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Public Theatre and the
Enslaved People of
Colonial Saint-Domingue

Julia Prest
Public Theatre and the Enslaved People of Colonial
Saint-Domingue

“[The book] is an exciting and impressive project that presents the first study of
public theatre and slavery in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haïti),
attending not only to representations of enslaved people on stage, but also the real
presence and relationship between enslaved people of colonial Haïti and the the-
atre. Prof. Prest brings to bear a remarkable corpus of sources, from notarial
records and eyewitness accounts to newspaper adverts, published treatises, and the
texts of plays, to advance a series of significant, groundbreaking findings.”
—Christy Pichichero, George Mason University, Fairfax, USA

“‘Un-silencing’ the enslaved Haitians who built the theaters, changed the scenery,
and played the accompaniments, Julia Prest discovers new worlds backstage in the
theaters of eighteenth-century Saint-Domingue—an exemplary study in the
method and imagination required of voicing muted histories.”
—Joseph Roach, Yale University, Connecticut, USA

“From the creator of the indispensable performance database ‘Theatre in Saint-­

Domingue, 1764–1791’, the first large-scale synthesis of information concerning
enslaved people in one of the world’s major centers of theatrical performance.
Prest presents playhouses, their audiences, the lives and labor of enslaved domes-
tics, musicians, and craftsmen, and the transformative effects of the Haitian
Revolution.”
—Kate van Orden, Harvard University, Massachusetts, USA
 Julia Prest

Public Theatre
and the Enslaved
People of Colonial
Saint-­Domingue
Julia Prest
University of St Andrews
St Andrews, UK

ISBN 978-3-031-22690-8    ISBN 978-3-031-22691-5 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22691-5

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2023
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or ­hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the
­publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to
the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The
publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and
­institutional affiliations.

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG.
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
 To my mother
and in memory of my father
 Acknowledgements

My thanks are due first to Chris Miller who, during a casual conversation
in the corridors of Wall Street, New Haven, a long time ago, told me that
there was theatre in Saint-Domingue. I barely knew what or where Saint-­
Domingue was, but something about this piece of information piqued my
interest. Some years later, I retrieved it from my mental filing cabinet and
embarked on what would be the most challenging—and the most enrich-
ing—journey of my academic life. The project has benefitted from gener-
ous funding from various sources: a British Academy/Leverhulme Small
Research Grant (2016) enabled me to create the Theatre in Saint-­
Domingue performance database that I consult almost every day; a fellow-
ship at the Institute for Advanced Study at Durham University (2016) and
a Leverhulme Research Fellowship (2017–2018) allowed me to get to
grips with the core material, while a grant from the Scottish Funding
Council Restarting Research scheme (2020–2021) helped me, ably
assisted by Vanessa Lee, to focus on slavery and enslaved people. Research
trips to France were funded by the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of
Scotland, the Leverhulme Trust and the University of St Andrews.
Many individuals have helped move the project forward. Among them
are Juliane Braun, Trevor Burnard, Bernard Camier, Paul Cheyney, Logan
Connors, Camille Cordier, Carrie Glenn, Michael Harrigan, Suzanne
Krebsbach, Jeff Leichman, Jeremy Popkin, Clare Siviter, Benjamin Steiner,
Rob Taber and Cyril Triolaire, who generously shared documents—and
insights—with me. Melody Shum sent me photographs from newspapers
held in Aix-en-Provence, Giulia Scuro sent some from Paris and Emily
Hathaway and Sophie Delsaux sent some from New Orleans. Robert

vii
viii Acknowledgements
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Mealy advised me on some tricky musical matters, while Fabien Cavaillé

helped me with the finer points of French and of playhouse architecture.
Anne McConnell looked over my Creole, and Duncan Stewart prepared
the map and helped me with my images. My thanks to you all.
I am also indebted to several individuals who kindly read and com-
mented on my work. I took Noémie Ndiaye’s valuable feedback on an
earlier piece with me into this project. Sarah Adams, Fabien Cavaillé,
Logan Connors, Sara James and Charles Walton each read chapters of the
manuscript, as did the two anonymous readers for Palgrave Macmillan.
Your feedback made this a better book. My partner, Roy Dilley, accompa-
nied me on a long trip to eighteenth-century Saint-Domingue and read
every word. Mèsi anpil.
 Prefatory Note on Language and
Translations

When writing as myself, I have favoured ‘enslaved people’ over ‘slaves’. When
reporting the point of view of colonials and when translating the term ‘esclave’, I
have used ‘slave’. In my English translations, I have retained the terms ‘nègre’ and
‘négresse’—partly in order not to lose the violence of contemporary language, but
also owing to the ambiguity and untranslatability of the term, which was some-
times used to designate black people, sometimes enslaved people, often suggesting
a conceptual overlap between the two. I have also retained ‘mulâtre’ and
‘mulâtresse’. All quotations are given in the original language first, with unstan-
dardized spelling and punctuation retained. These are followed by my English
translations, which are designed to convey core meaning and some sense of the
original expression, but with the titles of theatrical works standardized.

ix
 Contents

1 Introduction  1
Chapter Summaries  12

2 Mitigated Spectators: Enslaved People in the Playhouse 17

The Theatre Audience in Saint-Domingue  18
The Enslaved Audience  35
Conclusion  49

3 
Unsustainable Tensions: ‘Slave Ownership’ Among
Theatre-Makers 51
Theatre Directors  53
Actors  64
Instrumentalists  85
Deserter Works  87
Conclusion  99

4 
Mitigated Portrayals: Enslaved Figures in Creole Repertoire101
Les Veuves créoles (Anonymous, 1768) 105
Figaro au Cap-Français (Clément, 1785) and Le Mariage par
lettres de change (?Clément, 1785) 109
Arlequin mulâtresse protégée par Macanda (Unknown, 1786) 113

xi
xii CONTENTS

Jeannot et Thérèse (Clément, ?1758) 123

Les Amours de Mirebalais (Clément, 1786) 135
Les Nègres de place ou le commerce de nuit (Unknown, 1786) 137
Julien et Suset (Clément, 1788) 146
Conclusion 150

5 
Concealed Contributors: Enslaved Participation in
Theatre-Making153
Orchestral Musicians 154
The ‘nègre créole’ 162
Black Supernumeraries 166
Non-performing Contributors 169
Builders 175
Conclusion 186

6 
New Citizens: Shifting Roles in Revolutionary-Era Theatre189
‘Revolutionary’ Theatre from France 192
La Répétition interrompue (Mozard, 1789) 196
Le Triomphe du tiers état ou les ridicules de la noblesse
(?Pastoret de Calian, 1789) 203
The Haitian Revolution Begins 208
La Liberté générale ou les colons à Paris (Bottu, 1796) 214
Le Héros africain (Unknown, 1797) 224
Conclusion 231

7 Conclusion233
Exodus 236

Bibliography245

Index263
 Abbreviations

AA Affiches américaines, 1766–1791.

ADPAA Avis divers ou petites affiches américaines, 1764–1765.
ANOM Archives nationales d’outre-mer, Aix-en-Provence.
BOSD Bulletin officiel de Saint-Domingue, 1797–1799.
CÉSAR Calendrier électronique des spectacles sous l’ancien régime et sous
la révolution database.
GOSD Gazette officielle de Saint-Domingue, 1802–1803.
GSD Gazette de Saint-Domingue, 1791.
JGSD Journal général de Saint-Domingue, 1790–1791.
MC Moniteur colonial, 1791.
ML Moniteur de la Louisiane, 1794–1815.
MGPFSD Moniteur général de la partie française de Saint-­Domingue, 1793.
SAA Supplément aux affiches américaines, 1766–1791.
TSD Theatre in Saint-Domingue, 1764–1791 database.

xiii
 List of Figures

Fig. 1.1 Map of Saint-Domingue in the late eighteenth century 3

Fig. 2.1 Detail from drawings featuring Port-au-Prince playhouse (1782
and 1783), showing seating plan of auditorium and elevation-
perspective of stage. (Archives nationales d’outre-mer (France),
FR ANOM F3 296 E75) 26
Fig. 2.2 Detail from drawings featuring Port-au-Prince playhouse (1782
and 1783), showing site plan with entrance on the right.
(Archives nationales d’outre-­mer (France), FR ANOM F3
296 E75) 27
Fig. 2.3 Detail from drawings featuring Port-au-Prince playhouse (1782
and 1783), showing long section with staircases. (Archives
nationales d’outre-mer (France), FR ANOM F3 296 E75) 27
Fig. 2.4 Watercolour by Chevalier de Largues, Vue perspective de la
place Montarcher (Cap-Français), showing the playhouse on the
right. (Courtesy of William Reese Company, New Haven,
Connecticut)32
Fig. 6.1 Watercolour by Boquet, Le Pillage du Cap, révolte de Saint-
Domingue (1793). M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript
Library, Duke University 210
Fig. 6.2 Detail from watercolour by Boquet, Le Pillage du Cap, révolte
de Saint-­Domingue (1793), featuring man in Arlequin costume
at the centre. M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library,
Duke University 212

xv
xvi LIST OF FIGURES

Fig. 6.3 Detail from watercolour by Boquet, Le Pillage du Cap, révolte

de Saint-­Domingue (1793), featuring man in Pierrot costume
at the centre. M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library,
Duke University 213
Fig. 7.1 Poster for Federal Theatre Project performance of Haiti
featuring Toussaint Louverture (1938). (Retrieved from
Wikimedia Commons) 243
 1

Introduction

On 3 November 1784, the local newspaper in the French colony of Saint-­

Domingue, in present-day Haiti, included under the ‘Spectacles’ (Theatre)
rubric the following announcement for a performance at the local theatre
in the town of Cap-Français:

Les Comédiens du Cap donneront samedi 6 du courant, au bénéfice de

M. Dubuisson, une représentation d’AUCASSIN & NICOLETTE, OU
LES MŒURS DU BON VIEUX TEMPS, grand Opéra en trois Actes; cet
Opéra est rempli de Scenes aussi touchantes qu’agréables, le bon Comique
y est adroitement amené, la Musique est bonne; enfin, l’accueil que le Public
a daigné lui faire, donne à M. Dubuisson l’espoir de ne s’être pas trompé sur
son choix. (SAA 3 November 1784, 710)

The actors of Le Cap will give on Saturday 6th of this month, for the benefit of
M. Dubuisson, a performance of Aucassin et Nicolette, ou les Mœurs du bon
vieux temps, a large-scale opera in three acts. This opera is full of scenes that are
as touching as they are agreeable, its comic elements are cleverly constructed, the
music is good. Finally, the reception that the public have granted it, makes
M. Dubuisson hope that he has not made a mistake in his choice [of work].

Henri Dubuisson was a white actor and firework maker who had a long
association with the playhouse in Cap-Français (commonly known as Le
Cap) in the 1770s and 1780s. He and his wife appeared in many perfor-
mances and were regular beneficiaries of performances that they organized

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1

Switzerland AG 2023
J. Prest, Public Theatre and the Enslaved People of Colonial
Saint-Domingue, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22691-5_1
2 J. PREST

at their own expense. Dubuisson’s production of Grétry and Sedaine’s

three-act opéra-comique, based on an eighteenth-century version of a
thirteenth-­century chantefable (a genre that alternated sung verse with
recited prose), Aucassin et Nicolette, is one such benefit performance. A
few pages later in the same edition of the newspaper, we find another
notice submitted by Dubuisson posted under the rubric ‘Esclaves en mar-
ronage’ (maroon slaves):

Michel, Mondongue, taille de 5 pieds 3 pouces, étampé A. F., ayant eu une

guigne à l’orteil, qui lui a fait tomber l’ongle; Janvier, de petite taille,
étampé A. F.; tous les deux sont partis marrons le 24 du mois dernier; on les
soupçonne du côté de Maribaroux. Ceux qui en auront connaissance, sont
priés d’en donner avis à M. Dubuisson, Comédien, au Cap. (SAA 3 November
1784, 716)

Michel, from the Mondongue region, five foot three inches tall, branded A. F.,
having had a wound on his big toe, which had made the nail fall off; Janvier,
small in stature, branded A. F.; both of them ran away on the 24th of last
month; they are thought to be on the Maribaroux side [of Le Cap]. Those who
recognize them are asked to inform M. Dubuisson, actor in Le Cap.

A subsequent announcement confirms what this one implies: that Michel

and Janvier ‘belonged’ to Dubuisson. The implications of performers
‘owning’ enslaved people, mostly domestics, are discussed at length in the
‘Unsustainable Tensions’ chapter of this book. Here we note the blunt
fact that actors in Saint-Domingue were also enslavers. We draw attention
to the contrast between the warm emotions that Dubuisson’s performance
of a tale of young love is expected to arouse in his spectators (many of
whom were also ‘slave owners’) and the banal way in which the same
Dubuisson, who explicitly identifies himself as an actor, presents the vio-
lence that has been meted out on the bodies of Michel and Janvier in the
form of their brandings and the effects of an injury to Michel’s big toe.
This seemingly contradictory position sits at the heart of the links between
public theatre and the enslaved people of Saint-Domingue. Although
these connections have been alluded to by a number of critics over the
years, the topic has not received the sustained critical attention that it
deserves, and this is the first book-length study on the subject.
This book is primarily about theatre. Specifically, it seeks to write the
enslaved people of Saint-Domingue (back) into the history of public the-
atre in the colony. Saint-Domingue enjoyed the most vibrant public the-
atre tradition of the eighteenth-century Caribbean. As Clay has ably
 1 INTRODUCTION 3

demonstrated, theatres in Saint-Domingue were run, like so many other

things in the colony, as businesses (Clay 2013). Between 1764 and the
beginning of the slave revolts in August 1791 (and more sporadically after
that date), the colony saw hundreds of performances of over 700 named
works in several towns, including Léogane, Les Cayes, Jacmel, Fort-­
Dauphin, Saint-Marc and especially in the purpose-built playhouses in its
two main port towns of Port-au-Prince in the Western Province and Cap-­
Français (now Cap-Haïtien) in the Northern Province (Fig. 1.1).
Most theatrical events included a double bill of two works, sometimes
with additional music and dancing interludes, and some were followed by
fireworks or, more commonly, a ball. Details of all upcoming performances
as announced in the local newspapers between 1764 and 1791 are avail-
able via my trilingual (French-English-Haitian Creole) Theatre in Saint-­
Domingue database (TSD): https://www.theatreinsaintdomingue.org.
The majority of works performed in the colony’s playhouses were
imported from France, and some of them were advertised in relation to

Fig. 1.1 Map of Saint-Domingue in the late eighteenth century

4 J. PREST

previous performances in the metropole. It has often been assumed—at

the time and even to this day—that theatre in Saint-Domingue was merely
an inferior copy of the metropolitan model. This was the view expressed in
the 1791 performance almanac, whose entry on Cap-Français notes:

On n’est pas difficile dans nos Colonies en fait de spectacle; et les habitans
du Cap sont tellement avides de comédie, que, pourvu qu’ils aient des
comédiens quelconques sous les yeux, ils leur font grace du reste, parce qu’il
faut se contenter de ce que l’on a, faute de mieux. (Almanach 1791, 293)

When it comes to theatre, they are not picky in the colonies, and the residents/
planters of Le Cap are so hungry for drama that as long as they have some actors
in front of them, they forgive them everything else because they have to make do
with what they have got for want of anything better.

But it is wrong to assume that performances were of poor quality, and it is

unhelpful—especially today—to view theatre in Saint-Domingue only in
relation to a metropolitan tradition. French works were adapted to local
conditions, and some even received their premiere in the colony. Moreover,
a small number of new local works were written and performed there, and
it is possible—indeed, desirable—to speak of a theatre tradition that was
emerging in the 1780s as ‘Creole’, in the primary contemporary sense of
the term, meaning local. For the baron Wimpffen—an explorer and visitor
to Saint-Domingue—Creole taste was not in line with ‘good’ taste and
had a whiff of the buccaneer about it (Clay 2013, 209), but we might turn
this on its head and argue in favour of Caribbean (rather than European)
traditions. The genre of the Creole parody, for instance, appears to have
been unique to Saint-Domingue.
More generally there was a marked preference in Saint-Domingue for
lighter works and works that included music, especially opéra-comique or,
as Doe calls it, ‘dialogue opera’ (Doe 2020)—a genre featuring musical
numbers and spoken dialogue—especially those to music by Grétry. The
comedies performed ranged from more literary works to pantomimes,
including commedia dell’arte-inspired Harlequinades and works featuring
acrobatics. Occasionally serious works were performed—Voltaire was the
colony’s most popular tragic playwright, while Gluck was the only repre-
sentative of serious opera in the colony. The majority of performers came
from France—some of them performed in the colony while on tour, some
in the context of a limited-term contract, while others moved to Saint-­
Domingue on a more permanent basis. Some were born in the colony,
 1 INTRODUCTION 5

including two solo performers of mixed racial ancestry who have attracted
quite considerable critical attention. Audiences were mostly white but
included small numbers of free people of colour—an intermediate socio-­
racial group of free non-white individuals, many (but not all) of mixed
racial ancestry and some born into freedom.1 Most scholars of theatre in
Saint-Domingue have ventured that enslaved people were probably pres-
ent at theatre performances in Saint-Domingue.
Enslaved people were the largest group in the colony by a considerable
margin. How did they compare numerically with the other groups present
in late eighteenth-century Saint-Domingue? Even then, group classifica-
tions were slippery because they cut across notions of the supposed binary
of freedom and unfreedom as well as the non-binary categories of racial
ancestry—black, white and brown (or sometimes, in contemporary par-
lance, yellow)—and social caste or class. Notwithstanding all the docu-
ments that suggest otherwise, not all white people were property owning,
not all free people of colour were of mixed racial ancestry and not all black
people were enslaved. In other words, a person’s social position did not
neatly correspond to a particular racial background, nor was their racial
background—or social position—easily legible on their skin (as many
colonials would have wished). Some white people in the colony were poor,
and some free people of colour were wealthy and ‘owned’ slaves. A small
number of Native Americans were also present in the colony. Even with-
out these important caveats—and despite the existence of census records—
it is difficult to be sure of the exact numbers. A census for the end of 1789
recorded 32,000 free white people, 28,000 free people of colour and
500,000 enslaved people in the colony (McClellan 1992, 49). This sug-
gests that white people made up nearly 6% of the population, free people
of colour 5% and enslaved people approximately 89%. As McClellan
reminds us, such ratios were unusual: at the end of the eighteenth century
in the United States, the population comprised approximately 80% free
white people, 2% free people of colour and 18% enslaved people (McClellan
1992, 48–49). In fact, the numbers of enslaved people in Saint-Domingue
will have been even higher than the records suggest as many ‘slave own-
ers’, in order to reduce their tax dues, did not declare all their ‘property’,
while enslaved children and adults over 45 were exempt from the head tax
in any case (McClellan 1992, 48). Some free people of colour whose
freedom was not formally recognized (also, sometimes, for tax reasons)

1
For more on the free people of colour, see Garrigus (2006) and Rogers (1999).
6 J. PREST

will have been incorrectly categorized in the records and, as Garrigus has
demonstrated, this is further complicated by the fact that some colonial
families were reclassified from white to non-white following the increased
racism that marked the period after an anti-militia revolt of 1769 (Garrigus
2006, 143–44). Details of the white population will also have under-­
represented the significant military presence in the colony and the margin-
alized poor white people sometimes known as petits blancs. But the broad
brush is clear: enslaved people—the majority of them born in Africa—out-
numbered the white population by a very significant margin, while the
free people of colour almost equalled the white population by 1789.
These proportions of white, free coloured and enslaved people varied
from one part of the colony to another and differed significantly in urban
and rural areas. Public theatre was, of course, an urban phenomenon.
Geggus notes that ‘scarcely one in twenty of the colony’s slaves were urban
dwellers’ (Geggus 1996, 262), and most of these were enslaved domestic
servants. With regard to domestic labour on plantations and in towns,
Moitt notes that (in contrast with field labour) roles were usually gender
based: men were valets, butlers, barbers, wigmakers, tailors, watchmen,
gardeners, fishermen, canoemen, coach drivers, hunters and cooks, while
women were midwives, nurses, hospitalières (doctors), housekeepers and
seamstresses; they were also cooks, servants and washerwomen (Moitt
2001, 62). Enslaved domestics played an important role in raising their
master’s children, sometimes alongside their own. Men’s jobs tended to
be outside, whereas women were based inside, although urban housekeep-
ers would go out to shop for goods in town and female domestic servants
would sometimes run errands that took them outside the home. Overall,
the male population among enslaved people in Saint-Domingue outnum-
bered the female population, although the sex ratio became more bal-
anced in the 1770s and 1780s (Geggus 1996, 259–60). Although more
men were imported from Africa than women, Moitt makes that case that
scholars have underestimated the number of enslaved women in the
French Antilles partly because they have emphasized slave imports (which
favoured men) over longevity (which favoured women) (Moitt 2001, 33).
In the course of this book we shall meet enslaved men and women, most—
but not all—of them living in the colony’s towns.
A major goal of this book is to lay bare the fact that enslaved people—
mostly enslaved urban domestics—were an integral part of the story of
public theatre in Saint-Domingue and not merely a part of the uncomfort-
able backdrop against which that story unfolded. In so doing, this book
 1 INTRODUCTION 7

aims to bring enslaved people in from the margins of public theatre in

Saint-Domingue and put them at its centre. It is perhaps helpful to think
of the process in relation to Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s four key moments
in historical production (Trouillot 1995, 26). We make history by grant-
ing enslaved people retrospective significance and can then seek to address
the making of a narrative through fact retrieval. This is no straightforward
undertaking, however, not least because of the lack of personal testimony
from enslaved people themselves—a challenge that relates to Trouillot’s
moment of fact creation and the making of sources. As Connolly and
Fuentes put it, ‘we have irretrievably lost the thoughts, desires, fears, and
perspectives of many whose enslavement shaped every aspect of their lives’
(Connolly and Fuentes 2016, 105). This archival silence requires counter-­
action on the part of the researcher in order to uncover the counter-fact,
which Smallwood defines as ‘the fact the archive is seeking to ignore, mar-
ginalize and disavow’ (Smallwood 2016, 125)—Trouillot’s moment of
fact assembly.
Some scholars have succeeded in unearthing and analysing texts that
allow us to glimpse or, more accurately, to overhear the words and view-
points of enslaved people prior to—and distinct from—the slave narratives
of the anglophone nineteenth century. The great majority of those texts
are legal documents—a seemingly unlikely source for the testimony of
enslaved people but, as it turns out, an extremely valuable one, particularly
given that most enslaved people were illiterate, while those who could
write seldom had the opportunity to record their own experiences for
posterity. In Hearing Slaves Speak, Trevor Burnard introduces the reader
to an overlooked set of archives from the early nineteenth century, those
of the Fiscal in Berbice, Guyana, who, as the chief legal officer of the col-
ony, received hundreds of complaints from enslaved people who testified
directly and whose testimony was transcribed and has been preserved in
something close to its original form (Burnard 2010).2 Although the Fiscal
rarely found in favour of the enslaved people, the latter did at least have
the opportunity to air their grievances in their own words and, in the pro-
cess, to speak about other matters that concerned them. In a similar vein,
Sophie White has mined the mid-eighteenth-century trial records of the
Louisiana Superior Council, before which enslaved people appeared on
numerous occasions as defendants and witnesses (and only very

2
I am grateful to Trevor Burnard for sending me an electronic copy of his book when I was
unable to source one myself.
Another random document with
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of A History of the
17th Lancers (Duke of Cambridge's Own)
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Title: A History of the 17th Lancers (Duke of Cambridge's Own)

Author: Sir J. W. Fortescue

Release date: June 9, 2022 [eBook #68270]

Language: English

Original publication: United Kingdom: Macmillan & Co, 1895

Credits: Brian Coe, Karin Spence and the Online Distributed

Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A HISTORY

OF THE 17TH LANCERS (DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE'S OWN) ***
A History of the 17th Lancers
Sir Joshua Reynolds Walker & Burstall Ph. Sc.
John Hale
First Colonel of the 17th Light Dragoons.

A History
Of the 17th Lancers
(DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE’S OWN)

BY

HON. J. W. FORTESCUE

London
MACMILLAN AND CO.
AND NEW YORK
1895
All rights reserved
 To the Memory
OF

MAJOR-GENERAL
JAMES WOLFE
WHO FELL GLORIOUSLY IN

THE MOMENT OF VICTORY

ON THE PLAINS OF ABRAHAM

BEFORE QUEBEC

13th SEPTEMBER 1759

THIS HISTORY

OF THE REGIMENT RAISED IN

HIS HONOUR

BY HIS COMRADE IN ARMS

JOHN HALE
IS PROUDLY AND

REVERENTLY INSCRIBED
 Preface
This history has been compiled at the request of the Colonel and
Officers of the Seventeenth Lancers.
The materials in possession of the Regiment are unfortunately
very scanty, being in fact little more than the manuscript of the short,
and not very accurate summary drawn up nearly sixty years ago for
Cannon’s Historical Records of the British Army. The loss of the
regimental papers by shipwreck in 1797 accounts for the absence of
all documents previous to that year, as also, I take it, for the neglect
to preserve any sufficient records during many subsequent decades.
I have therefore been forced to seek information almost exclusively
from external sources.
The material for the first three chapters has been gathered in part
from original documents preserved in the Record Office,—Minutes of
the Board of General Officers, Muster-Rolls, Paysheets, Inspection
Returns, Marching Orders, and the like; in part from a mass of old
drill-books, printed Standing Orders, and military treatises, French
and English, in the British Museum. The most important[· is a
smudge?] of these latter are Dalrymple’s Military Essay, Bland’s
Military Discipline, and, above all, Hinde’s Discipline of the Light
Horse (1778).
For the American War I have relied principally on the original
despatches and papers, numerous enough, in the Record Office,
Tarleton’s Memoirs, and Stedman’s History of the American War,—
the last named being especially valuable for the excellence of its
maps and plans. I have also, setting aside minor works, derived
much information from the two volumes of the Clinton-Cornwallis
Controversy compiled by Mr. B. Stevenson; and from Clinton’s
original pamphlets, with manuscript additions in his own hand, which
are preserved in the library at Dropmore.
For the campaigns in the West Indies the original despatches in
the Record Office have afforded most material, supplemented by a
certain number of small pamphlets in the British Museum. The
Maroon War is treated with great fulness by Dallas in his History of
the Maroons; and there is matter also in Bridges’ Annals of Jamaica,
and the works of Bryan Edwards. The original despatches are,
however, indispensable to a right understanding of the war.
Unfortunately the despatches that relate to St. Domingo are not to be
found at the Record Office, so that I have been compelled to fall
back on the few that are published in the London Gazette. Nor could
I find any documents relating to the return of the Regiment from the
West Indies, which has forced me unwillingly to accept the bald
statement in Cannon’s records.
The raid on Ostend and the expedition to La Plata have been
related mainly from the accounts in the original despatches, and
from the reports of the courts-martial on General Whitelocke and Sir
Home Popham. There is much interesting information as to South
America,—original memoranda by Miranda, Popham, Sir Arthur
Wellesley (the Duke of Wellington) and other documents—preserved
among the manuscripts at Dropmore.
The dearth of original documents both at the Record Office and
the India Office has seriously hampered me in tracing the history of
the Regiment during its first sojourn in India and through the Pindari
War. I have, however, to thank the officials of the Record Department
of the India Office for the ready courtesy with which they disinterred
every paper, in print or manuscript, which could be of service to me.
Respecting the Crimea and the Indian Mutiny I have received
(setting aside the standard histories) much help from former officers,
notably Sir Robert White, Sir William Gordon, and Sir Drury Lowe,
but especially from Sir Evelyn Wood, who kindly found time, amid all
the pressure of his official duties, to give me many interesting
particulars respecting the chase of Tantia Topee. Above all I have to
thank Colonel John Brown for information and assistance on a
hundred points. His long experience and his accurate memory,
quickened but not clouded by his intense attachment to his old
regiment, have been of the greatest value to me.
 My thanks are also due to the officials of the Record Department
of the War Office, and to Mr. S. M. Milne of Calverley House, Leeds,
for help on divers minute but troublesome points, and to Captain
Anstruther of the Seventeenth Lancers for constant information and
advice. Lastly, and principally, let me express my deep obligations to
Mr. Hubert Hall for his unwearied courtesy and invaluable guidance
through the paper labyrinth of the Record Office, and to Mr. G. K.
Fortescue, the Superintendent of the Reading-Room at the British
Museum, for help rendered twice inestimable by the kindness
wherewith it was bestowed.
The first and two last of the coloured plates in this book have
been taken from original drawings by Mr. J. P. Beadle. The
remainder are from old drawings, by one G. Salisbury, in the
possession of the regiment. They have been deliberately chosen as
giving, on the whole, a more faithful presentment of the old and
extinct British soldier than could easily be obtained at the present
day, while their defects are of the obvious kind that disarm criticism.
The portrait of Colonel John Hale is from an engraving after a portrait
by Sir Joshua Reynolds, the original of which is still in possession of
his lineal descendant in America. That of Lord Bingham is after a
portrait kindly placed at the disposal of the Regiment by his son, the
present Earl of Lucan. Those of the Duke of Cambridge and of Sir
Drury Lowe are from photographs.
May, 1895.
 Contents
CHAP. PAGE
1. The Rise of the 17th Light Dragoons, 1759 1
2. The Making of the 17th Light Dragoons 10
3. Reforms after the Peace of Paris, 1763–1774 20
4. The American War—1st Stage—The Northern Campaign,
1775–1780 31
5. The American War—2nd Stage—The Southern Campaign,
1780–1782 49
6. Return of the 17th from America, 1783—Ireland, 1793—
Embarkation for the West Indies, 1795 65
7. The Maroon War in Jamaica, 1795 73
8. Grenada and St. Domingo, 1796 87
9. Ostend—La Plata, 1797–1807 96
10. First Sojourn of the 17th in India, 1808–1823—The Pindari War 110
11. Home Service, 1823–1854 121
12. The Crimea, 1854–1856 128
13. Central India, 1858–1859 144
14. Peace Service in India and England, 1859–1879 166
15. The Zulu War—Peace Service in India and at Home, 1879–
1894 174
 Appendix
PAGE
A. A List of the Officers of the 17th Light Dragoons, Lancers 181
B. Quarters and Movements of the 17th Lancers since their
Foundation 236
C. Pay of all Ranks of a Light Dragoon Regiment, 1764 241
D. Horse Furniture and Accoutrements of a Light Dragoon, 1759 243
E. Clothing, etc. of a Light Dragoon, 1764 244
F. Evolutions required at the Inspection of a Regiment, 1759 245
 List of Illustrations
PAGE
Lieutenant-Colonel John Hale Frontispiece
H.R.H. The Duke of Cambridge, K.G., Colonel-in-Chief To face
17th Seventeenth Light Dragoons, 1764 1
Seventeenth Light Dragoons, 1764 „ 11
Privates, 1784–1810 „ 31
Officers, 1810–1813 „ 48
Privates, 1810–1813 „ 48
Officer, Corporal, and Privates, 1814 „ 65
Officers and Private, 1817–1823 „ 87
Officers, 1824 „ 102
Privates, 1824–1829 „ 117
George, Lord Bingham „ 121
Officers, 1829 „ 128
Officer and Privates, 1829–1832 „ 143
Officers, 1832–1841 „ 155
Central India, 1858, 1859 „ 165
Lieutenant-General Sir Drury Curzon Drury Lowe, K.C.B. „ 179
Seventeenth Lancers, 1895 „ 227
W. & D. Downey Photo. Walker & Burstall Ph. Sc.
H.R.H. The Duke of Cambridge, K.G.
Colonel-in-chief 17th Lancers, 1876.