William Shoveller letters, 1798 January-1813 July.

0.21 linear feet (1 box)

English

Purchased from Byass Rare Books on the James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection Fund, 2017.

Arranged chronologically.

This material is open for research.

William Shoveller was a surgeon in the United Kingdom's Royal Navy during the Napoleonic era. He was surgeon of the HMS Leviathan between 1803 and 1805, and was on board during the Battle of Trafalgar. His journals of this period are held by the National Archives of the United Kingdom, and are regarded as one of the most coherent accounts of the medical procedures carried out in the wake of the battle.

Seventeen autograph letters written by William Shoveller to his family; sixteen to his sister Betsy, one to his brother Thomas. The letters are personal and affectionate, while they also give insight into life aboard Royal Navy ships at the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars. He complains of the toll of war upon the United Kingdom: “We have nothing to expect from the continuation of such a destructive war.” While serving on the HMS Romney, Shoveller was invited to dine with the ship's captain, Sir Home Riggs Popham, whom he calls “a very great man!” He sails on the Romney to the Red Sea and Bengal (then British India). He later writes about his time as surgeon aboard the HMS Leviathan in a letter written just prior to the Battle of Trafalgar, where “we joined Lord Nelson off Toulon.”

August 09, 2018

Finding aid available.

William Shoveller Letters. James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

William Shoveller Letters. James Marshall and Marie-Louise Osborn Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.