° ° Journal from Tangier: three narratives of the defence of...

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° ° Journal from Tangier: three narratives of the defence of Tangier against the troops of the Emperor of Morocco, 14-23 September 1680, sent to Sir Martin Westcombe, English Consul at Cadiz, 1680 The fullest report, by ‘PC’, covers the period 14-23 September 1680. The author begins on 14 September, when the end of a truce was signalled by the appearance of the new moon. He sets out the disposition of the troops and names their commanders, and proceeds to describe their successful actions, under the command of the lieutenant-governor Sir Palmes Fairborne, against the besieging Moors. The report was concluded only since ‘Captain Mercer being on departure, which will not give me leave to be more particular’.

The second account, by Captain Richard Senhouse, written on 22 September, sets out the advances gained by the troops led by Sir Palmes Fairborne – ‘the enemy have never had so much loss since the death of my lord Teviot’.

The third brief report, from Thomas Fowler, vice-consul of Gibraltar, states that Spanish troops are ‘a little town called Barbat [Barbate] to the westward of Gibraltar’, and ready to embark when called for. ‘There are 5 or 6 merchants of this place went yesterday to see the troops out of their own curiosity’.

Tangier in Morocco had been under Portuguese control since 1471, and passed to the English crown as part of the dowry of the Portuguese infanta Catherine of Braganza in 1661. The English garrisoned and fortified the city against hostile but disunited Moroccan forces, which nevertheless conducted regular attacks: on 3 May 1664 the governor Andrew Rutherford, earl of Teviot, with most of his garrison officers and 396 men were killed in a Moorish ambush outside the town.

When Morocco was united under Mawlay Isma’il, pressure on Tangier increased. In 1680 Isma’il joined forces with the Chief of Fez in order to pursue a war against all foreign troops in his land, and laid siege to Tangier. In July 1680 the garrison was augmented with 3,000 troops, many transferred from Ireland. Fierce attacks were made against the Moors, who had gained a footing on the edge of the town, finally defeating them by controlled and well-aimed musket fire. Despite a treaty at the end of these hostilities the cost of maintaining the garrison against attack greatly increased, and Tangier became a political as well as a military battleground – Parliament refused to provide funds for its upkeep partly because of fears of Popery and a Catholic succession under James II. In 1684, the English blew up the city’s harbour and defensive works that they had been constructing and evacuated the city, which was swiftly occupied and annexed by Moroccan forces.

The three accounts included in this account precede by a month the death of the lieutenant-governor Sir Palmes Fairborne on 27 October 1680. Fairborne (1644-1680) was a son of the royalist Colonel Stafford Fairborne of Newark. In his teens he fought as a mercenary for the Venetians in the defence of Crete. He returned to England in 1661, when he became a captain in the newly raised Tangier regiment of foot. In May 1676 he became deputy governor of Tangier in the absence of William O’Brien, earl of Inchiquin. After two years in effective sole command of Tangier he returned to England, in 1678, and in the same year he served as commissary-general of the army in Flanders. He returned to Tangier on 8 April 1680 and became governor de facto in June when Inchiquin went home and his intended successor, Thomas Butler, earl of Ossory, died before he could set out. Only a fortnight before Fairborne’s return, the Moors had begun their most ambitious attempt yet to reconquer the colony, the siege continuing through the summer and into the autumn. On 24 October Fairborne rode out to inspect the defences and was hit by a ‘chance shot’, according to the epitaph, penned partly by John Dryden, erected in Westminster Abbey by Fairborne’s widow. He lingered long enough to see the successful counter-attack by his deputy, Colonel Sackville, which raised the siege, and died on the evening of 27 October 1680.

Captain Richard Senhouse, author of the second account, was a member of a family long established in Cumberland. He was an Alderman of Tangier, and in 1681 he succeeded to the office of Pratique Master or quarantine officer of Tangier, a place where plague was a constant threat. On his return to Cumberland he obtained a grant of land in Whitehaven on which he built Tangier House and warehouses.

The first mention of Sir Martin Westcombe, knight, as consul in Cadiz is in a letter from the consul in Lisbon, Thomas Maynard, to Westcombe in Cadiz in December 1664. Westcombe died in Spain and his will of 26 February 1688 was proved in London on 3 October 1691. He must have been succeeded at Cadiz by his second son Martin Westcombe, who was granted a baronetcy, Westcombe of Cadiz, on 29 March 1700. The succession in the office of two individuals of the same name – the baronet was consul as late as 1715 – has caused the erroneous attribution of an astonishingly long diplomatic career to his father the knight.

Thomas Fowler cannot positively be identified. In August 1680 Thomas Fowler, master of the Swallow, was ordered to Kinsale in Ireland to take troops to Tangier, and made regular voyages to Cadiz; Thomas Swallow, master of The Happy Return, wrote to the Board of Admiralty from Gibraltar Bay in 1686 (TNA ADM 106).

For an excellent account of Tangier under English control, see EMG Routh, Tangier, Engand’s lost Atlantic outpost, 1661-1684 (London: John Murray, 1912); and see Edwin Chappell (ed.), The Tangier papers of Samuel Pepys, Navy Records Society 73 (1935).

Journal from Tangier

To Sir Martin Westcombe signed PC

Tangier 23rd September 1680 o[ld] s[tyle]

On Tuesday evening being the 14th instant we saw the new moon and that night the cessation [of hostilities] ended, the next morning our enemies the Moors fired a few small shots to Cambridge Fort, and as we found we returned their civility, though till our going out into the fields they have been very quiet. Our garrison is now divided into five battalions, the first contingent the King’s Guards, commanded by Colonel [Edward] Sackville; the second ten companies of my Lord Dunbarton's regiment commanded by Major [James] Hackett; the third another 6 companies of the Scotch regiment and 4 other independent companies that came from Ireland, commanded by Captain Douglas; the 4 eight companies of my Lord Insiquin’s regiment combined by Major [Marmaduke] Boynton; the 5th other 4 companies of our old regiment, commanded by Captain [John] Giles; besides which we have ashore about 500 seamen framed into a battalion, commanded by Captain [George] Bartley, a reformade captain of my lord Dunbarton’s regiment
On Monday morning the 20th instant a little after day most of the garrison drew out, the several battalions being drawn into their several posts according to dignity, and before them as an advance party went 180 men detached from each battalion which went immediately to the ground where Pole Fort stood, being commanded by Captain Locker and Captain St Johns with several officers, all which advanced to the designed place with all imaginable resolution and success, beating the Moors (with little loss to us) from all their covers and avenues which might molest our working, and having possessed ourselves of all advantageous posts that could contribute either to our defence or the enemy’s offence, we that day palisadoed in Pole Fort.
All people by the diligence and most valiant example of our governor Sir Palmes Fairborne proceeding with so good courage as that that night the King’s battalion, commanded by Colonel Sackville and the advance party, commanded by Colonel Tolmedge [Thomas Tollemache], lodged at Pole Fort ruins that night.
Tuesday 21st This day we proceeded to the first firing of Pole Fort and beat the enemy from all the upper grounds or trenches that might annoy our peoples’ working. The Scots Grenadiers, commanded by Captain Hodge [Robert Hodges], advancing with convenient reserves of horse and foot to the place of Monmouth Fort, and thence along the old line almost half way to James Fort, still making the enemy retreat before them, which being done and our forces posted we then proceeded to the fortifying [of] Pole Fort and throwing down all works near hand where the enemy might molest us. This day we also, with a party commanded lieutenant Fitz Patrick of the King’s Guards, beat the enemy from a great hollow westward and about random musket shot from Pole Fort, which fort was this night kept by Major Hackett’s battalion.
September the 22nd We possessed our old lines as yesterday, the brave Scots Grenadiers, Captain Hodge and other officers advancing in the Moors’ trenches almost to James Fort Ground, where they did the enemy great damage etc. On that attempt they approached us very briskly with horse and foot but were soon repulsed. Two companies of seamen were this day reserves to the Grenadiers and at our drawing off the enemy approached very briskly, but Sir Palmes having commanded a good body of men to receive them near Monmouth Fort Ground, all retreated without loss.
Flankers of plank and board where this day made at Pole Fort, and two battalions of the Earl of Insiquin’s regiment, commanded by Major Boynton and Captain Giles, kept it that night.
September the 23rd Thursday We made our advances this day as before, except that our approaches on the south of Pole Fort were not further than Monmouth Fort, our people having now secured themselves in their work at Pole Fort that the enemy could not gall us from there outlines as before. Great parties of the enemy were believed to be in ambush by the number of men seen, more than before, and their pitching this day 9 colours on our old lines. The advance party this day were about 300 seamen, of which were a company of about 90 Grenadiers, commanded by Captain Hastens.
Sir this is the success of this day to about 2 of the clock after noon, but what the enemy will do at our drawing off I have not now time to tell you, the thought [of] Captain Mercer being on departure which will not give me leave to be more particular than to tell you that all our people have behaved themselves with abundance of bravery and resolution and our old soldiers, by the presence of the lieutenant governor in the field, and the countenance of our brave additional forces, have behaved themselves so well during this whole action as meritoriously to wash off the indignity which they were reputed to lie under etc.

From Captured Richard Senhouse, September 22nd
On Monday the 22nd September [16]80 Sir Palmes Fairborne at the head of 1700 foot and 120 horse and 500 seamen, all which was well commanded and disciplined with courage and conduct to admiration, marched to Pole Fort, Monmouth Fort and Norwood Fort, and there stayed, maintained the ground and stockaded Pole Fort round and left 500 men in it, and now will keep it against the power of Barbary. We have had not much loss considering the great work. The enemy have never had so much loss since the death of my Lord Teviot. There was hot service on both sides so that I presume Sir Palmes with his brave officers and soldiers, the rest I leave etc.

From Mr Thomas Fowler, vice-consul of Gibraltar, from Cadiz
The Spanish troops are at a little town called Barbat [Barbate] to the westward of Gibraltar, and are in all readiness when Sir Palmes Fairborne shall send for them. There are five or six merchants of this place went yesterday to see the troops out of their own curiosity.