296:, and, after a chase, captured; most fortunately for the lives as we well as the liberties of the slaves, the quantity of water found on board being very deficient, and barely lasting until the arrival of the vessel at Sierra Leone... No flag nor any official papers were found in the vessel to indicate her nationality; but that difficulty was sufficiently obviated, and the Brazilian character of the vessel, and the traffic in which she was engaged, clearly established by the admissions of the witnesses, and the evidence afforded by two log-books and a list of the cargo of slaves which had been discovered on board; her condemnation consequently took place as above mentioned, the surviving slaves, 267 in number, (one having died here before adjudication,) being at the same time emancipated."
285:, where she arrived on the 5th of February, when one of her officers, according to the usual custom, seems to have gone on shore to arrange about a cargo of slaves, the vessel putting to sea again in the meanwhile and cruizing about to avoid risk of capture. On the 5th of March, 311 slaves were embarked in this small schooner, which is apparently not more than 35 British tons in burthen. On the 4th of April, having lost in the interim by death several of her human cargo, she was fallen in with, to the northward of
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and Royal
Signature wherein Her Majesty has been pleased to appoint Michael Linning Melville, Esquire, to be Her Majesty's Judge", letter from the Lieutenant Governor of Sierra Leone, George MacDonald to the Earl of Aberdeen in "Correspondence with the British Commissioners at Sierra Leone, Havana,
299:(M. L. Melville to the Earl of Aberdeen 27 April 1844 in "Correspondence with the British Commissioners at Sierra Leone, Havana, Rio de Janeiro, Surinam, Cape of Good Hope, Jamaica, Loanda, and Boa Vista Relating to The Slave Trade from January 1 to December 31, 1844 inclusive"
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Melville's own correspondence with Lord
Aberdeen contains a number of detailed and vivid descriptions of the struggle to suppress the transatlantic slave trade and release its victims. A letter of 27 April 1844 is typical:
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Rio de
Janeiro, Surinam, Cape of Good Hope, Jamaica, Loanda, and Boa Vista Relating to The Slave Trade, from January 1 to December 31, 1844, inclusive", London William Clowes and Sons for HMSO, p. 11
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Journals of the House of
Commons, Volume 81 Volume 86, Appendix (E.), Civil List, 2 Decembria continued, Journal, p 143, published The Stationery Office, London 1830
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Railway
Reminiscences by George P. Neele Late Superintendent of the Line of the London and North Western Railway, Morquorquodale & Co., London 1904, Chapter VII
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385:, England. Their son Robert is buried at the new Dartington church, built by Arthur Melville Champernowne (a grandson of Michael and Elizabeth Melville).
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of
Scotland and related the leading families of the Scottish and Anglo-Irish aristocracy. At this time in British history, before the publication of the
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The Royal
Kalendar, and Court and City Register for England, Scotland, Ireland, and the Colonies, T. C. Hansard, Paternoster-row Press, London 1834
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on 24 December last, with slave provisions and equipment, and a small quantity of tobacco and other goods on board, and proceeded direct to
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Sussex, and
Ashford Hall Shropshire), born in Sierra Leone. They later had a daughter Elizabeth, born in Scotland in 1847, who married
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A Residence in Sierra Leone
Described from a Journal Kept on the Spot and from Letters Written to Friends at Home Edited by Mrs. Norton
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Melville was an ethnic
Scotsman from Dublin where his family had lived since the middle of the 18th century. He was named after his
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In 1840, Melville married Elizabeth Helen Callender, daughter of Randall William McDonnell Callander (died 1858), of
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In September 1818, both of Melville's parents died within a few days of each other. His loss aroused the pity of
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Michael Linning Melville and his wife Elizabeth both died in 1876 and are buried in the old churchyard at
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The Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle, Volume 50, Sylvanus Urban, "Gazette Promotions"
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dated 14 October 1842, quoted in General Report of the Emigration Commissioners, Volume 2,
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After his service in Sierra Leone, Melville returned to Britain. In 1870 he purchased
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His service in West Africa was to form the basis for his wife's 1849 memoir
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who, in November of that year, granted the boy an annual pension from the
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and the countryside nearby as well as her husband's work seizing
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16:"Michael Melville" redirects here. For the test pilot, see
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of Ardkinglas Castle. Melville's wife was a descendant of
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192:At some stage in the 1820s Meville joined the
557:Memoirs of Sir James Campbell of Ardkinglas
358:Michael and Elizabeth Melville had a son
113:Learn how and when to remove this message
343:and Elizabeth's connections (her uncle,
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461:On Financial Reform, Third Edition, by
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