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ADMIRAL SIR BENJAMIN CALDWELL FAMILY ASSOCIATION COPY
THE NAVAL CHRONICLE MEMOIR OF ADMIRAL CALDWELL, 1804
Separately Bound with Caldwell Family Genealogy and Naval Correspondence
Direct Family Provenance • Custom “Memoirs of Admiral Caldwell” Binding • Glorious First of June • Royal Navy History
An exceptional Caldwell family association volume centered on Admiral Sir Benjamin Caldwell, GCB, one of the most experienced and controversial senior officers of the Georgian Royal Navy.
The volume contains the substantial contemporary memoir of Caldwell originally published at the beginning of The Naval Chronicle, Volume XI, in 1804. The memoir has been separately preserved and custom-bound with two additional bodies of Caldwell family material, including genealogical collectanea and printed naval correspondence concerning the Admiral’s service, grievances, and eventual recognition.
This is therefore not an ordinary complete volume of The Naval Chronicle. It is a purpose-made Caldwell family memorial volume, assembled from the Admiral’s published memoir and related family documents and bound under the bespoke spine title:
MEMOIRS OF ADMIRAL CALDWELL
Its direct family provenance, custom binding, and supplementary documentary material make it a singular object at the intersection of naval biography, genealogy, and family archive.
ADMIRAL SIR BENJAMIN CALDWELL, GCB
Admiral Sir Benjamin Caldwell was born into the Caldwell family of New Grange, County Meath, and entered the Royal Navy during the Seven Years’ War.
His long career included service at the Battle of Lagos and Battle of Quiberon Bay in 1759, the American Revolutionary War, the Battle of Ushant, the Battle of the Saintes, and the French Revolutionary Wars.
In 1794 Caldwell flew his flag aboard the 98-gun HMS Impregnable at the Glorious First of June, Lord Howe’s celebrated fleet action against the French Atlantic Fleet.
Although Impregnable was heavily engaged and suffered significant casualties, Caldwell was not mentioned in Howe’s official dispatch. Caldwell regarded the omission as an intolerable slight. The resulting dispute with Howe and the Admiralty became one of the defining episodes of his later career.
Correspondence preserved today by Royal Museums Greenwich documents Caldwell’s anger over his exclusion and includes later testimony describing the treatment he received as unjust.
Following further disagreements during his West Indies service, Caldwell withdrew from active naval employment. He continued to advance formally through the ranks and became a full admiral in 1799, but he remained without an active command.
His services were finally recognized in 1820, when he was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, shortly before his death.
THE 1804 NAVAL CHRONICLE MEMOIR
The principal text comprises approximately 86 pages containing the biographical memoir of Admiral Caldwell published in The Naval Chronicle, Volume XI, London, 1804.
The Naval Chronicle was the foremost British naval periodical of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic era. Published monthly between 1799 and 1818, it combined biographies of naval officers with battle narratives, official correspondence, ship intelligence, promotions, courts-martial, maritime news, poetry, engravings, and technical material.
Its biographies were frequently based on information supplied by officers, families, and naval associates. They remain important contemporary sources for the careers and reputations of Georgian naval commanders.
In the present volume, Caldwell’s memoir was removed from the larger periodical sequence and preserved as an independent biographical work.
The customized binding and added family documents indicate that the volume was deliberately created as a dedicated record of Caldwell rather than retained as a general periodical.
CALDWELL FAMILY COLLECTANEA
Two bodies of additional Caldwell material are bound at the rear.
These include genealogical collectanea relating to:
CALDWELL OF NEW GRANGE, COUNTY MEATH
The material records the Admiral’s family, descent, connections, and the Caldwell association with the New Grange estate in Ireland.
Also included is printed naval correspondence relating to Caldwell’s career, his disputes over the recognition of his service, and his eventual appointment as a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath.
These additions substantially enlarge the original 1804 memoir. Together they preserve Caldwell not only as a public naval officer but as a member of an established Anglo-Irish family whose descendants continued to collect and preserve evidence concerning his career.
The volume is most accurately understood as a composite Caldwell family dossier or privately assembled memorial volume.
DIRECT FAMILY PROVENANCE
Mounted within the volume is a manuscript provenance note reading:
“H. Eleanor Bulwer (Caldwell), Gr. Grand Daughter of the Admiral.”
A Caldwell family bookplate is also present on the front pastedown.
The Bulwer and Caldwell names are documented within the later New Grange family line. Captain Henry Caldwell, a descendant of the Admiral, married Mary Eleanor Bulwer, connecting the Caldwell family with the prominent Bulwer family.
The manuscript statement explicitly identifies the owner as a great-granddaughter of Admiral Caldwell and provides direct family association with the subject of the volume.
This provenance is central to the book’s significance. It was not merely owned by an unrelated collector of naval history. It remained in the family of the officer memorialized in its pages and appears to have been assembled or preserved as part of the family’s historical record.
THE CUSTOM BINDING
Bound in nineteenth-century half calf leather over marbled boards.
The spine is decorated in gilt and bears a dark leather title label reading:
MEMOIRS OF ADMIRAL CALDWELL
The title is bibliographically revealing. Rather than identifying the book as The Naval Chronicle, the binder titled it exclusively for Caldwell, confirming the intended transformation of the extracted memoir and related documents into a separate memorial volume.
The binding is an integral part of the volume’s association history.
RARITY AND COLLECTING INTEREST
Individual volumes of The Naval Chronicle appear periodically on the market. This volume is fundamentally different.
Its importance derives from the survival of the Caldwell memoir in a customized family binding together with:
• Direct great-granddaughter provenance
• Caldwell family bookplate
• Manuscript family identification
• Caldwell of New Grange genealogical collectanea
• Printed correspondence concerning Caldwell’s naval career
• Material relating to his exclusion from official recognition
• Documentation concerning his eventual appointment as GCB
• Bespoke “Memoirs of Admiral Caldwell” spine title
• Association with the Glorious First of June
I have located no comparable Caldwell family association copy assembled in this form.
The volume would be of particular interest to collectors and researchers of the Royal Navy, the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, the Glorious First of June, naval patronage and honors, Anglo-Irish genealogy, association copies, and extra-illustrated or composite historical books.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
The volume contains the separately bound Caldwell memoir from The Naval Chronicle, Volume XI, rather than the complete 494-page periodical volume.
The principal memoir comprises approximately 86 pages, followed by two bodies of Caldwell family collectanea.
This distinction explains the custom title and is an important part of the volume’s history as a family-created memorial.
CONDITION
Overall fair to good antiquarian condition, with substantial historical and association interest.
The half-calf leather binding remains sound, with the boards firmly attached. The spine shows tanning, rubbing, wear at the joints and extremities, and areas of splitting or surface deterioration. The gilt decoration and custom lettering remain visible and legible.
The marbled boards show rubbing, scuffing, edgewear, and bumped corners consistent with age and family use.
The text and added material show moderate foxing and age-toning, more noticeable at the endpapers, outer leaves, and text-block edges. The pages remain legible and the documentary material is well preserved for consultation.
The Caldwell family bookplate, manuscript great-granddaughter provenance note, genealogical collectanea, and printed correspondence are present.
Please examine all photographs carefully for the binding, provenance, contents, and condition.
SUMMARY
A remarkable family association volume devoted to Admiral Sir Benjamin Caldwell, GCB, containing his 1804 Naval Chronicle memoir separately bound with Caldwell of New Grange genealogy and printed naval correspondence.
Custom-bound as Memoirs of Admiral Caldwell and preserved by a woman identifying herself as the Admiral’s great-granddaughter, the volume combines contemporary naval biography, direct family provenance, genealogical documentation, and the history of one of the most contentious disputes over recognition following the Glorious First of June.
A singular and compelling survival from a distinguished Georgian naval family.
