Commission document signed by Governor Sir Adam Williamson.

SAINT-DOMINGUE.

Published by Port-au-Prince: 21 May 1795

About this Item

A rare military commission, issued a few months after the capture of Port-au-Prince and only a few days before the recently appointed Sir Adam Williamson arrived in the city. The document appoints the Chevalier Decordes Cordoue a major of cavalry in the "Volontaires Dessources", one of the forces raised by the British to defend the increasingly strained military occupation. Following the Battle of Port-Républicain, the task of leading the British charge in Saint-Domingue fell to Williamson (1736-1798), who had spent the past four years administering Jamaica and had first dispatched British troops to the island in 1793 ("Williamson boldly thrust the right hand of England into this hornet's nest" - Fortescue, p. 330). After his arrival, he "had to implement an experiment in what later became crown colony government. Reintroducing civil administration into a society torn apart by the French Revolution proved a delicate task. Although Williamson generally had a good word for everyone, his favouring of radical Anglophile colonists over conservative émigrés from France was received badly in Whitehall. The occupation, moreover, became notorious for military losses and escalating costs" (ODNB). British troops withdrew in 1798, the cost of colonialism too high to bear. Based in St Marc, Colonel Dessources's corps (black soldiers lead by white officers) fought with distinction at Morne l'Hopital (1796), Riviere Froide (1797, and Tiberun (1798). As the war progressed, its ranks were increasingly composed of press-ganged slaves. John Fortescue, History of the British Army, Vol. IV, Part 1, 1906. Printed document on single parchment sheet (253 x 340 mm), completed in a secretarial hand, signed by Williamson and his secretary (William Shaw) at the foot, wax seal covered with old slip of paper fixed with pin. Browning and staining, as expected, creases from old folds, wax seal flaked away, leaving only brown shadow: very good.

Seller Inventory # 155499

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Commission document signed by Governor Sir Adam Williamson.
• Publisher: Port-au-Prince: 21 May 1795
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)