Edward Little


Edward Little (14 December 1811 - c.1847) was an officer of the British Royal Navy. He served as First Lieutenant aboard HMS Terror under Captain Francis Crozier during the Franklin Expedition of 1845 to discover the North West Passage, which ended with the loss of all 129 crewmen men in uncertain circumstances

 

Early Life

Edward Little was the son of Sarah Hayter (1779 - 1847) and Simon Little (c.1770 - 1852), he was the seventh child of a family of twelve siblings. His father was a Royal Navy purser and paymaster, four of his brothers also served in the Royal Navy or Royal Marines.

More about his family here

Little was born on 14 December 1811 and baptized on 12 January 1812 in St Mary Hornsey by Reverent Matthew Irving, Rector of Redmile, Leicestershire ¹

He could have been born either in Hornsey or in Stonehouse, Devon, more about this in this post


Physical Description

My rediscoveries includes a record of his physical description while he was a mate aboard HMS Scylla in 1837, just before joining the HMS Donegal as a lieutenant 

At the time, he was 24, 5'9 tall with a fair complexion, hazel eyes and brown hair, with no visible scar, mark or wound ²

 

 
ADM 37/9920, Admiralty: Ship's Muster (Serie II) Ship: SCYLLA, Type: Sloop, The National Archives 

Service Record

Edward joined the Royal Navy on 3rd June 1826 as a first class volunteer from Plymouth on the HMS Forte, he was 14 years old, but is mentioned in the Ship Muster as being 15 ³

He then served on HMS Sapphire as a first class volunteer and was promoted Midshipman on 12 January 1831 at 19 while serving on HMS Alert, he then served as Master's Mate aboard HMS Donegal and Royal Adelaide ⁴

He passed his examination for seamanship in June 1832 while serving on HMS Dublin, and his examination for the rank of Lieutenant in 1834 at the Royal Naval College.⁵ He got his first appointment as such on HMS Donegal in 1837, he was then promoted in absentia to the rank of Commander on 9 November 1846, while aboard HMS Terror

Since the last correspondence with HMS Terror were in 1845, he most likely never knew about his promotion, just like he never knew of his mother's passing in 1847

For more information about his record, see this post


The Franklin Expedition

No information is known about Little after that, none of the remains of the Franklin Expedition men have been identified as his. By April 1848, at least 9 officers and 15 men had died, we don't know if Little was among them

Assuming he was still alive at that time, he may have taken a more significant role after Sir John Franklin and James Fitzjames's deaths on 11 June 1847 and in May or June 1848

More information on the expedition and its aftermath here 

 

Posts about Edward Little 

 Edward Little's birthplace & baptism

 Edward Little's Service record

The court martial testimony

The two handwritten letters

The Tahitian dispatches 


Sources

¹ London, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriage and Burials, 1538-1812, available on Ancestry.com 
² ⁴  ADM 37/9920, Admiralty: Ship's Muster (Serie II) Ship: SCYLLA, Type: Sloop, The National Archives
³ ADM 37/7447, Admiralty: Ship's Muster (Serie II) Ship: FORTE, Mar-Dec 1826, The National Archives
⁵ ADM 1/4866, Letters : from Prom° Surname L, 1834, The National Archives

Posts les plus consultés de ce blog

The Aftermath of the Franklin Expedition

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To this day , no letter between the Little family members has been found, either before or after Edward's disappearance in the arctic, but some archives and newspapers give up a glimpse of how the expedition affected the family life   The Relief Expedition meeting In 1857, James Cornelius Little, Edward's eldest brother, took part in a meeting centered around Lady Jane Franklin's effort to send another expedition in search of her husband and his crew. James Cornelius was described as "an esteemed resident" [of Jersey] and the he " had taken a lively interest in the proceedings of this meeting. He had to deplore the loss of a brother in the ill-fated expedition of Sir John Franklin. He was happy to have the opportunity to express his thanks to the gentlemen who had taken the initiative in the proceedings. " James Cornelius also subscribed to the cause by donating 10£   ¹ (which according to the TNA currency converter , would be around 590£ in 2017)
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Edward Little's birthplace & baptism

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     Edward's birth and baptism places aren't as easy to pinpoint as we could think, so here is everything I gathered on the subject :  (With some speculations on my part because some documents contradict each other )   Edward Little was born on 14 December 1911 from Sarah Little (née Hayter) and Simon Little, he was baptised in St Mary's church, Hornsey, on Jan 12th 1812  ¹ St Mary's Church Tower, Hornsey, Februrary 2025, taken by the author   The old medieval church was first mentioned in a papal taxation list of 1291, but by the 1820s the building was dilapidated and it was knocked down in 1832. After that, two new churches were built on these grounds, but none of them remains today, the third church was demolished in 1969, the churchyard was closed in 1892. Today, only the bell tower from the first church still stands, surrounded by a park and a Primary school playground ²
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The Court Martial Testimony

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When I first came across this article, I couldn't be sure that it mentioned the same Edward Little. But now that we know about his early service record, we know that he was indeed serving aboard HMS Dublin as mate (from Nov 1831 to Oct 1834)  So, he's most certainly the one mentioned here : ¹   Albion and the Star , 26 Sep 1834    " A Mr. Edward Little, mate, was brought forward as witness, to prove Mr. Christie's assaulting him. The manner in which this Gentleman gave his evidence called forth the animadversions of the Court ."  There is more newspapers covering the full trial (but with no other mention of Little) : ² ³ ⁴ ⁵ ⁶
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