His Majesty's Agents: The British Consul at Tripoli, 1795–1832

Abstract

This article will challenge the currently accepted notions of weak British consular presence, influence and activity in the southern Mediterranean during the period 1795–1832 through a case study of the careers of three successive consuls in the Regency of Tripoli: Simon Lucas, William Wass Langford and Hanmer Warrington. Utilising the official correspondence of these agents, the extent of the consular bridgehead in the capital, Tripoli, will be investigated, and how, through these consular and diplomatic agents, it served to define imperial interests and activity at the frontiers of empire. Moreover, the overlapping personal and professional networks within which the consuls embedded themselves, the role of enterprising missions and the development of an intelligence-gathering network will be of central significance in understanding the consequent ruptures in the social and political fabric of the Regency of Tripoli. British imperial interest in North Africa during and immediately post the Napoleonic era remains under-studied and misunderstood within both British diplomatic and imperial history. This article challenges the existing literature that underestimates the diplomatic as well as consular power exercised by the British consuls to Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli, as well as the importance of these three Barbary regencies to wider strategic interests in the Mediterranean.

Notes

[1] Darwin, ‘Imperialism and the Victorians', 642.

[2] Haggerty, ‘Merely for Money'?, 162.

[3] Lester, ‘Imperial Circuits and Networks’; Haggerty, ‘Merely for Money'?, 162; Hoek, ‘Parallel Arc Diagrams’; Haggerty and Haggerty, ‘Visual Analytics of an Eighteenth-Century Business Network'.

[4] See, for example, Bayly, Empire and Information; Darwin, The Empire Project.

[5] Darwin, ‘Imperialism and the Victorians'.

[6] Bayly, Imperial Meridian, 248.

[7] Foreign Office and predecessors: Political and Other Departments: General Correspondence before 1906, Tripoli, Series I & II (hereafter FO), 76, The National Archives, Kew (hereafter TNA); Warrington to Wilmot Horton, 4 July 1822, FO 76/16, TNA.

[8] Rossi, ‘Tripoli'.

[9] Boahen, ‘Caravan Trade in the Nineteenth Century’.

[10] Bayly, Imperial Meridian; Laidlaw, Colonial Connections, 1815–45.

[11] Platt, The Cinderella Service; Mösslang and Riotte, The Diplomats’ World; Ben Srhir, Britain and Morocco; Müller, Consuls, Corsairs and Commerce; Ridley, Napoleon's Proconsul in Egypt; Müller and Ojala, ‘Consular Services of the Nordic Countries; Davey, ‘Supplied by the Enemy’; Chessell, ‘Britain's Ionian Consul’; Gilbar, ‘Resistance to Economic Penetration’; de Goey, Consuls and the Institutions of Global Capitalism. These references are, with the exception of Platt's work, only a selection of the most recent works of note on the European consular service and individuals.

[12] Rothman, Brokering Empire; Lambert and Lester, Colonial Lives across the British Empire; Killingray, Lincoln and Rigby, Maritime; Samson, British Imperial Strategies in the Pacific; Lester, ‘Imperial Circuits and Networks’; Stoler, ‘Imperial Debris'.

[13] Lambert and Lester, Colonial Lives across the British Empire; Lester, ‘Imperial Circuits and Networks'.

[14] On the career of Captain William Henry Smyth, see Marshall, Naval Biography, 136–90.

[15] Warrington to Earl Bathurst, 24 Aug. 1817, FO 76/11, TNA.

[16] As but one example of many, see Langford to Viscount Castlereagh, 15 Oct. 1807, FO 76/6, TNA.

[17] Warrington to Earl Bathurst, 26 March 1821, FO 76/15, TNA; Warrington to Earl Bathurst, 14 Feb. 1821, FO 76/15, TNA.

[18] Smyth, Memoir Descriptive of the Resources, Inhabitants, and Hydrography of Sicily.

[19] Warrington to Earl Bathurst, 4 Nov. 1821, FO 76/15, TNA; Folayan, ‘Tripoli-Bornu Political Relations’; Folayan, Tripoli during the Reign of Yusuf Pasha Qaramanli. See also correspondence in FO 76/29 on the conflict with Sheikh Saif al-Nasser Abdel Jalil.

[20] Pietro Caravana was also, according to Warrington, brother-in-law to the late American consul, Mr Coxe (Consul Coxe died on 23 Sept. 1830). Warrington to Hay, 26 Sept. 1830, FO 76/27, TNA; Warrington to Hay, 19 March 1832, FO 76/31, TNA.

[21] Lucas to Henry Dundas, 5 June 1794, FO 76/5, TNA.

[22] This included Dr John Dickson, British naval surgeon, physician to Yusuf Qaramanli and superintendent of health in Tripoli. Warrington to Viscount Goderich, 30 Sept. 1831, FO 76/29, TNA. Cf. Pennell, ‘The Social History of British Diplomats in North Africa’.

[23] Warrington to Viscount Goderich, 30 Sept. 1831, FO 76/29, TNA.

[24] See Laidlaw, Colonial Connections, 1815–45, esp. ch. 7, ‘An Information Revolution'.

[25] Carstensen to Warrington, 11 Sept. 1822, FO 76/16, TNA.

[26] Warrington to Wilmot Horton, 10 July 1823, FO 76/17, TNA.

[27] Hassuna's two sisters, Khadija and Fatima D'Ghies, were married to Ali and Mustafa Qaramanli. Hassuna's father, Mohamed D'Ghies, was foreign minister to Yusuf before Hassuna was appointed to the post. See Bentham Papers, MSS, Box XXIV, University College London (hereafter UCL). See also various correspondences by Hassuna d'Ghies in FO 76/17, TNA.

[28] May is given as Laing’s approximate month of arrival in Timbuktu, as by 18 June 1826 Consul Warrington had received the news of Laing’s entrance at that city from Hassuna D’Ghies, and several weeks must be set aside for the time that it would have taken a courier to deliver the news to D’Ghies from the interior to Tripoli. Warrington to Bathurst, 18 June 1826, FO 76/20, TNA. Laing’s arrival could also have not taken place before 13 April 1826 because the consul’s correspondence of the same date states that Laing had not yet reached Timbuktu, Warrington to Hay, 13 April 1826, FO 76/20, TNA. The last correspondence received by Consul Warrington from Laing was dated 21 September 1826. Warrington to Murray, 29 Aug. 1828, FO 76/23, TNA.

[29] Lafi, ‘Tripoli de Barbarie 1795–1911'. Rousseau had previously been the French consul to Basra, Aleppo and Baghdad. For further information on the consul and his family, see Mézin, Les Consuls de France au siècle de lumières (1715–1792), 528.

[30] Warrington to Murray, 25 and 27 May 1829, FO 76/26, TNA.

[31] Rousseau to Warrington, 17 June 1829, FO 76/26, TNA.

[32] Colonial Office and predecessors: Confidential General and Confidential Original Correspondence, Tripoli. Mohamed Hassuna D’Ghies’ petition to the House of Commons, CO 537/152, TNA.

[33] Bentham MSS, Box XXIV, UCL; Hume, ‘Preparations for Civil War in Tripoli'.

[34] Lafi, ‘Tripoli de Barbarie 1795–1911’.

[35] See Darwin, The Empire Project.

[36] Warrington to Hay, 24 Dec. 1824, FO 76/19, TNA. In fact, Warrington notes, less than two years later the trade of Benghazi is equal to that of Tripoli. See Warrington to Earl Bathurst, 20 June 1826, FO 76/20, TNA; Warrington to Viscount Goderich, 19 Dec. 1831, FO 76/29, TNA; and official trade returns submitted by the Consul General for Benghazi and Tripoli in FO, Tripoli, Series I and II, TNA.

[37] Cf. Lee ‘Supervising of the Barbary Consuls’; Platt The Cinderella Service, 10; Baigent, ‘Simon Lucas' Accessed 22 June 2013. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/17144.

[38] FO 76/22, TNA; Platt, The Cinderella Service.

[39] Bovill, ‘Colonel Warrington’.

[40] Memorial of Simon Lucas to William Grenville, 20 Aug. 1790, Records created or inherited by the Home Office, Ministry of Home Security, and related bodies (hereafter HO), 46/16/112, Folios 301A–306, TNA.

[41] See, for example, the case of Consul General Lucas and his memorial of 20 August 1790, HO 46/16/112, Folios 301A–306, TNA.

[42] Ibid.

[43] Including: Mr Townshend (Lord Sydney at the time of the memorial being submitted), Lord North, General Elliot (Lord Heathfield), Evan Nepean and Sir Clement Cottrell. See HO 46/16/112, 301A–306, TNA.

[44] Lucas to Dundas, 22 Aug. 1793, FO 76/5, TNA.

[45] Langford to Charles York, 10 July 1804, FO 76/5, TNA. Patrick Wilkie notes that Langford left Tripoli on 24 January 1812. Wilkie to Lord Liverpool, 6 Feb. 1812, FO 76/7, TNA; Cobbett's Annual Register, 10 Sept. 1803.

[46] Lucas to Dundas, 22 Aug. 1793, FO 76/5, TNA.

[47] Langford to Earl Camden, 15 Dec. 1804, FO 76/5, TNA.

[48] Orders in Council, 22 Feb. 1822, FO 366/542, TNA; House of Commons: Reports from the Committees: Volume 2: Report from the Committee Appointed to Inquire into the Consular Departments. London: 1835; and House of Lords Sessional Papers: Report from the Select Committee (of the House of Commons) on Consular Establishment; together with the Minutes of Evidence, and Appendix. Volume 26 (22 August 1835) 1–204.

[49] E. W. Bovill Papers, Add. MS 282539, School of Oriental and African Studies (hereafter SOAS).

[50] James Somerville to Sir Thomas Maitland, 26 Jan. 1815, FO 76/14, TNA.

[51] Warrington to Earl Bathurst, 9 June 1826, FO 76/20, TNA.

[52] Warrington to Earl Bathurst, 1 Aug. 1826, FO 76/20, TNA.

[53] Warrington to Van Bruegel, 3 Sept. 1830, FO 76/26, TNA.

[54] E. W. Bovill Papers, Add. MS 282539, SOAS.

[55] Lucas to John King, 12 Feb. 1794, FO 76/5, TNA.

[56] Lucas writes of a family of 14 to maintain, while Warrington also had 10 children, a wife and a mistress with whom he had three illegitimate daughters. Lucas to John King, 12 Feb. 1794, FO 76/5, TNA. According to the Royal Kalender, Simon Lucas served as his majesty's agent and consul general to Tripoli from 1794 to 1803, followed by William Wass Langford from 1804 to 1817, and then Hanmer George Warrington from 1818. These dates are not accurate because the consular correspondence attests otherwise, as well as providing details of the arrival, movements and activities of proconsuls/acting consuls during the years 1794 to 1832. The proconsuls and vice-consuls to the regencies of Tripoli and neighbouring territories included: Bryan McDonogh (Tripoli); Patrick Wilkie (Tripoli); James Somerville (Tripoli); Joseph Dupuis (Tripoli); J. Fraser (Tripoli); Giacomo Rofsoni (Benghazi); Thomas Wood (Benghazi); George Warrington (Benghazi, during Wood's temporary absence in Europe); Henry Beechey (Benghazi); Benedetto Regiginiani (Derna); Pietro Caravana (Derna); Ernest Toole (Kuka); John Tyrwhitt (Kuka); Dr Walter Oudney (Murzuq).

[57] Langford to Viscount Castlereagh, 23 Aug. 1808, FO 76/6; Langford to Viscount Castlereagh, 4 March 1809, FO 76/6; Langford to Lord Liverpool, 27 Aug. 1811, FO 76/7, TNA.

[58] Collingwood to Langford, 20 Dec.1809, FO 76/6, TNA. See also FO 76/21 and FO 76/23, TNA.

[59] Warrington to Hay, 1 Nov. 1827, FO 76/21, TNA.

[60] Warrington to Wilmot Horton, 17 Oct. 1823, FO 76/1, TNA. See also Warrington to Wilmot Horton, 29 June 1823, FO 76/17, TNA.

[61] McDonogh to Duke of Portland, 4 May 1801, FO 75/5, TNA.

[62] See marriage certificates for Emma Warrington and Alexander Gordon Laing dated 14 July 1825, FO 76/19, TNA, and Emma Warrington and Thomas Wood, 13 April 1829, FO 76/26, TNA.

[63] Warrington to Hay, 15 April 1826, FO 76/20, TNA.

[64] See House of Commons: Reports from the Committees: Volume 2. Report from the Committee Appointed to Inquire into the Consular Departments (London: 1835); and House of Lords Sessional Papers, Report from the Select Committee (of the House of Commons) on Consular Establishment; together with the minutes of evidence, and appendix, vol. 26 (22 Aug. 1835), 1–204; Middleton, Administration of British Foreign Policy.

[65] FO 76/20, TNA.

[66] Ibid.

[67] Warrington to Wilmot Horton, 24 Feb. 1824, FO 76/18, TNA; Warrington to Hay, 12 Sept. 1831, FO 76/29, TNA.

[68] Warrington to Oudney, 2 June 1824, 1820, FO 76/18, TNA.

[69] Lucas to Duke of Portland, 4 Sept. 1799, FO 76/5, TNA; Langford to Charles York, 10 July 1804, FO 76/5, TNA; Rear Admiral Penrose to John Wilson Croker, 25 Jan. 1817, FO 76/11, TNA; Warrington to Wilmot, 26 Aug. 1822, FO 76/16, TNA.

[70] Langford to Lieutenant Colonel Gordon, 25 Sept. 1810, FO 76/7, TNA.

[71] Langford to Earl Liverpool, 31 March 1811, FO 76/7, TNA.

[72] Darwin, The Empire Project.