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
TNA ADM 1/4866
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
