Jenner ‘the spy’.
In times of international tension or war, fear sometimes leads to panic and suspicion. Anyone with a ‘foreign name’ can face hostility, even if they have lived in the community for decades.
The following case isn’t from Cumbria, but jumped out at me from a bundle of National Archives documents I downloaded for something that was.
It is from correspondence in 1800 to the Duke of Portland, the Home Secretary of the day.
While Britain was not then at war with France, the shock of the French Revolution had Brits very worried, Napoleon was the leader of the Republic. And tension between the two nations was to spill over into war three years later
The Duke of Portland
This was William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, the 3rd Duke of Portland, who DOES have a Cumbrian connection, in that he was the legitimate owner of the manor of Inglewood Forest.
‘Instructions required’
On January 24, 1800, John Morgan, mayor of Bristol, wrote to the Duke of Portland.
John Morgan’s letter is in reply to a letter from Under-Secretary John King, who had passed on an anonymous letter concerning a suspected spy.
Morgan had sent Mr Lewis (deputy town clerk), to Lamplighters Hall, Shirehampton, to arrest a man who matched the description.
The prisoner was in custody, pending instructions from London.
The anonymous letter
On January 10, 1800, someone calling themselves XYZ of College Green, Bristol, had written to the Home Secretary, regarding a man at Lamplighters Hall he believed to be an agent for the French.
XYZ alleged that the man was a parson, ‘related to Kilmaine,’ whose name was Jennings (sic). The alleged spy had ‘been wounded in the rebellion, and hid his face from view in public.’
He was said to be waiting for a boat to Ireland, to visit friends.
XYZ says he has, in his possession, letters written in Latin and Greek which were to be sent to France. He gives a description of the suspect, including his dogs.
The letter is in shaky writing, as XYZ has disguised his natural handwriting, fearing he would be murdered if his identity came out before the ‘spy’ was arrested.
However, after an arrest, a letter addressed to XYZ at the Post Office in Bristol would bring him to London.
The arrest
Lamplighters Hall (today ‘The Lamplighters’) is a pub on river Avon, between Bristol and the coast. Mr Lewis found the suspect there and arrested him. But ‘didn’t tell him about the letter’. Which suggests the arrested man didn’t know what he was being accused of. But it seems he made no fuss, responding ‘pretty patiently’.
He told Mr Lewis he was William Hasland (sic) Jenner, an ordained deacon– and a nephew of Dr Edward Jenner, physician at Berkeley, Gloucestershire.
To be honest, it’s this fact that jumped out at me as making a non-Cumbrian story of interest.
The prisoner had with him a white French dog and a brown dog.
Items found at his lodgings included ‘a large hanger,’ a loaded gun, two loaded and two unloaded pistols, a bag of bullets and some papers.
He also had a military blue jacket with scarlet trimmings and two gold epaulettes, and wore a military blue Hussar-cloak with scarlet trimmings.
He told Mr Lewis that he knew several people in France and intended to go to Ireland.
His letters and papers, some in Latin, would be sent to London by Mail Coach – along with the anonymous letter so that the Home Secretary could make contact with XYZ.
He had on him a printed list of the Navy and said, without being asked, he had more at his lodgings, which had from time to time collected as deaths or promotions happened. He also volunteered that he had some papers he’d written in Greek. Mr Morgan had instructed two of his officers to search his lodgings again and bring away the other Navy lists.
‘Related to Kilmaine’
XYZ reckoned the suspect was ‘related to Kilmaine,’ and that his name was Jennings.
‘Brave Kilmaine’ was an Irish soldier who actively supported the French Revolution (and Irish independence), and served in the French Army. His full name was General Charles Edward Saul Jennings de Kilmaine: his father had changed their last name to Kilmaine when Charles was eleven, but the family name had been Jennings.
However, the arrested man gave his name as Jenner – close enough for XYZ to have misheard.
William Hazeland Jenner
William Hazeland Jenner (1766-1826) was indeed the nephew of the famous Dr Edward Jenner, being the son of Edward’s brother Henry Jenner and his wife Anne (née Hazeland).
So, was the arrested man a French spy pretending to be William Hazeland Jenner? Was William Hazeland Jenner an agent for the French? Or was he simply an innocent clergyman, caught up by fear and mistrust?
Jenner’s letter to the Duke
In March 1800, William Hazeland Jenner wrote to the home secretary, from ‘Hermitage, near Lamplighter’s Hall’.
He starts by thanking His Grace (the duke) for believing his innocence ‘of the heinous charges against me’. But regretting not being allowed to see the ‘letters, papers or whatever they were’ that accused him in the first place.
A friend is putting up a reward to uncover the accuser’s identity. But Jenner would like to know if it was just one person – thinking an accomplice might turn the accuser in for the reward money.
And after?
William Hazeland Jenner never married. He died in 1826. His will, written in the (family home) parish of Burbage, Wiltshire, back in 1798, names his brothers Henry Jenner, surgeon of Berkeley and the Rev George Charles Jenner, and his mother (she died a year before him, aged 88). In the probate papers, William is referred to as ‘deacon of Sarum’ (ie Salisbury).
A Cumbrian bit!
The fear and suspicion I mentioned at the start did also affect some famous people with Cumbrian connections.
For in 1797, a Home Office report says Coleridge and the Wordsworths were suspected of being enemy agents because of their strange behaviour, wandering round the countryside with camp stools and making detailed observations about the landscape.
Clearly ‘Daffodils’ is a coded message about troop movements!