Edward Little - Royal Navy Commander

Masterpost

Edward Little

Physical Description

Edward's handwritten letter Second one

Service Record

Court Martial Testimony p 1.5

Edward's epitaph

The Little family

Family Tree

Census records

James Cornelius Little (1807-1875)

Edward Little's handwritten letter II

A second handwritten letter from Edward Little I've found at TNA, this one is from October 28th 1834

It reads :

N°9 St Michaels Terrace Stoke

Devonport October 28th 1834

Sir,

Having been informed that Captain Chesney of the Royal Artillery is about to processed on an Expedition to the Euphrates, and that two passed Mates are to be employed under that officer, I take the earliest opportunity of offering my humble services on the occasion trusting, that an abscence of eight years on foreign service may entitle me to favourable consideration

In June 1826 I joined His Majesty's Ship Forte Captain J. Coghlan, where I remained untill that ship left the west coast to South America for England. I then joined successively His Majesty's Ships Sapphire, Alert and Dublin, and was paid off from the last named ship on 1st October last,

In June 1832, I passed my examination for Seamanship 

     To Captain the Hon'ble 

      George Elliott RN

      &&&

      Admiralty                                                                                    and

and on my arrival in England I also passed at the Royal Naval College Lord James Townshend, my last Captain is now in London, to whom, as well as my other Captain’s I can with safety refer for character and general fitness, I have the honor to be,

Sir, your most obedient

Very humble servant

E Little late Mate

of the Dublin

In the corner :

? November

As there

? have no(thing ?) to say

& and the expe(dition?) he alludes to

(Thanks to everyone on Discord who helped me with that last part, please feel free to add your own transcription as it's quite hard to read)

But this confirm several things to us : his adress being 9 Michael's Terrace, Stoke Devonport, which I have already found some mentions of it being the family's adress at the time (before any census)

And it also confirm to us that the Edward in the description book really is the same one, as we can link his Lieutenant service record to the one from the description book, before his promotion

We also now know that he passed his examination for Seamanship in 1832 while on board the Dublin, and passed his Lieutenant examination at the Royal Naval College in 1834 (Portsmouth)

But based on his service record, Edward did not join the Euphrates Expedition, as his next appointment after leaving the Dublin on Oct 2 1834, was on the Royale Adelaide, Sept 5 1835, still as Mate

His first appointment as Lieutenant would be in Dec 1837, on HMS Donegal

James Fitzjames actually took part in the Euphrates Expedition as Mate, which he joined on October 25th 1834, here is @jamesfitzjamesdotcom's post about it

The Court Martial Testimony Part 1.5

Since you were all so enthusiastic, I did my best to quickly transcribe that part of the record, so here is Edward's testimony

I'll transcribe the whole record when I can, because it's sixty pages long, and with several annexed letters (that I'll add when necessary to give you some more context to this)

The "The manner is which this Gentleman gave his evidence called forth the animadversions of the Court" from the newspaper arcticle has a different ring to it now :')

(Sorry for the potential typos, I kept them from the original record)

Court Martial Testimony Update

So, I'm spending the week in London to look at more archives, and I've just found the record for Mr Christie's court martial (and Edward's testimony) and... Well I just couldn't stop laughing while reading the whole thing, I really wasn't expecting that !

I'll be posting Edward's testimony soon, since it's only two pages long, but I'll need more time to transcribe the whole thing (as it's SIXTY pages long !) but Edward if often mentionned,

Just to make you wait, here is an extract :

Mr Christie : "Will you swear you never heard Mr Little call me "a d_d cowardly villain" and say "this moment shall be your last" ?

Edward Little's epitaph

Edward's parents, Simon & Sarah were buried in Green Street Cemetery (Section Roseville Street, Grave YY2, St Helier, Jersey) with their eldest daughter Elizabeth Jane. Following their epitaph, the family added a few words to commemorate Edward

It reads :

"To the memory of Sarah, the beloved wife of Simon Little Paymaster RN who died 9th May 1847 aged 68 years,

Also of Simon Little, husband of the above, who died 20th July 1852, aged 84 years

And of Elizabeth Jane Little, eldest daughter of the above, who died 27th May 1874, aged 70 years,

Also of Edward Little, their son, Commander RN who was lost in the Arctic Expedition under Captain John Franklin RN, ?? HM Ship Erebus, 1847"

I've found better pictures on The Genealogist (under licence) and I could decifer most of what's written, except for the very last part. If anyone has a better picture with the rest of the inscription, I'd be happy to add it to the post !

James Cornelius Little

(1807 - 1875) Edward's eldest brother

James Cornelius was fourth child and first son of Simon & Sarah Little, he was baptised in Hackney and passed away in St Helier, Jersey, where he is now buried

Like his father, James Cornelius was a purser & paymaster for the Royal Navy, he passed his certification in 1835

There is a James Cornelius Little recorded in the Freemasons registers : in 1843 for the St John and St Paul lodge and in 1859 for the Phoenix lodge, this seems to be him as he's mentionned on the registers as being a purser

His father bought a house in St Helier for him by procuration in 1845, he probably joined some of his sisters and his parents on the island around that time, as he's registered there on the 1851 & 1871 census (2 Almorah Road)

In 1857, he took part in a meeting centered about Lady Jane Franklin's effort to send another expedition in the search for his brother and his crewmates. He was described as "an esteemed resident" and the he "had taken a lively interest in the proceedings of this meeting. He had to deplore the loss of a brother in the ill-fated expedition of Sir John Franklin. He was happy to have the opportunity to express his thanks to the gentlemen who had taken the initiative in the proceedings."

A James Cornelius was charged with indecent behaviour & exposure in 1860 it seems that this could have been him, given that the name and rank are right (but in one of the article, he's supposed to be 58yo in 1860 which would make his birth around 1802)

But the story is an unusual one, please read the articles, if only for "The astonishment of the Recorder and the bench can be better imagined than described"

He passed away from pneumonia on Dec 8th 1875 at 66yo in Jersey, he is now buried in Green Street Cemetery on the island

The Little family census records

Here is a compiled version of every information I could find about the family from 1841 to 1901

(as the last siblings passed away in 1909)

As always in the census, the ages are "a bit" off, but all their named, occupations and place of birth coincide with what we know about them

Can't be 100% sure about these two :

* listed as only "Richard Little from Hampshire Botley" but the age is accurate, the last mention of him in the Navy Lists that I could find is from 1844 (And I couldn't find any other Richard Little living in Jersey before or after that census)

But ! I may have a clue on his whereabouts, we'll see that on the post about him 👀

** Listed as "Janet L Little" (but she seems to have been using "Janet" a lot rather than "Louisa" as other census mention her as "Janet" or "Janet L", when still living with her family, so we know it's her) and from Botley (which is accurate), employed by William Horton, RN Captain

The Little family tree

Let's focus on this part of Edward's family tree for now :

Edward was born from Simon Little and Sarah "Sally" Hayter on 14 Dec 1811 in Hornsey and was baptised on 12 Jan 1812 at St Mary, Hornsey

He was the seventh child, with six sisters and five brothers, the twelve siblings reached adulthood, his brothers and father served in the Royal Navy as well (the only one I don't have much information on for now is Cornelius Hayter Little)

Four of them married, and only one of his sister had children of her own, some of her descendants are still living in the UK today (but there is no all-female line from her that could be used for DNA testing)

I'll be posting about each of them in more detail, as I have found some interesting stories about the siblings

(I also have more about the extended family on his mother side, but we'll see that later)

The Court Martial Testimony

When I first came across this article, I coudn't be sure that it mentionned our Edward Little. But now that we know about his early service record, we know that he was serving aboard the HMS Dublin as mate (from Nov 1831 to Oct 1834)

So, I do think it's highly probable he's the one mentionned here :

"A Mr. Edward Little, mate, was brought forward as witness, to prove Mr. Christie's assaulting him. The manner in which this Gentleman gave his evidence called forth the animadversions of the Court."

If you want to read more about the whole Court Martial, I've got you covered (but with no other mention of Little) :

Edward Little Service Record

Following my post on the description book, something else was specified there, and it's Edward's service record before his promotion as a Lieutenant in 1837 :

If we compile this with the other record which can be downloaded on the National Archives website, the informations on the Scylla muster and the Forte muster :

Then, a "complete" record would be something like this :

I'll update this with more info once I've checked all the musters

Edward Little's handwritten letter

I already shared this on the Facebook group, but if you've missed it, there it is : I have found a letter handwritten by Edward when we was serving on the HMS Donegal, and adressed to Captain Drake

It reads as follow :

" HMS Donegal, in the Tagus,

July 21st 1838

Sir, being desirous to join HMS Excellent for the purpose of becoming more efficient in the exercice of gunnery, I have to request you will be pleased to forward this my application for an appointment to that ship, to Read Admiral Sir John Ommanney,

I am, Sir, your Obedient humble servant

E. Little, Lieutenant

To Captain Drake, HMS Donegal "

On the back we can read :

"Submitted for the consideration of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty.

Donegal in the Tagus,

22 July 1838

John A. Ommanney, Rear Admiral"

Update : the following line reads "Cannot be complied" which is consistent with him not getting the transfer

Thank you @muchtodoonterror for the help !

(I can't seem to decipher the rest except for the date)

But there is no mention of the transfer in his record, so I guess it was refused ? Since he was still aboard the Donegal until 1840

Comparing it to his signature on the Terror allotment papers from 1845 :

My bet is on him being left handed !

Edward Little physical description

Posting my best find first because some of you have been wanting to know about this: I've found a description of Edward Little when he was a mate aboard HMS Scylla in 1837, just before joining the HMS Donegal as a lieutenant

At the time, he was 24, 5'9 tall with a fair complexion, hazel eyes and brown hair, with no visible scar, mark or wound

From a description book joined to HMS Scylla muster - ADM 37/9921

So, I may have got carried away with all the historical researches I have done about Edward Little these past few months and I thought, I might as well share everything I have found somewhere !

I began researching about him specifically because there wasn't "much" easily available, so I hope my humble contribution may change that !

I have shared a bit on the Franklin Expedition facebook group, but a blog seems better to keep everything somewhat organized (and with @jamesfitzjamesdotcom 's encouragement)

I'm also working on a blog outisde of Tumblr, but this may take longer to set up, so in the meantime, I guess you'll get the first posts only here !

Hope you guys will enjoy !

(and sorry for any future spelling mistakes, English is not my first language)