ROYAL NAVY. Correspondence archive, to and from Hugh McKibbin, Master's Mate, circa 1791-1800.

ROYAL NAVY. Correspondence archive, to and from Hugh McKibbin, Master's Mate, circa 1791-1800.
A fascinating archive of 18 autograph letters signed and 12 various responses. The letters from Hugh McKibbin are all addressed to his uncle James McKibbin in Belfast and chart his career as a merchant sailor pressed for Navy service in 1794 in Hispaniola, first as a midshipman and later as a master's mate. McKibbin was involved in naval engagements, including capturing two Spanish frigates off Gibraltar in 1794 and also a failed attempt to desert from HMS Irresistible in 1796. Other ships of service include HMS Regulus, Royal William, Hamadryad, Princess Royal and Aurora.

The majority are in a clear and legible hand, 1-4 pages with integral address panels, two McKibbin letters missing some text, more of the responses missing text with some holes, generally worn as expected with age, and some have tears along folds and soiling to address leaves.

A small number of excerpts include:

HMS Regulus, 14^th August 1795, location slightly indistinct but possibly lying inland of the island of Jamaica.
‘By my last of the 10^th May I informed you of my being then outward bound in my third voyage to the West Indies with our friend James Cavey – but by all appearance fortune is determined to persecute me to the last we had scarcely arrived in the West Indies when I was pressed into His Majesty’s Service although I had made myself a citizen of America by every means required by that government and indeed I am not alone as the ship I am now on board of is half manned with Americans and there is no distinction made between mates & men … I have had repeated offers of master’s mate on board the ship but I am determined I never to enter voluntarily into such a Tyranical [sic] service’

HMS Regulus, Spithead, 27th April (n.y., probably 1796)
‘I had been ? myself all the passage home that on our arrival in England we should fine all settled and I should once more be at liberty by my hopes were illusive and it is now apparently as distant as ever – It seems fortune is not yet tired of persecuting me since I wrote you last I had a letter from Philadelphia which informed me … that Captain Cavey went out the next voyage to Port a Prince in a vessel belonging to the same employ and died there of the Country Disorder so that I suppose I shall lose all the property I left his hands as I have nothing to show for any of it’ [McKibbin left 100 dollars and clothing in his care for safekeeping]

Plymouth, May 16^th 1796
‘You blame me for not accepting … master’s mate I have blamed myself since but at that time I had some hopes of getting clear now I have none as I have taken the bounty and they have taken care not to trouble me with any such offers since – as to writing to the American Minister it is no use there was upwards of fifty Americans on board the Regulus who already tried that but as they had nothing to prove themselves so could not get clear’

HMS Irresistible, Spithead, 24^th June [1796]
‘I am now on board a new ship with new officers and new ships company … our officers seem to be very good sort of men and our ships company is very quiet so that my case is not so very deplorable as it might be. The truth is I strive to make myself content but find it a hard task. Since I wrote you last I narrowly escaped being discovered in an attempt to get off – I had a boatman to come under the bows at an appointed hour in the night, he came I got in & got some way ahead of the ship when the sentry on the forecastle perceived us hailed the boat and fired his musket at us the waterman scared to death turned the boat round to go along side again. I made him pull to the bows caught hold of the cable clambered up it and got in by the ? unnoticed the poor waterman fortunately hatched up a story of … returning home which cleared him and there was no more of it’

HMS Hamadryad (the re-named Spanish frigate Ninfa, freshly captured in the action of 26^th April 1797, wrecked in December the same year). May 4^th [n.y but 1797], Gibraltar.
‘I have now the satisfaction to inform you that a few days ago after my arrival we had the good fortune to fall in with two Spanish frigates from the Havannah which after twelve hours chase we drove in under the land where they took shutter and command an action which lasted two hours and a half (both posted at an anchor and within half gun shot) when the thought proper to strike after having a great number of men kill’d we immediately hayst out our own boats to take possession but before we could get it effected they had cut one and aft and she had drove ashore we then took possession of the other which proved to be a very fine frigate of twenty-eight gun …. I was on the first boat on board the Prize Command … I was immediately appointed Master of the Frigate by my Lord Jarvis through the invest of Captain Martin I received my warrant accordingly’.

The eleven response letters include references to American merchant captain Robert Gray (1755 – 1806) “the ship Lucy of the Boston Robert Gray Mast’ has duly performed quarantine in this Harbour since the 11^th” (Henry Galbraith, 22^nd May, 1800); one from Admiral George Martin (HMS Cumberland off Cadiz, 6^th March 1799) and others from uncle James and cousin Jonathan.

The several references to Philadelphia and the United States being his home throughout the letters suggest that Hugh McKibbin was a member of the Scottish-Irish McKibbin family, who emigrated to the United States before the American Revolutionary Wars and became founding European settlers of the Lurgan township in Franklin. Indeed, a Hugh McKibbin does appear on will and tax records for this period, alongside other names mentioned in the letters. However, further research is warranted to be definitive about the connection. His uncle, James, who he considers to be like a father, seems unable to travel to America due to his inability to settle debts and his concerns about the effect of the climate on his health. His mother also remained in Ireland and appears to have had a poor relationship with other members of the family, evident through the mention of her negative influence over Hugh's brother and the refusal to take in his sister and two young children following the death of her husband and subsequent destitution.