IV (Fair Abe). While Father Abraham works for slow manumission, and works directly with individual slave holders, labouring with them to change their minds and hearts, fair Abe gets himself involved with the more vocal, and less patient, Abolitionists. The family is torn apart, as many Quaker families were, by this difference of approach to the subject of freeing the slaves. Father Abraham is adamant in his position that whatever they do towards Abolition, it must not conflict with the Peace Testimony. Fair Abe is not only certain that Abolition must come, and come quickly, that he becomes even willing to set aside his Quaker principles and take up arms in the cause.
I borrow from the 20th century for several things when it comes to the Friends in my book. I have them organizing and working in an ambulance brigade during the Crimean War. This is something that Friends first did during WWI. Also, although Friends had a tradition from their earliest days of stepping up to confront what they believed was wrong, no matter how important the person to whom they were speaking, I believe that the phrase "speak truth to power" did not come into being until the 1950s. Additionally, even though 20th century Friends do not prostelytize, 19th century Quakers did, and their faith was most definitely Christian based. However, Friends always believed that actions speak louder than words, and, based on their belief that the Light of God is in everyone, began social ministry during the very earliest days of their faith movement.
