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A career soldier and his parents: the private letters of Major-General
James Wolfe James Wolfe was born on January 2, 1727, into an upper middle class home in Westerham, Kent. It was a military family: his grandfather, father, an uncle and younger brother – his only sibling, who died of disease – all chose a career in the army. Edward, his father, retired as a lieutenant-general. His mother Henrietta was 18 years younger. In 1741 James was commissioned into his father’s regiment of marines, moving to the infantry a year later. He was tall and thin, a red-haired 16-year-old when he first saw action – and was in the thick of it – at the Battle of Dettingen. The next 16 years proved him to be, in C.P. Stacey’s opinion, “an excellent regimental officer, a splendidly brave fighting soldier [but only] a competent battlefield commander.” Talent, study and ambition, reinforced with patrons and the influence of his father, all helped James rise steadily in rank. He served on the Continent and in Scotland (he was present at Culloden) and, in late 1752, went to Paris for a six-month leave of absence, studying hard and enjoying life at the edge of the court. There were two women in his life: the first, who wasn’t wealthy, his parents disapproved; the second, Katherine Lowther, gave him a miniature of herself and a copy of Gray’s An Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard, which he famously carried across the ocean to Quebec. While much has been written of Wolfe’s victory there, the general’s character is more obscure and contentious. The latest book from the Champlain Society – “Your Most Obedient and Affectionate Son”: James Wolfe’s Letters to His Parents, 1740-1759 – sheds new light on the man who was Edward and Henrietta’s famous son. The excerpt below is from the editor’s introduction, and three complete letters begin on page 5.
by Lawrence Ostola olfe’s correspondence with his parents, which by definition W was of a much more personal and intimate nature than his military correspondence, highlights a number of dimensions of his character and personality as well as aspects of his life that are of interest in rounding out the portrait that we have of him I have no other as an individual. The letters also except … Letters take us beyond the high drama of his final moments on the Plains of Abraham and his subsequent mythologization, perhaps best exemplified by Benjamin West’s dramatic, inaccurate, and often reproduced painting The Death of General Wolfe. Wolfe wrote to and received letters from his parents regularly, with the exception of a few gaps that were in some cases no doubt due to the pressures of his military duties. Apart from writing to his parents, it is also clear from references in his letters to them 2 The Fife and Drum January 2022
that he regularly corresponded with a variety of other individuals, from his uncle Walter Wolfe and close friends like William Rickson and George Warde, to Lord George Sackville and Guy Carleton. Writing, it seems, took up a great deal of his free time. It is also clear that Wolfe, given his itinerant military lifestyle and postings to remote locations (particularly while he was stationed in Scotland), very much enjoyed receiving letters from his entertainment, parents and others with news of from my Friends home and of the wider world, including places like Nova Scotia and the new settlement of Halifax, where his friend Rickson was at one point serving, or Gibraltar. He highlighted the importance of this correspondence to him when he related that “I have no other entertainment, except such as is convey’d to me by Letters from my Friends.” On those occasions when there was a lull in letters from his parents, he raised it with them and encouraged them to write more frequent and longer letters. In one charming note to his olfe’s correspondence with his parents, which by definition W was of a much more personal and intimate nature than his military correspondence, highlights a number of dimensions of his character and personality as well as aspects of his life that are of interest in rounding out the portrait that we have of him I have no other as an individual. The letters also except … Letters take us beyond the high drama of his final moments on the Plains of Abraham and his subsequent mythologization, perhaps best exemplified by Benjamin West’s dramatic, inaccurate, and often reproduced painting The Death of General Wolfe. Wolfe wrote to and received letters from his parents regularly, with the exception of a few gaps that were in some cases no doubt due to the pressures of his military duties. Apart from writing to his parents, it is also clear from references in his letters to them
that he regularly corresponded with a variety of other individuals, from his uncle Walter Wolfe and close friends like William Rickson and George Warde, to Lord George Sackville and Guy Carleton. Writing, it seems, took up a great deal of his free time. It is also clear that Wolfe, given his itinerant military lifestyle and postings to remote locations (particularly while he was stationed in Scotland), very much enjoyed receiving letters from his entertainment, parents and others with news of from my Friends home and of the wider world, including places like Nova Scotia and the new settlement of Halifax, where his friend Rickson was at one point serving, or Gibraltar. He highlighted the importance of this correspondence to him when he related that “I have no other entertainment, except such as is convey’d to me by Letters from my Friends.” On those occasions when there was a lull in letters from his parents, he raised it with them and encouraged them to write more frequent and longer letters. In one charming note to his
mother in 1751 he made it clear producing property as tensions how much he enjoyed hearing with France rose, so that if the from her: “I say your Letters public finances were adversely because I hope to hear from affected by a war, his mother you every now & then; you may would have a secure incomebe as short, or as long, as you producing asset to fall back on. pleaseonly remember that one He repeatedly raised the issue side is very agreeable, but four, and he felt strongly enough is four times as agreeable, & so about it to take it up directly in proportion-.” with his father [see page 5]. Wolfe was not alone in Not surprisingly given his his letter writing, or in his regard for them, Wolfe sought appreciation of them. The the approval and good opinion eighteenth century has been of his parents and expressed referred to as “the great age of great remorse on those rare letter writing” and was marked occasions when he felt that he by the expansion of postal had in some way transgressed, routes, the production of “how the best example of which The family home in Westerham, Kent, as drawn by S.R. Badmin. First built in to” manuals for letter writing was in the passage from a the 1530s, the house was rented by Edward and young Henrietta in the year … and the emergence of the letter to his father in which before James was born. Now a National Trust property and open for tours, it’s furnished to the 1730s when James and his brother were boys. It also has a epistolary novel as an extremely he apologized for his conduct shop for used books. Drawing reproduced in Christopher Lloyd, The Capture of popular genre. Also significant in the winter of 1750–51 when Quebec (Batsford 1959) in terms of Wolfe’s personal he was on leave in London and correspondence is the observation made by threw himself into a dissolute lifestyle. He also one scholar that “Personal (or ‘familiar’) letters had a “warmth of temper,” which on occasion 18th were commonly connected in the century broke out in his letters, and for this too he was with ideas of sincerity and truth. Addison and apologetic: “I am not in my nature dispos’d to Steele observed in their popular periodical, The plague & torment People, & more especially Spectator, that ‘there is nothing discovers the those I love; my temper is much too warm; & true Temper of a Person so much as his Letters.’” sudden resentment forces out exprefsions, & Another scholar has affirmed that letters were even actions, that are neither justifiable nor a means through which middle-class families excusable- & perhaps I do not correct that could pursue “polite self-improvement” and natural heat so much as I ought to do.” “affirm sentimental bonds in private life.” This While Wolfe demonstrated devotion and latter point was particularly significant for affection for both of his parents, there were Wolfe. significant differences in terms of the content The first and most obvious dimension to of the letters that he wrote to them. When Described by Christie’s auction assess in reviewing his letters is the nature of writing to his father, Wolfe was more reserved house as a plagiary that reverses and misrepresents the original, this small 1783 Wolfe’s relationship with his parents. His letters and generally confined himself to political and mezzotint (4½” x 6”) was nevertheless make it clear that he was a very conscientious military happenings, the activities of senior based on a sketch made at Quebec and and devoted son who was absolutely dedicated officers with whom they were acquainted, and sold in March 2015 for £1,250. to their health and welfare, and particularly, it issues related to his advancement within the seems, to that of his mother. The words “Your army and the support of patrons. On occasion most obedient and affectionate son” were not simply a standard (and sometimes, it seems, with the help of his mother), and when formulation for him but a true reflection of his love for and particularly hard-pressed, he also reluctantly broached the subject devotion to them. of financial assistance with his father. He expressed this sentiment repeatedly in his correspondence This choice of subjects may have simply been a reflection of with them. In 1749, for example, he wrote, “I have as great a his father’s age and outlook, which Wolfe ultimately resigned desire to make returns, for your Tendernefs & Friendship, as himself to. On one occasion, however, he seemingly chides his I have to pay reverence to your Parental Authority, & both father for not having more to relate in his letters (which again are very prevalent in my disposition. In short, I have a lasting indicates how much he appreciated receiving them) and provides remembrance of what I owe you both in duty & gratitude; & am his view of the difference in this respect between men and women: always concern’d when you have any reason to think me forgetfull.” Perhaps at no time was this concern more apparent than when In a very little while I shall contract my letters to the he repeatedly urged his parents to invest in a small incomeordinary dimensions of your’s; as a body grows older, the
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imagination grows cold, & the mind is more intent upon businefs, because more interested; and so, when there is nothing to transact; one has nothing to say. Long letters take up a great deal of time, & signify little, except to Lovers; or when they treat of grave matters that needs much explanation; a few words will discover ones condition, & invite a like return: I have seen letters from Ladies, a mile long; but they have an ease in writing that the men want, & they can cut entertainment out of nothing. With his mother, however, the tone of his letters was far different, and Wolfe wrote much more intimately about his innermost thoughts and feelings. In them, he reveals an intensely introspective, almost brooding side to his character and appears as something of a student of the human condition, as in this passage from a letter to his mother written while he was stationed in Inverness in the winter of 1751: The winter wears away, so do our years, & so does life itself; and it mat-ters little where a man pafses his days, & what station he fills, or whether he be great, or inconsiderable… The little time taken in, for meditation, is the best employ’d of all our Lifes, for if the incertainty of our State, & being is then brought before us, & that compar’d w th: our course of con-duct, who’ is there that wont immediately discover the inconsistency of all his behaviour & the Vanity of all his pursuits? & yet we are so mix’d, & compounded that tho’ I think seriously this minute; & lie down w th: good Intentions; it is likely I may rise with my old nature or perhaps with the addition of some new Impertinence, & be the same wandering lump of idle Errors, that I have ever been.
Perhaps most poignantly, on a number of occasions he also speculated (presciently as it turned out) as to what the nature of his eventual fate as an army officer might be. One such allusion, along with a description of his sense of the nature of the duty he owed to his king and country, was contained in a letter to his mother from Exeter in 1753: I am determin’d never to give myself a moment’s concern, about the nature of the duty, which his Majesty is pleas’d to order us upon; & whether it be by Sea or by Land, that we are to act in obedience to his commands; I hope we shall conduct ourselves so as to deserve his approbation; it will be sufficient comfort to you two (as far as my Person is concern’d) at least it will be a reasonable consolation, to reflect, that the Power which has hitherto preserv’d me, may if it be his pleasure, continue to do so; if not, that it is but a few days, or a few years more, or lefs- & that those who perish in their duty, & in the service of their Country, die honourably; I hope I shall have resolution & firmnefs enough to meet every appearance of Danger, without great concern- & not be over sollicitous about the event. This seeming nonchalance with respect to the dangers associated with his profession and the fate that might await him is very much in keeping with what one historian has referred to as the equanimity and self-government associated with notions of “polite masculinity” at the time. These qualities figure prominently in Wolfe’s writing and formed an important aspect of his character.
This seeming nonchalance with respect to the dangers associated with his profession and the fate that might await him is very much in keeping with what one historian has referred to as the equanimity and self-government associated with notions of “polite masculinity” at the time. These qualities figure prominently in Wolfe’s writing and formed an important aspect of his character.
imagination grows cold, & the mind is more intent upon businefs, because more interested; and so, when there is nothing to transact; one has nothing to say. Long letters take up a great deal of time, & signify little, except to Lovers; or when they treat of grave matters that needs much explanation; a few words will discover ones condition, & invite a like return: I have seen letters from Ladies, a mile long; but they have an ease in writing that the men want, & they can cut entertainment out of nothing.
Dr. Larry Ostola is a former VP of Heritage Conservation & Commemoration at Parks Canada and was Director of Museums & Heritage Services in Toronto from 2014 to 2018. His doctoral thesis in Canadian history (at Laval) was titled “A very public presence: The British Army garrison in the Town of Quebec 1759-1838.”
Sources & Further Reading
Excerpts of “Your Most and Affectionate Son”: James Wolfe’s Letters to His Parents, 1740-1759, ed. Lawrence Ostola (Chaplain Society Vol.82, 2021) are reproduced by permission of the Champlain Society and University of Toronto Press Journals.
In the summer of 1749 Wolfe’s regiment was in Glasgow, part of what was effectively an army of occupation following the defeat of the clans. In the absence of their commander, Lord Sackville, a very young and pensive James was in charge. Writing on August 13, he promised to remain an Anglican and freely advised his mother on her health (as he often did). The maturity of his thoughts on command is remarkable.
Dear Madam Any disorder y t: we have been accustom’d to […?] a length of time, tho’ not to be perfectly cur’d, often admits of some alleviation from our acquaintance w th: it, & the remedies prescrib’d; but the uncommon manner in which your’s has seiz’d you, makes me very apprehensive that the complaint is quite new, & deserves your utmost attention. if Doc t Newingtons knowledge won’t reach the cause, I hope you’ll try men of more skill, as such are not wanting in y t: Neighbourhood, or at least within your reach. You advise me to take care of myself, & in return I request of you not to neglect yourself, & suffer a distemper to take such hold of you, as may not be easily remov’d; besides if you can imagine y t : the excellent council you have always given me ever has been of use to me, you ought to endeavour at your own preservation, y t: I may not feel the want of them in an unsteady time of Life when tis certain y t: I stand most in need of them. This is, perhaps, the most unwelcome Season y t: has ever been known in this or any other Country, of the habitable world; everlasting Wind & rain, no riding; nor walking, hardly without Boots; the Elements seem to have conspir’d against the Face of this Earth, first by the Distruction of every kind of Fruit & now by endangering the Harvest; there is not yet in all this Country, a Field of any Sort of Corn, cut down, if the hand of the Lord be not upon them, they are in a Terrible Latitude. This is Sunday, & we are just now come from Church. I have observ’d your instructions so religiously y t: rather than want the Word, I got the reputation of a very good Presbyterian by frequenting the Kirk, of Scotland; till our Chaplain appear’d; I’m now come back to the old Faith, & stick close to our own Communion. The example is so necefsaryy t: I think is a duty to comply, were that the only reason; as in truth it is not. Tomorrow Ld: George Sackville goes away, &; I take upon me the difficult & troublesome employment of a Commander; you can’t conceive how hard a thing it is to keep the Pafsions within bounds, when authority & immaturity go together; to endeavour at a Character y t: has every opposition from within, & that the very condition of the blood is a sufficient obstacle to. Fancy you see one, that must do justice to both good & bad, reward & punish w th: an equal unbias’d hand, one that is to reconcile the severity of Discipline to the Dictates of humanity; one that must study the Tempers & Dispositions of many men, in order to make their Situation easy & agreeable to them; & shou’d endeavour to oblige all without partiality; a mark set up for every body to observe, & judge of; & last of all, suppose me employ’d in discouraging Vice
& recommending the reverse, at the turbulent Age of 23 when it is pofsible I may have as great a propensity that way, as any of the men y t: I converse with. My Duty to my Father, I wish you both y r: Healths & am Dr: Madam Your most Obedient & Affectionate Son J:Wolfe
By the autumn of 1755 another war on the Continent was looming and fighting with France was well underway on the frontiers of North America. James’s deep interest in the welfare of his parents often took the form of financial advice, as we see in this example. This letter was written from Winchester on October 19, 1755. Dear Sir When two nations have arm’d themselves to the highest pitch of their strength; I suppose they will try which is strongest. The French are getting their Fleet into order & threaten an Invasionwe equip all our Ships, & increase our Army to oppose ‘emwe have begun Hostilities both in Europe & Americain these circumstances is it to be suppos’d that a War w th: such a Nation as France, can be avoided? I think it cannot. In this situation of things, give me leave to recommend some precautions to youto put no more money into the Funds, to keep as much as pofsible by youin case of emergencies- & above all things to secure at least £100 a year in Landthat shou’d the War turn out to our disadvantage, & the publick Credit sinkmy mother may not be in danger of starving. Whenever you can sell 3 or 4 thousand pounds of stock upon tolerable terms if wou’d be an act of prudence to do it- & tho’ you shoud not see a farthing of rent from a small landed estate during the War, & shou’d lose the Interest of the money it cost you, by taking it out of the Funds yet it is a wise measure for your family- & can have no ill consequence with regard to
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your self. Excuse the liberty I have taken; I do not consider myself as any how concern’d in it; but I cannot but be apprehensive that the destruction of the publick Credit, may be the consequence of our unlucky Warthat of course all those Persons whose property lies in the Funds, must be ruin’d amongst the rest my Motheryour Rank in the Army preserves you from any danger of Want, & my employment is always bread; but neither may outlive the struggle, & then who will help the poor Lady? It will be no difficult matter nor a very troublesome undertaking to find a purchase of this small value- & it is indifferent where you find it, provided only the right be clear. I think it my duty to recommend this step in the strongest manner; & not as my own opinion only, but as the Sentiments of much more knowing Persons, & particularly of your Acquaintance Sr: J: Mordaunt, who advis’d me to mention it to you. I wish you both much health & happinefs & am Dr: Sir Your most Obedient & Affectionate Son Jam: Wolfe This is James’s last letter to his mother. His father had died on March 26, 1759, while his son was at sea, and the estate was being settled. Operations at Quebec so far that summer had not gone very well. On August 31, increasingly frustrated, he wrote to her from the “Banks of The River St. Lawrence,” adding one last postscript of advice.
ones, that wish for nothing so much as to fight him – but the wary old fellow, avoids an Action; doubtful of the behaviour of his Army. People must be of the profession to understand the disadvantages, & difficulties we labour under; arising from the uncommon natural strength of the Country. I approve entirely of my Father’s disposition of his affairs; tho’ perhaps it may interfere a little matter with my Plan of quitting the service, which I am determin’d to do the first opportunity; I mean so as not to be absolutely distress’d in circumstances, nor burdensome to you or to any body else.
My writing to you will convince you that no Personal evils (worse than defeats & disappointments) have fallen upon me; The enemy puts nothing to risk & I can’t in Conscience put the whole army to risk. My antagonist has wisely shut himself up, in inaccefsible entrenchments, so that I can’t get at him, without spilling a torrent of blood, & that perhaps to little purpose. The Marquis de Montcalm is at the head of a great number of bad Soldiers, & I am at the head of a small number of good
I wish you much health, & am Dear Madam, Your Obedient & Affectionate Son, Jam Wolfe Banks of The River St. Lawrence 31: Aug t 1759 If any Sums of money are paid to you of what is due to my Father from the Govern t let me recommend to you, not to meddle w h the Funds, but keep it for your support until better times. Sources & Further Reading
Sources & Further Reading
olfe’s letters to his parents were acquired by the Fisher Rare W Book Library in late 2013 from Christie’s auction house in London. They had been held by an undisclosed British family in Westerham since his mother, Henrietta, died in 1764. The letters are leather-bound in a single volume that has, as the catalogue says, “endleaves of cream wove paper with three of General Wolfe’s red wax seals set into a recess.” There was substantial resistance in England to their leaving the country – the letters were said to be some 70% of Wolfe’s extant correspondence – but no one could be found with pockets deep enough to make a successful bid. In Toronto, Christie’s mentioned them to the university and serendipity provided a principal donor: Virginia McLaughlin, through Helmhorst Investments. With help from an obscure federal agency, the University of Toronto library itself topped up the winning bid to just under $1.5 million (see The Globe and Mail, 21 Nov. 2013). They are joining Wolfe’s own 1754 edition of Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard – the one Katherine Lowther gave him before he set sail for Quebec, and in which he wrote his own pensive notes. This gem was acquired by the Fisher in 1988 for just over $300,000. Elegy and
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the letters are only the core of the library’s extensive holdings of Wolfe materials. The general’s letters to his parents have long been known to historians. They were first used by Robert Wright, his first serious biographer, in The Life of Major-General James Wolfe Founded on Original Documents (1864) and later by Beckles Willson in The Life and Letters of James Wolfe (1909). Both authors, however, were liable to excise passages regarded as indelicate or especially uninteresting. There have been copies in the Canadian national archives since 1913. The Champlain volume’s aim is “to reproduce the selected letters as fully and as accurately as possible” from the manuscripts, including by retaining Wolfe’s spelling and abbreviation. Of the 229 letters from Wolfe in the Fisher volume, 209 are printed here; those left out are mainly short notes on details found elsewhere. About letter-writing and the middle-class pursuit of “polite selfimprovement” – and how letters were seen to “affirm sentimental bonds in private life” – find Louise Curran, “Letters, Letter Writing and Epistolary Novels,” on the British Library’s website, and Konstantin Dierks in Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America (94/4). To pursue the concept of “polite masculinity” see Karen Harvey, “The History of Masculinity, c1650–1800,” in the Journal of British Studies (44/2). The first brief biographies of Wolfe were little more than heroworship. Wright’s full-length work of 1864 was more restrained. Francis Parkman’s Montcalm and Wolfe in 1884 conceded that the Englishman’s “nature was a compound of tenderness and fire, which last sometimes showed itself in sharp and unpleasant flashes” without allowing this to diminish the hero’s victory. In 1928, McGill professor W.T. Waugh published James Wolfe: Man and Soldier (beautifully designed by Thoreau MacDonald), and while adding recently discovered sources, he remained sympathetic. Wolfe’s reputation as both a commander and a man suffered considerably during the twentieth century. Eight years after
Waugh’s biography, his colleague at McGill, E.R. Adair, delivered a paper to the Canadian Historical Association on “The military reputation of Major-General James Wolfe” that, immersed in the roiling intellectual atmosphere of the 1930s, began the reevaluation of the commander. Although considered “somewhat overdone” by C.P. Stacey, its conclusions – that Wolfe was cruel and indecisive – have since influenced many writers. Pointing to Wolfe’s vigour and success at Louisbourg, and his daring ascent at Quebec, the present Champlain volume is less critical of the commander and more insightful of his character. The trajectory of Wolfe’s reputation is traced by Stephen Brumwell in the introduction to his excellent biography, Paths of Glory: The Life and Death of General James Wolfe (MQUP 2006). Stacey also treats his reputation and reviews the primary sources in the bibliographical note to his article on Wolfe in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography (Vol.III). Portraits of Wolfe are discussed in J. Clarence Webster’s charming Wolfe and the Artists: A Study of his Portraiture (Ryerson 1930), updated by Wolfe Portraiture and Genealogy published by the Quebec House Permanent Advisory Committee in 1959. His many portrayals are placed in their cultural context by A. McNairn, Behold the Hero: General Wolfe and the Arts in the Eighteenth Century (MQUP 1997). Two modern descriptions of the final battle stand out. C.P. Stacey’s own military account, Quebec, 1959: The Siege and the Battle, first published by Macmillan in 1959, has been thoroughly updated by Donald Graves for Robin Brass Studio (2014). And D. Peter MacLeod, an historian at the Canadian War Museum, makes wonderful use of first-person narratives in Northern Armageddon: The Battle of the Plains of Abraham (Douglas & McIntyre 2008). The standard modern overview of the war on this continent is Fred Anderson, Crucible of War: The Seven Years’ War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766 (Knopf 2000).
Original printed pages
