The Tale of Jerry Abershawe, Highwayman.

Jerry Abershawe (1773-1795)

Not far from where I live, on the edge of Wimbledon Common where the Kingston Road passes, are some trees on the side of a small rise of ground. This part of the common is called Jerry’s Hill. It is named after the 18th-century highwayman called Jerry Abershawe, who frequented those parts and held up carriages on their way between Kingston and London. He was one of the last highwaymen.

 

Jerry's Hill. The gibbet was near here. Image @Tony Grant

A highwayman was a thief who held up passers by, usually people travelling in carriages, at gun point or with a blunderbuss , and relieved the passengers of their valuables. Some attacks on coaches were brutal and people were killed. Highwaymen were not necessarily the dashing handsome masked desperados of fiction with the manners of a lord and a twinkle in the eye for a beautiful lady. “Stand and deliver!” was their traditional call. They chose lonely remote stretches of the highways to perform their dastardly deeds, but they also had to be sure they chose an area where there was regular traffic going to and fro or their despicable mission would be pointless. They chose places just outside towns and cities where there was a constant flow of people travelling. Wimbledon, then a small rural village on the outskirts of London and with a vast area of wild untamed common land around it, was an ideal spot.

 

Gibbet post at Tibbet's Corner. Image @Tony Grant

Jane Austen was travelling to London from Steventon in 1796 the year after Jerry Abershawe was hung. They were about the same age, she was 20 and Gerry was 22 years old at the end of his life.

To Cassandra Austen Thursday 15 – Friday 16th September:

“….As to the mode of our travelling to Town, I want to go in a Stage Coach, but Frank will not let me. As You are likely to have the Williams’ & Lloyds with You next week, You would hardly find room for us then-. If anybody wants anything in Town, they must send their Commissions to Frank, as I shall merely pass thro’ it- The Tallow Chandler is Penlington, at the Crown & Beehive Charles Street, Covent Garden.”

 

From Steventon, the most direct route for Jane to London took her through Basingstoke, Virginia Water, Staines, Richmond upon Thames, Hammersmith and on to Westminster and the centre of London. From Staines she  travelled on what was known as The Great West Road which lead to London travelling east and going westwards, lead directly to the second most important city after London, in Georgian times, Bristol, the centre of the slave trade. Wealthy merchants and members of the aristocracy  travelled this road. It  had its fair share of highway robbers. Stagecoaches on this road were prime targets. So Frank was right to refuse Jane her wish. But maybe the excitement and the risk appealed to Jane. She was young after all. It does not say in Jane’s letter how they did get to Town, but I presume it was in less conspicuous transport and with her brother.

 

Wimbledon Common showing Jerry's Hill.

In 1813, Jane did travel along the London Road leading out of Kingston, Jerry Abershawe’s haunt. She did this many times from Chawton. There is no hint in her letters of any possible dangers but by the time she was living in Chawton, although the Kingston route was now her most direct route to Town, highwaymen were all but extinct. The toll roads had made highway robbery very difficult. Roads were manned every few miles and the people using them paid to use them. This made it difficult for highway robbers to make their escape along these routes so this crime virtually died out.

 

Jerry's Hill, London Road. Image @Tony Grant

To Cassandra Austen Wednesday 15 – Thursday 16 September 1813 Henrietta Street (1/2 past 8-)

Here I am, my dearest Cassandra, seated in the Breakfast, Dining, sitting room, beginning with all my might. Fanny will join me as soon as she is dressed & begin her Letter. We had a very good journey- Weather & Roads excellent – the three first stages for 1s – 6d & our only misadventure the being delayed about a quarter of an hour at Kingston for Horses, & being obliged to put up with a pr belonging to a Hackney Coach & their Coachman, which left no room on the Barouche Box for Lizzy, who was to have gone her last stage there as she did the first;- consequently we were all four within , which was a little crowd;-We arrived at quarter past 4 …”

This time there was no sense of Jane’s brothers putting their foot down and refusing to let her travel in what appeared to them in the past,  an inappropriate mode of transport. The party Jane travelled with appeared to be Henry, Lizzy and Fanny. There was no danger, just the excitement of the journey, and from Kingston on their last stage, the cramped conditions of four of them inside the barouche. 

They would have passed the inn at the bottom of Kingston Hill, where Jerry Abershawe had once made his headquarters, before their barouche made the long rising trek up the hill onto Wimbledon Common, going past Jerry’s Hill, where I am sure the gibbet would still have been displayed on the right hand side of the road. There probably was no sign of the remains of Jerry Abershawe by that time though. His body had been pecked clean by the crows and his bones had been taken as souvenirs. His finger bones and toe bones were used in candleholders. Jerry Abershawe was the last person to have his body displayed like this on a gibbet.

 

JERRY ABERSHAWE

Louis Jeremiah Abershawe(1773-3 August 1795), better known as Jerry Abershawe, terrorised travellers between London and Portsmouth in the later 18th century. He was born in Kingston upon Thames and at the age of 17 began his life of crime. He formed a gang, which was based at an inn on the London Road between Kingston and Wimbledon, at the bottom of Kingston Hill called the ,Bald Faced Stag.I am sure, as well as his primary occupation of highway robbery, Jerry Abershawe also managed to gain the odd carcase of a King’s deer from Richmond Park, which backed on to the, Bald Face Stag Inn. The inn no longer exists, but there was a very large pub and restaurant built there in the early 1900’s that, just a few years ago, was demolished for new housing built on the site.

Jerry had other places of refuge at Clerkenwell near Saffron Hill. He used a house called the Old House in West Street. Other highwaymen also used this house. Jack Sheppard and Jonathan Wild were known to have stayed there. It was a house renowned for its dark closets, trap doors, and sliding panels.

 

Clerkenwell

All attempts to bring Jerry Abershawe to justice failed until in January 1795, when he shot dead one of the constables sent to arrest him in Southwark and badly injured the other constable sent along too. Abershawe was arrested at a pub in Southwark called The Three Brewers. He was brought to trial at Surrey Assizes in July of 1795, and convicted and sentenced to death. On Monday 3 August 1795, Jerry Abershawe was hung on Kennington Common, a couple of miles from Wimbledon and then his body was set up in a gibbet on the hill overlooking the Kingston Road, which was more commonly known then as the London Road, next to Wimbledon Common near the scene of many of his highway robberies. It remained there for all passers by to see and those so inclined to be warned of the price to pay for evil ways.

 

Newgate Prison

The Newgate Calendar for 1795 describes the manner of his being found guilty of murder. Newgate prison was a notorious London prison in which criminals waiting for trail would be held, and it was there that Jerry Abershawe was incarcerated before his execution.

“When the judge appeared in his black cap, worn by a judge at the time of passing of a death sentence, Abershaw, with the most unbridled insolence and bravado, clapped his hat upon his head, and pulled up his breeches with a vulgar swagger; and during the whole of the ceremony, which deeply effected all present except the senseless object himself, he stared full into the face of the judge with a malicious sneer and affected contempt, and continued this conduct till he was taken, bound hand and foot from the dock, venting curses and insults on the judge and jury for having consigned him to, “murder.”

The Newgate Calendar also describes his execution on Kennington Common.

“He was executed on Kennington Common, on the 3rd of August, 1795 in the presence of an immense multitude of spectators, among whom he recognised many acquaintances and confederates, to whom he bowed, nodded, and laughed with the most unfeeling indifference. He had a flower in his mouth, and his waistcoat and shin were unbuttoned, leaving his bosom open in the true style of vulgar gaiety; and talking to the mob, and venting curses on the officers, he died, as he had lived, a ruffian and a brute!”

 

A hanging at Tyburn 17th c.

Highwaymen especially were supposed to affect an attitude and a jocular type of behaviour called gallows humour. It seems that Jerry Abershawe went to his death displaying ribald and stentorious gallows humour.

 

Jerry's hill view. Image @Tony Grant

At least Jane was now safe on her journeys to London. But I wonder if she had just a small wish for the thrill of danger and would have loved to encounter Jerry on the wild wilderness of Wimbledon Common and ,”stand and deliver,” to him. If it had happened, would her novels have turned out differently in some ways?

 

Tibbets Corner. A stylized sign commemorating Jerry Abershaw. Image @Tony Grant

 

ENDURANCE & JOY IN THE EAST END 1971-1987. A review of David Hoffman’s book of photographs, (Exhibition at The Museum of The Home 15th October 2024 to 30th March 2025.)

 

 

The cover photograph taken in Fieldgate Mansions , Whitechapel, in 1978 epitomises the contents of this book.

Five Bengali boys clamber over, sit on and enter a derelict old Fiat 500. White paintwork scratched, dented, paint flaked off revealing rusty patches,  dirty and grimy bodywork, the windows gone, even the splintered remnants sometimes found  when windows are smashed that still remain attached to car window frames gone too. The tyres appear to still be inflated. One boy smirks at the camera, two laugh out loud with gusto, another two appear to be imagining driving the car. Cracked tarmac, a stained brick wall with the word ,RUBBISH ,painted roughly in white in large letters. There are curtains still on the windows of the terraced house behind them, presumably, it is one of their homes. It looks lived in. The boys are living in poverty and dereliction, but they are full of impishness, humour and imagination, “endurance and joy.” We ask, why are these boys enduring these impoverished conditions? What has brought them to this existence? Why are they so joyous? This book with its intimate and sometimes journalistic photographs tells the story of many living in poor circumstances  and provides some answers.

In his introduction David Hoffman provides a short autobiography and gives us an understanding as  to why he wanted to take these photographs in the first place and why he obviously still cares. 

David begins his introduction with his first experience, at the age of eight, of taking photographs with a little KODAK camera. He then describes attending Tiffin Grammar School in Kingston upon Thames and hating the authoritarian disciplined, oppressive atmosphere he suffered. This revelation brings up the question of what education is for and what it should be. He was, “thrown out,” of Tiffin’s just before his A’ levels. He took his A’ levels later at Kingston College of Further Education, a place that treats its students like adults. A college of further education is very different from a school. He obtained some science A’ levels. The two Universities that he attended were not successful experiences either. He did not complete a degree. Joining The International Socialist Movement and travelling down to London from York University to go on demonstrations against the Vietnam War informed his politics. The rights of ordinary people and creating a home and all that means is one of the vital aspects of life that has deep meanings for everybody. This is one of the underlying themes of this book. His photographs show us people surviving and creating homes from very poor means, against the odds. A fitting theme for The Museum of the Home to display.

In 1973 he studied communication design at the Northeast London Polytechnic. His grant from the government allowed him some financial security for a while. The course wasn’t much good but he picked up many ideas and skills from other famous photographers such as Ansel Adams, Cartier Bresson and Diane Arbus. The Daily Mirror employed him. He got commissions for magazines and began to build up his own stock library. He began to make a  living.

David Hoffman

  

Two things come across about David. Firstly, that he rebelled against what he felt was expected of him as he was growing up. Secondly, that from an early age he found a love of photography which drove him on and inspired the rest of his life. Many of us suffer the same as David Hoffman, feeling that we are pushed into a life that is not what we want at heart. But not many of us find such a purpose in life as David Hoffman did with his photography which has been his driving force. Or perhaps maybe we all have something which ignites a fire within us but it is stifled and extinguished along the way because of the social circumstances we are in. 

Many of these photographs show people with amazing and surprising talents that if only they were nurtured in the right environment would have gone on to conquer the world in their expertise. One of the things that these photographs reveal to me is the appalling waste of talent. It brings me back to how society should be organised and how education, not only in our schools and universities, but also lifelong learning, should be approached. These are some of the vital questions David Hoffmans photographs incite. 

During his early years as a photographer David moved to London and because of the lack of a steady income he moved about from one impoverished area to the next, living in squats. From Notting Hill in 1969 to Whitechapel and Chicksand Street. He moved on to Black Lion Yard and eventually Fieldgate Mansions in the East End. All the time recording what he saw and experienced with his camera.

Oppression, especially by the local police force and the local council appear in his pictures. He got to know the squatting community well. Prostitutes, dope dealers, the homeless, communities making the best of what they have, people hardly surviving amongst squalor, its all there in David’s photographs.

His photographs of Whitechapel attracted the alternative press who published his photographs. He photographed National Front demonstrations and their attempts to get a foothold in the East End which were often blocked and barred by the locals in counter demonstrations.

He shows the racism that could occur. A Bengali family put into a house by the council on Clerk Street suffered terrible racial abuse.

In April 1981 he photographed the Brixton uprising (riots) which taught him a new type of photography. He learned the ability to photograph in an extremely violent fluid situation.

One of the main themes of these photographs is how Tower Hamlets were making concerted efforts to remove the local inhabitants so that new housing could be built, new housing that wasn't necessarily for the  locals who inhabited the area. David describes the situation in Fieldgate Mansions.

" Fieldgate Mansions was scheduled for demolition in 1972 by Tower Hamlets council, who 'decanted' the tennets to other flats , some far away, breaking up the community."

That word,'decanted,' struck me. I have not heard it used in this context before. The process of decanting wine is to remove the sediment, the dregs from the bottle of wine. Used in this way, decant, means more than just removing people from an area it is making them out to be dregs, the dregs of society that need to be got rid of. That attitude and concept is alien to a society   that should be caring, supportive and attempting to meet the needs of local people. Was there a war against poor people in the 1970s and 1980s and are we any more caring today? In the event, David describes how local people,  the incoming of a Bengali community, a change from the past but a continuation of a community where poor people could thrive, have saved Fieldgate Mansions which have been restored and are still providing housing today.

Among the photographs that took my attention is the photograph of Jane and Percy , two old age pensioners. David recorded the interview he had with Jane in September 1978.

The photograph shows two old people. Percy is in the foreground and in focus and Jane is slightly blurred in the background. They appear to be in a church crypt, perhaps. A sloping brick arch curves towards them from behind. Percy is playing a mouth organ and has his eyes are closed as he becomes lost in his tunes. Jane sits scarfed and overcoated looking at a piece of paper in her two hands, perhaps a form she must fill in. She tells us that the shoes she is wearing she found in a skip and the clothes she has on were donated by members of her family.

“Percy helps me, shares his money.”

I’ve only got one blanket and I let Percy have that, I put all the coats over me, but that eight pound, they shouldn’t have done that really…God will punish them.”

It’s a bedsitter. I wouldn’t mind a better flat or else I’ll have to go int a hostel. It’s going to be damp in the wintertime. I wouldn’t like it but I haven’t got much stuff.”

The interview extract appears to be the answers Jane gave to David, to his questions. It is a little disjointed but you certainly get a sense of Jane’s poverty but she never gives you the sense that life is completely hopeless. She is hanging on through the pain and the difficulties of her life. I was left feeling anger for the local council of Tower Hamlets for not being humane. I felt heartbroken for Jane and her friend Percy. 

Many of the photographs show scenes of fun and joy. So many festivals were organised by local people. They dressed up, played games, danced and had fun. The ability to plan and organise these festivals I am sure is complex and requires an ability to plan and bring a diverse number of people, organisations and various entities together. One of my daughters worked in events management at one time. She was paid well, and her company made a fortune planning events all over Europe for high profile events. Those people who organised the various festivals in Whitechapel and surrounding East End streets were just as able it seems to me. The events included The Bigland Green Festival, Limehouse Fields Summer Project for children, Bethnal Green Pigeon Club, Teviot Festival in Langdon Park Poplar, youth clubs, boxing clubs, old peoples exercise sessions and a Christmas party at St Hilda’s Community Centre, Club Row.

A telling set of photographs are of the THAP ( Tower Hamlets  Art Project) who celebrated their work at The Whitechapel Gallery. Nicholas Serota, the director of the gallery at the time and nowadays a museum gallery leader, nationally and internationally, a top academic, disapproved and really didn’t like what they were doing. It seems he didn’t have a choice but to let THAP use his gallery but this demonstrates what the art world thinks of as appropriate and acceptable and  who they consider should be classed as an artist. The establishment didn’t approve. Why not?

Another photograph that caught my attention was of two young men and a dog. The photograph catches them in full flight, in fluid motion, one after the other, moving like fleet footed athletes scaling a brick wall. They are repossessing a house after the council had evicted them as squatters. There aim was to have a roof over their heads that night. A space that, even for a short period of time, they could make home.  It reminds of a picture I have seen in The Guardian newspaper , the sports pages, of athletes scaling barriers during an Olympic Final steeplechase. The athletes became renowned throughout the world, appeared on TV for millions to watch, were awarded Olympic medals and had fulfilling careers in athletics. 

The police do not come out of David’s pictures in a good light. They are brutal and intimidating. There are photographs of the police in numbers aiding the eviction of squatters. There are pictures of the police breaking up legitimate protest marches and wrestling protestors to the ground. The two page picture of the police lined up outside of Stoke Newington Police Station in 1983, creating a show of arrogant force infront of demonstrators passing by protesting about the fatal shooting of Colin Roach inside that very police station shows a police force that is certainly not for the people . Police break up marches protesting about the treatment of the Newham Seven, break up demonstrations by legitimate strikers over the actions of the News International.  The force of law fulfilling what local and national government and big business want of them does not account for the desires and needs of local people who just want housing, who just want to feel free of racist and fascist intimidation, who want to live normal safe lives in a diverse community and have a job and a home. The photographs do not show a police force on the side of ordinary people. There must be a better more creative and productive approach to the poor people of this country. 

Every photograph in this book tells a story of creativity, survival, joy and endurance amongst the most dire circumstances. They are worth looking at and engaging with. The questions that they inspire should create discussion. Although they are about our society in the 1970s and 1980s they should also inspire discussion about the here and now. Some things have changed but there are so many similarities and many new problems to deal with.There are food banks in many parts of the East End. The Museum of The Home runs a food bank. The number of people living on the street is increasing. The price of a home, a flat or a house are beyond a large part of our population. It’s 2024 not 1987. The question still is asked. What can we do?

Endurance & Joy in the East End: The Photography of David Hoffman, is on at The Museum of the Home. It is curated by The Gentle Author and designed by Friederike Huber.

David Hoffman’s book is published by Spitalfields Life Books October 2024 

to coincide with the exhibition at The Museum of The Home.

THE GENTLE AUTHOR links:

https://spitalfieldslife.com/2020/06/21/the-gentle-authors-coronavirus-diary/

https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-masterclasses/write-a-blog-the-gentle-author

BUY THE BOOK AT: Spitalfields Life Books

https://spitalfieldslife.com/2024/09/15/endurance-joy-in-the-east-end-1971-1987/

BUY THE BOOK AT: The Museum of The Home online : 

https://shop.museumofthehome.org.uk/

Friederike Huber link.

https://spitalfieldslife.com/2014/12/18/friederike-huber-book-designer/

Museum of The Home.

https://www.museumofthehome.org.uk/

THE TOUR OF DR SYNTAX In Search Of The Picturesque by William Combe, illustrated by Thomas Rowlandson. (A REVIEW) Edited by Dr Ben Wiebracht and sixteen of his Stanford online High School Students.

The title page of ,"Doctor Syntax in search of The Picturesque."

This is the second volume of a series of  18th century books edited by Ben Wiebracht and his students. Ben’s idea is that his  pre university students, are as capable of serious  research as an undergraduate or post graduate student. In the process Ben has taught his students how to research, reading original documents to support their ideas,provide information and illustrate their viewpoints. Negotiating a university library and being able to find the texts you need for your research, reading the texts and making notes and then turning them into clearly explained text and presenting their ideas are valuable skills preparing his students for academic research when they do attend a university in the future. His approach to teaching and providing problems and  purposeful tasks is a brilliant way of engaging his students which can only enthuse  and make their studies meaningful.

The first volume in this series Ben and his students edited was, “Bath: An Adumbration In Rhyme by John Matthews.” That piece of research started life as an article written by Ben and his students published in Vic Sandborn’s blog, Jane Austen’s World. The idea for this second volume came from an article, again in Jane Austen’s World,written by Brenda Cox about, Dr Syntax and Jane Austen. Brenda has written a book about the clergy in Jane Austen’s time entitled,”Christianity in Jane Austen’s England. Fashionable Goodness.” Her knowledge of the 18th century clergy has informed Ben and his student’s research. 

This new edition has two essays that provide in depth analysis , firstly a ,”Biographical Essay:William Combe (1742-1823),” and secondly a contextual essay explaining,”The Picturesque,”in the 18th century, primarily described by William Gilpin. The article also explains how the narrow and sometimes inhuman view of The Picturesque that Gilpin promoted in his writing was sometimes mocked  by Combe. Jane Austen had a more nuanced  viewpoint about the picturesque  that included the lower class aspects of the countryside. Both adapt Gilpin.

William Combe 1742-1823.

William Combe was a bit of an oddball. He was the son of a tradesman, an ironmonger.  He himself wanted to be a leisured gentleman which he tried to portray to the world.He made people think that he  wrote occasionally and went to great lengths to portray a leisured  image to the world. To earn enough money he actually wrote an enormous amount. He didn’t put his name to most of his writing so that he wouldn’t be found out.  Journalism , stories and this long poem about the adventures of Dr Syntax, which because of its  popularity, made him a lot of money. He was very successful. 

It seems to me a shame that he denigrated his background. His father being an ironmonger, must have been a member of the Ironmongers Guild , one of the great livery companies of the City of London. It  was the  tradesmen who created the wealth of the nation. The aristocracy , with their individual wealth could not support the modernising and development of Britain. Attitudes trailed behind the reality. There was a double standard.  It was still esteemed to be a nobleman , a member of the gentry, or a gentleman as Combe felt and believed he wanted to be. Jane Austen, although her novels deal with  the lower levels of the gentry and aristocracy she  shows her  admiration for those in trade. There is a sub plot in  most of Jane Austen’s novels where those in trade are shown their importance. 

William Gilpin 1724-1804.

The second essay discusses ,”The Picturesque.”

William Gilpin  describes ,”The Picturesque,” as scenes of rugged beauty, often with ruined castles, cottages and abbeys within the scene. He shows no sympathy for the human cost of suffering that might have been connected to those places. He suggests  the artist , if those types of ruins were not in his view, adding them creatively and imaginatively to get the desired affect. Gilpin   advocates leaving any sign of the workers in the fields, for instance, and their abodes out of the picture.Combe ridicules this doctrinaire approach within his book but mostly agrees with the principles Gilpin advocates about the picturesque. Jane Austen on the other hand, who incudes picturesque scenes within her novels, has a more revolutionary approach to the picturesque. In one scene from Emma, that Ben mentions in his essay,  Austen describes the picturesque scene from Donwell Abbey and  includes the sight of Abbey Mill Farm in the distance. The lower class Mr Martin  farms there. She  wants to combine within the picturesque Gilpin’s rugged and well formed scene with the reality of the working people. In essence she is saying its all part of the whole. 

So we come to Dr Syntax our comic curate who we can empathise with and enter into his travails as well as his travels. He too was in search of ,”The Picturesque,” an innocent, an idealist in search of Gilpinesqueness. Combe based his story on a series of drawings that Thomas Rowlnadson had sold to the publisher, Rudolph Ackerman.

Thomas Rowlandson 1757- 1827.

Syntax is a poor curate who teaches pupils alongside the duties of his parish. He is often berated by his wife who seems to bully him. The cause of this familial aggression is the dear Doctors lack of wealth. This story is a journey in search of The Picturesque and using  drawings and writing the dear Doctor wants to publish  a book about The Picturesque. He intends to make his fortune.

Doctor Syntax by Rowlandson, lost on his journey in search of The Picturesque.

I started reading the text of the poem and I almost immediately was hit by a warm emotion of recognition.  The gentle rhythm of rhyming couplets took me back to my childhood and reading such childrens stories as Rupet Bear, also written in. rhymng couplets. Rhyming couplets are a simple technique that have a lightness about them. They carry the reader along on a gentle wave.  The connection between Doctor Syntax and Rupert are that both are adventurous, take chances, befall mishaps and are generally loveable. The rhyming couplets and themes are extraordinarily similar in both. 

Doctor Syntax being rescued by some fair maids after being held up and tied to a tree by highway robbers.

The pages of this edition of Dr Syntax text are  laid out with the original text of the story on the left hand page with annotations on the right hand page. The annotations often come in two columns. The first column provides extensive detailed definitions for archaic words and phrases in the text. There is often  more detailed information about a historical place or institution included too where it is necessary. A second column makes  connections with moments, and characters in Jane Austen’s novels. This format makes understanding and making connections easy to follow. Many academic texts put foot notes either at the bottom of a page or in a glossary at the end of a book. Finding the notes to a particular reference can then sometimes be laborious. 

The notes are impressive and show the thorough detailed research Ben’s students have done. An example of the annotations include, in canto IX 

rick:Stack of hay or corn. 

The definition is next to the line with the word in it. This makes for more fluent reading of the text. Also found in Canto IX an explanation of the text is also given for the following phrase,

A castle, and a ruin too: Castles and other architectural ruins were common destinations in picturesque tours.

The phrase itself can be understood easily enough but its deeper meaning connected to the theme of this poem, The Picturesque, might be lost without the further explanation. There is , in this case a further column on the right which makes the connection to Jane Austen’s writings  about abbeys and ruins. Ben and his students here make the link to Jane Austen’s juvenile History of England where she mentions the dissolution of the monasteries but there is also of course Catherine Morland’s expectations of Northanger Abbey.

These are  two examples of the research carried out that deepens our understanding of the text.

The Tour of Doctor Syntax, has connections with other literature. Within the story of this journey there are references made to Don Quixote , his horse and Sancho Panza which was written by Cervantes, first published in 1605. Reading the ,”Tour,”I also thought about John Bunyan’s Pilgrims Progress, a journey of a ,”Christian,” through the hardships of the world. Later on in the 19th century there was of course Charles Dickens ,"Pickwick Papers," a humorous account of a group of friends travelling around Southern England and all the mishaps  and joys and pains they encountered along the way. Dickens took the genre to another level. He in essence invented situation comedy.

Doctor Syntax having trouble with The Picturesque.

This Doctor Syntax tale, that Ben and his students bring to our notice,  covers  a large part of 18th century England,  and covers  the whole gamut of 18th century life. Syntax goes horse racing in York. He attends art galleries and the theater in London, where Syntax encounters a critic. Combe and Syntax give critics short shrift. Highway robbers and landladies in inns, quack doctors and lords and squires are all encountered.He meets mad bulls in fields and gravediggers in graveyards, ruined castles and attends military reviews. He visits Castle Howard, an example of the aristocracy, in Yorkshire and most pleasantly for Syntax, The Lakes in Cumberland. Auspiciously he makes friends with Squire Worthy while in The Lakes. Ben and his students are bringing an important text that shows us  life in the 18th century back to  prominence for modern readers in an easily accessible way.

Doctor Syntax loses money on the races at York.

Loosely connecting Doctor Syntax to the area around Chawton where Jame Austen lived  in Hampshire for the last eight years of her life ,  the Reverend Gilbert White, also a curate like our dear Doctor Syntax, lived in a village called Selborne.He of course is famous as a naturalist who wrote the Natural History of Selborne. In connection with them both being curates it is interesting to point out that it was curates and local country vicars who were often the historians, writers of journeys and the innovative scientists of the 18th century. Doctor Syntax was in good company.

The part of the story I found most engaging is the  surreal, Battle of The Books,  Canto XXV.Doctor Syntax has a dream or it could be described as an hallucination. The London Iinstitute, where  the books of learning and philosophy are destined  to be housed, is close to the financial heart of the city in Coleman Street. The heart of learning set within the heart of trade.This is not lost on Ben and his erudite students. The London Institute today has become The London University of The Arts set over six campuses around London and one of the foremost Art colleges in the world.

Syntax dreaming The battle of The Books.

The book about The Picturesque he has been writing on his long journey has been sold for £300 (£24000 in todays money  using the National Archive currency calculator). He is rich. 

In a kind of not so hidden subtext this tale is about marriage which of course makes the link with Austen that Ben and his students are making throughout. At the beginning of the tale Syntax is a poor clergyman who does some teaching to make extra money and is beaten by his wife. The relationship with his wife does not appear to be good at times. 

Syntax arrived back at home to his sensorious wife.

But by the end of the story money has made all the difference. You wonder if William Combe is saying that a husbands income makes for a happy marriage? When you look at the marriages at the end of a Jane Austen novel all the happy couples are well off. Some more than others but all are  in a good financial situation. Only George Wickham and Lydia are in straightened circumstances and that is mainly because of Wickhams profligacy. So Jane Austen is probably saying the same thing. A happy marriage is a marriage based on good finances.  

The map showing the route through The City of London where, The Battle of The Books, took place.

There are two maps that two of Ben's students created included in the text. One shows the journey around England Doctor Syntax makes showing a circuitous route from Syntax's home near Bath on to Oxford, then northwards to York and across to Cumberland and The Lakes then south to Liverpool and onwards to London before returning home. The other,  a map of London, possibly Ben's students have used the 1806 Wallis map of London, shows the route the books in The Battle of the Books take.Today you or I can follow that same London route along the same roads and streets using the map in this edition. It is a part of London that  covers at least two thousand years of history and events. But to keep it to the time of William Combe and Doctor Syntax  we can explore those places they knew.  Doctor Johnson, William Blake, Lord Byron , Jane  Austen and a little more recently Charles Dickens are all connected to this same part of London. I can’t leave out mentioning Dickens because The City , the Inns of Court such as the Inner temple,  are integral to so many of Dickens novels. This map of the  Battle of The Books, would make a great walk in London today. There is so much to discover, streets and alleyways to explore, hidden courtyards, all mentioned in Doctor Syntax.

This book is an informative and very entertaining read helped immensely by Ben and his students. We can laugh and cry  along with Doctor Syntax. Although on the surface it appears to be a comedy, like all comedy it has pathos,  and makes deep observations about life.

You can buy the book in the UK on Amazon: 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tour-Doctor-Syntax-Search-Picturesque/dp/1737033054

JANE AUSTEN and THE ROYAL NAVY

1787 portrait of Admiral Edmund Afflech.

Jane Austen knew a lot about the Royal Navy of her time. Her novel Persuasion, is often referred to as her naval novel because of the three key characters Captain Wentworth, Captain Harville and Captain Benwick. There is also of course Admiral Croft,the husband of Captain Wentworth's sister . The Royal navy pervades the novel. Jane also had personal experience of The Royal Navy,  two of her brothers Francis and Charles, became Post Captains and later in their careers , Admirals

 Jane Austen began writing her novel, Persuasion, in 1815. 

“ Captain Wentworth, after being unseen and unheard of at Uppercross for two whole days, appeared again among them to justify himself by a relation of what had kept him away.

A letter from his friend,Captain Harville, having found him out at last, had brought intelligence of Captain Harville’s being settled with his family at Lyme for the winter.” 

Captain Benwick, also an acquainatance of Captain Wentworth, was  staying with the Harvilles at Lyme.

Our three captains would have been in action during the years previously to Jane writing Persuasion.

The British were in many Naval engagements in 1813. They were blockading the American coast .Foremost amongst the the actions were:

April 3rd battle of Rappahannock River in Virginia.

Battle of York April 27th

Battle of Fort George May25th-27th

Action off James Island may28th

Battle of Sacketts Harbor May28th-29th

The capture of USS Chesapeake off Boston

Action off Charles harbour July 14th 1813.

In 1814 there was the battle of Lake Champlain in the North American war of 1812

“Captain Harville had never been in good health since a severe wound he had received two years before (rendering him lame)  and Captain Wentworth’s anxiety to see him had determined him to go immediately to Lyme.”

We never hear what action Captain Harville was engaged in. Perhaps captains Wentworth and Benwick were also engaged in one or some of those actions listed above? They appear to be a band of brothers and have a very close friendship probably forged in the heat of battles and training and the patronage system. Patrionage was the way Royal Naval promotions worked in the 18th century.

As well as her fictional Royal Naval Officers Jane's  two brothers, Francis and Charles,  were also in the Royal Navy and rose through the ranks. Then  there were the wives.  Captain Harvilles wife was called Mary. By the end of the novel Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth marry and  Captain Benwick marries Louisa Musgrove. The wives of 18th century Royal Naval Officers  have been termed, "Shore Wives."

CAPTAIN HARVILLE’S WOUND

We can wonder what Captain Harville's wound may have been that rendered him lame. 

HMS VICTORY Portsmouth harbour.

When I was a child,  at the age of nine, my Mum and Dad took myself and my brother Michael, nineteen miles along the coast from Southampton where we lived, to Portsmouth to visit  HMS Victory, Nelsons flag ship at the Battle of Trafalgar (21st October 1805.)

We were mesmerized by the sight of The Victory, an 18th century 104 gun first rate ship of the line. There were two things that have aways stayed with me about the Victory from that first visit and I have visited it a number of times since over the years. Firstly the surgeons cabin with  his amputation instruments laid out was quite a shocking place to be. It was both shocking and thrilling to learn how fast an arm or leg could be amputated, how the amputation  was performed and the effects on the patient. The second thing that always has stuck with me was a tour of the gun decks with all their massive cannons lined up with muzzles sticking out of the gun ports. Each cannon is roped down with pulleys and tied to anchor points in the deck. Our guide told us what this gun deck would have been like when in action. Each gun would have had a crew. Each gun crew member would have bandaged their heads and arms and torsos with thick linen bindings. You might wonder why the bindings. When an 18th century cannon is fired at an opposing ship it is rare for a cannon ball, a heavy round lump of iron, to pierce and enter the opposing ship. What it did do, travelling at the speed of sound, yes that fact wowed me too, was to smash into the thick wooden side of a ship. The thick oak planks would splinter and send large pieces of sharp wood exploding  inside of the gun deck. With sometimes forty or fifty of these cannon balls hitting the side of a ship at the same time in a broadside, the whole space inside the gundecks would have been filled with flying shards and splinters. The splinters of wood caused catastrophic injuries to the gun crews. Hence the bandage protection.

Somehow  I cannot imagine Captain Harville being on a gundeck during a battle. The ships captain would have been directing his ships action from on the top deck. On the Victory there is a small brass plaque screwed into the upper deck. It marks the spot where Nelson received his fatal wound from a French sniper high in the rigging of the ship The Victory was attacking. The bullet  was fired from a high angle. It entered Nelsons body from near his collar bone and passed down through his body going through his lungs and emerging near the base of his spine. If the sniper had been a fraction to one side or the other he may have hit just an arm or a leg. Could Captain Harville have been shot in a similar way, standing on the upper deck and being hit in the leg? Something to consider.

MENTAL HEALTH

Captain Wentworth

“…in a small house near the foot of an old pier of unknown date, were the Harvilles settled.”

“ (Capt. Benwick) ..had been engaged to Captain Harvilles sister and was now mourning her loss. They had been a year or two waiting for fortune and promotion. Fortune came, his prize money as lieutenant being great,-promotion too at last; but Fanny Harville did not live to know it, she had died the preceding summer while he was at sea. Captain Wentworth believed it impossible for man to be more attached to woman than poor Benwick had been to Fanny Harville, or to be more deeply afflicted under the dreadful change.”

I think this is a strange introduction to another human being. Captain Benwick is obviously suffering the death of his fiance. But even Anne Elliot seems to give him short shift ,”get over it” she thinks. He’s obviously a young man who has expectations of marriage now he has obtained some wealth through the prize money he has gained from attacking and capturing enemy ships. That is what prize money means. The morality of that is questionable. By defeating and perhaps killing an adversary he has improved his own lifes prospects. Survival of the fittest comes to mind. But has he dreamed too much? Are his expectations based on what he thinks society owes him rather than a true deep relationship with Fanny Harville? Is he really mourning what he thought was love? He thought he had it all, promotion, prize money, marriage. The other thing, and Anne notices this , his overly emotional reaction to the things not quite going his way. He couldn’t have known Fanny Harville that well. He was at sea all the time setting himself up for life and Fanny Harville was merely a piece in that structure.

Were our three capatains suffering post traumatic stress? Look at the way they live.

…”they all went indoors with their new friends, and found rooms so small as none but those who invite from the heart could think capable of accommodating so many.”

“Captain Harville was no reader; but he had contrived excellent accommodations, and fashioned very pretty shelves, for a tolerable collection of well bound volumes, the property of Captain Benwick.”

“…he drew, he varnished, he carpentered, he glued, he made toys for the children, he fashioned new netting-needles and pins with improvements; and if every thing else was done, sat down to his large fising net at one corner of the room.”

Those small rooms are reminiscent of the officers cabins onboard a man of war. Captain Harville, Captain Benwick and Mrs Harville all live in a small confined cottage together. And those hobbies of Captain Harville; putting up shelves, carpentry, making fishing nets. Are these preoccupations of a Royal Naval Captain or are they a means to counter post traumatic stress? Captain Harvilles severe wound could all lead to that assumption.

Even without being in a sea battle could the life and training of a naval sea captain cause psychological disorders? The punishment regime carried out at sea was severe. It is not only the receiver of punishment such as whipping who is damaged. The giver of such punishments must suffer psychologically too. It was a hard regime aboard ship and our three captains were trained or forced to carry out that regime. From what we as a reader can tell of the personalities of the three captains they seem gentle, self reflective, kind people. Could these three really command with full authority and strict discipline the crew of a Royal Naval battleship? I struggle to see that they could, any of them.

A lot has been written about Jane’s brother Francis as a pious man. A letter from his father George Austen to his son Francis early in his carreer promotes a Christian approach to life. Francis himself was known for his sincere Christian practice of prayer aboard his ship.But how much was religion a psychological support to get him through a strict education at the naval academy to begin with, the dangers of engaging in battle at sea and the strict discipline he must have had to keep among his crews. The mental and psychological pressure must have been immense. Was religion a psychological crutch for him to get through this sort of life? 

A  definition for Post traumatic stress and other anxiety problems form the National Health Service  is:

Anxiety is a feeling of unease, such as worry or fear, that can be mild or severe.

Everyone has feelings of anxiety at some point in their life. For example, you may feel worried and anxious about sitting an exam, or having a medical test or job interview.

During times like these, feeling anxious can be perfectly normal.

But some people find it hard to control their worries. Their feelings of anxiety are more constant and can often affect their daily lives.

 Jane Austen only has admiration for her brothers but were they damaged? From a young age their father George Austen had sent them off to the The Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth. What sort of life was that? Was there abuse? I am sure there must have been cases. They would have had a strict regime imposed on them, the same regime they were later to impose on the men they commanded.

SHORE WIVES

Anne Elliot at Lyme.

I wonder at the relationship between Captain Harville and Mrs Harville and also that of Mary Austen and her husband Francis Austen.

 Jane had knowledge of her own two naval brothers Francis's and Charles's relationships. After quitting Bath following their fathers George Austen's death, Francis  asked his two sisters Jane and Cassandra and his mother to live with his new wife Mary, married in 1806, and their new born child in Southampton.   Francis had wanted to make sure he had a son for the purpose of inheritance. 

Life as a naval officer was precarious and fraught with danger. Mary was made, early in her marriage, a ,"shore wife." She was thrown together with her new relations who she hardly knew, to live   in a house in Castle Square Southampton while her husband was away at sea aboard HMS Canopus.Mary must have become Francis’s financial and business proxy? Was she the one in charge? We are told that Jane did not particularly like her sister in law. In all the letters from Southampton that Jane wrote to Cassandra, Mary is not often mentioned. You get the impression from Jane’s letters that her sister, her mother, her friend Martha Lloyd , who was also living with them and Jane did their own thing. Mary must have been in charge of paying the rent, ordering the food and keeping her husbands interests going.There appears to be a joint decision about getting rid of their gardener at one point. Maybe Jane and Cassandra felt as though they couldn’t say much and had to keep their mouths shut. 

So what of Mrs Harville. How were things really for her? It is also important to remember that Anne Elliot will eventually marry Captain Wentworth, and that means she too will become a shore wife, a proxy for her husband while he is away at sea. Louisa Musgrove and Captain Benwick will  be in the same situation. One of the many side affects was  the fear of their husbands dying at sea.

The situation of Mrs Harville is interesting. Some wives usually of high ranking officers could go to sea with their husbands such as  Mrs Croft decided to do but most wanted to stay at home. They became proxies for their husbands. They paid the bills, looked after the money, made investments, educated their children, bought property and  did all the work and took on all the responsibilities  their husbands would have had. When husbands came home for any length of time there must have been a distance between partners and their children especially if they had been away for years. There must have been resentment if a wife had been a capable, successful manager of everything and then suddenly been reduced to merely, the wife, the mother with all duties taken away from her again. The shore wives were only doing what was expected and required of them by their husbands, the admiralty, and society. However, in taking on these responsibilities, they proved that women were very capable. To a modern perspective, this amount of independence and responsibility seems like it would have been welcome. However, their letters suggest that to many of these naval wives, this responsibility was instead a burden.  Nevertheless the majority of the shore wives were quite successful, financially and politically. There is evidence from the letters sent between naval officers and their wives there was a great amount of trust and pressure put upon these women.  

Women and the Royal Navy in the 18th century.

These ordinary women who lived at a time when women did not have equality with men  were left with the responsibilty of not only running their homes but managing their husbands finances participating in the Royal Naval patronage system, a system whereby it is who you know not what you can do, gets you promotion. , using power of attorney to invest their husbands money and keeping up a correspondence with their absent husbands which strangely required  a knowledge of the worlds wind systems and a good knowledge of geography to be able to get their letters to the right place. 

In the letters written from Castle Square by JaneAusten to her sister Cassandra very little of Mary is mentioned. We get the impression, if neither sister was called away by Edward to stay at Godmersham, his house in Kent or by one of their other brothers to help with child care, they did their own thing, dealing with their own finances. We do not hear whether Francis gave his sisters and mother an allowance. They spent their time  receiving visitors, making local acquaintances and on occasion attending balls and the theatre.  Jane mentions Mary in her letters referring to her as Mrs FA. 

Wednesady 7th January 1807

..we changed it for the “Female Quixote,” ( a novel by Charlotte Lennox published in 1752)which now makes our evening amusement, to me a very high one, a I find the work quite equal to what I remeberd it. Mrs FA, to whom it is new, enjoys it as one could wish.

Thusrday 8th January 1807

“ Mrs FA has had a fainting fit lately, it came on as usual after eating a hearty dinner, but did not last long.”

Referring to her as Mrs FA sounds impersonal and almost rude if a little sarcastic. There is a feeling that Mary is merely tolerated.

We do not hear from Jane or Cassandra how capable Mary was but as there is nothing derogatory about her management capabilities mentioned , or rather in the letters that survive nothing bad  is said, we can only surmise things went well. 

In Persuasion we don’t hear how Mrs Harville performed as a shore wife.  There is a  nod towards the abilities of women in the Lyme Regis  episode. When Louisa Musgrove falls form the Cobb and strikes her head becoming unconscious it is Anne who takes charge. Captains, Wentworth, Harville and Benwick are rendered helpless. Three naval captains used to keeping strict discipline and control over a war ship and its crew do not know what to do.

PATRIONAGE IN THE 18thCENTURY ROYAL NAVY

Portrait of Horatio Nelson (1758-1805) by John Francis Rigaud, 1781. 

By 1794 both of Jane Austen’s seagoing brothers, Frank and Charles were at sea.

“Charles left the naval academy in September 1794 and shipped as a Midshipman aboard HMS Daedalus, under the command of his cousin’s husband  Captain Thomas Williams.”

 There seems to be more than a hint of patrionage  where Charles is given a posiiton aboard HMS Daedulus by a family member, somebody he knew.

Frank, the elder borther meanwhile was in the sloop HMS Lark stationed in the North Sea. He seemed to be getting noweher with a distinct lack of opportunity. So his father the Reverend George Austen wrote to the families old friend Warren Hastings to get Frank moved to a larger ship with more chance of active service. The enagemnet in active service was beneficial if  dangerous. There was a chance of gaining prize money from taking enemy ships and of course with promotion up the ranks the chance of getting a larger share of the prize money available. 

The Reverend George Austen wrote,

“I… must ever acknowledge myself much your debtor, for the friendly manner in which you have undertaken our cause, and the application you have made in behlkaf of my son. As to the event of tiI am not very sanguine convinced as I am that all patrionage in the Navy restes with Lord Chatham however as ot may be of material serviceto us to have a warm Friend at the borad I am very thankful you haver procured us one in Admiral Affleck. If I mistake nothe had formerly some acquaintance with my family and  perhaps his recollection of that may be an additional motive with his regard for you toedeavur to assist us.”

It is a begging letter and I think it gives a poor reflection of how promotion worked in the Royal Navy of the time. Its who you know not what you know. But patrionage could be interpreted in a better light.The system of patrionage the navy used did actually work reasonably well. Patrionage did not always mean you were promoted because you had a relative or friend of the family who could get you promoted. Research has shown that those promoted in that way  could end up with a mediocre or average career. The other view of patronage was the promotion of those with ability. Admirals or those in the hierarchy often gave those with obvious abilities their patronage and helped them get promoted. This happened particularly during the time of war.  This fast tracking system  only benefitted the navy.Whether Frank Austen could be regarded as somebody with ability it can be left open to speculation. He reached the position of admiral by the time he was 90 years old partly because his contempories had all died off.

In Persuasion Captain Wentworth is the brother of Admiral Crofts wife.We can imagine his career path smoothed because of this connection. We do not learn in the novel whether he was a man of naval ability.

When Anne goes to Lyme with Captain Wentworth and the Musgroves 

“ Captain Wentworth turned in to call on his friends ; the others walked on and he was to join them on the Cobb.

…..Louisa seemed to feel that they had parted with Captain Wentworth long when they saw him coming after them, with three companions, all well known already by description to be Captain and Mrs Harville, and a Captain Benwick who was staying with them.

Captain Benwick had some time ago been first Lieutenant of the Laconia; and the account which Captain Wentworth had given him, on his return from Lyme before; his warm praise of hm as an excellent officer, whom he had always valued highly, which must have stamped him well in the esteem of every listener, had been followed by a little history of his private life, which rendered him perfectly interesting in the eyes of all the ladies.”

If we put Captain Benwick's  personal life and  ,"the interest in the eyes of all the ladies," that he attracts to one side  part of this description reveals one officer highly regarding another officer. Presumably Captains Wentworth and Harville are senior to Captain Benwick. It seems that.Jane Austen is describing  the patronage system at work.  Captain Wentworth with his connection to the Crofts and in particlar Admiral Croft  his praise and good reports of Benwick can  promote Benwick  through a mix of who you know and also the  meritocratic side of the patrionage system. 

The Old Royal Naval Academy (1733- 1837) building Portsmouth. 

THE ROYAL NAVAL ACADEMY PORTSMOUTH

Francis Austen joined the Royal Naval academy Portsmouth in April 1786. He was twelve years old. Later ,in 1791, Janes other seafaring brother Charles joined the academy. He was thirteen years old.

In 1733, a shoreside facility was established in the dockyard for 40 recruits. A comprehensive syllabus provided theoretical and practical experience in the dockyard and at sea. Graduates of the Academy could earn two years of sea time as part of their studies, and would be able to take the lieutenant's examination after four years at sea instead of six. The Academy did not, however, achieve the objective of becoming the preferred path to becoming a naval officer; the traditional means of a sea-going "apprenticeship" remained the preferred alternative. The vast majority of the officer class was still recruited in this manner based on family ties, and patronage. Family connections, "interest" and a sincere belief in the superiority of practical experience learned on the quarterdeck ensured that the officer class favoured the traditional model. William IV summed up this view when he remarked that "there was no place superior to the quarterdeck of a British man of war for the education of a gentleman".

They also had an education in mathematics, the science of the day, navigation,negotiating skills, leadership skills and learning about foreign diplomatic relations. All of this was all part of the education.Those skills were needed by a Royal Naval Captain

There was a clear prejudice against graduates. The then rating of midshipman-by-order, or midshipman ordinary, was used specifically for graduates of the Royal Naval Academy, to distinguish them from midshipmen who had served aboard ship, who were paid more. After two years at sea, graduates of the academy were eligible to be promoted to midshipman. 

In 1806 the Academy was reconstituted as the "Royal Navy College" and in 1816 was amalgamated with the "School of Naval Architecture".

The college closed as a young officer training establishment on 30 March 1837, meaning that from that date all youngsters setting out on a naval career proceeded directly to sea. The closure of the college created a gap in officer training, and in 1857 the two-decker HMS Illustrious undertook the role of cadet training ship at Portsmouth. In 1859 she was replaced by the three-decker Britannia, which was removed to Portland in 1862 and to Dartmouth in 1863. 

CORPORAL PUNISHMENT AT SEA.

A flogging at sea on a Royal Naval ship.

Can we imagine Captains Wentworth, Harville, Benwick Charles Austen and Francis Austen overseeing a strict regime that included corporal punishment?

There are the punishment records for some of the Roayl Naval Ships of the time that can be perused. HMS Daphne" The 6th-rate frigate Daphne (twenty guns; 160 men) was built at Woolwich Dockyard in 1776. The commander was Captain St. John Chinnery, and the frigate's first commission was for the North American station. 

There is a substantial corporal punishment list for HMS Daphne. There were ninety-nine floggings in just over seven years, giving a total of 1464 lashes and an average of 14.8 lashes per flogging. Most of the floggings were of twelve lashes, but nineteen were of twenty-four; one of thirty-six; and one of forty-eight. A total of ninety-two individuals were flogged. The fifty-seven men flogged in the period 1776-1780 comprised 11.2% of all seamen and marines who passed through the ship in that period. There were eleven repeat offenders in Daphne: six men received two floggings each; four had three floggings each; and one, John Mahoney, was flogged four times over two years, receiving a total of seventy-two lashes. On each occasion Mahoney's offences were drunkenness and neglect of duty. 

The main cause of punishments was the  neglect of duty. There is not really a definition for neglect of duty but one exception is Richard Tokley who received twelve lashes on 19 February 1777 for "losing a Dutch flag overboard." The next punishable offence was caused by  alcoholic drink,  often when the ship was in port. Most of the drink-related offences in 1778 took place while Daphne was at New York. The next main offence was insolence (fou followed by quarrelling. 

I am sure jane Austen was aware of this strict punishment regime when writing her ,"Naval Captains," in Persuasion, and she was all too aware of what the life of a naval officers wife would have entailed. Like  much  of what Jane writes in her novels it can pass  the modern reader by. Somebody reading her novels in the 18th century, just after they were first published, would have known what Jane knew.

References:

Jane Austen A Family record by Deirdre Le Faye 

2008 Shore Wives: The Lives: The Lives Of British Of British Naval Officers' Wives And Widows, 1750-1815 Amy Lynn Smallwood Wright State University

Portsmouth Royal Naval Academy : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Naval_Academy

Patrionage in the Royal navy 18th Century (published 2022): Guo Xu ( University of California) Hans Joachim Zoth ( University of Zurich) 

Jane Austen;  PERSUASION: Penguin Classics (pub 1998 reissued 2003) 

THE NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE definition of stress including post traumatic stress.

https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/conditions/generalised-anxiety-disorder/overview/