A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Shipley, Lady Mary
SHIPLEY, LADY MARY,
Was the daughter of James Teale, Esq., of Maidstone, in the county of Kent, and of Mary, daughter and co-heiress of Ralph Blomer, D.D.. one of the Prebendaries of Canterbury Cathedral, and chaplain to King Charles the Second The wife of this church dignitary was the daughter of Sir Anthony Archer, of Bishopsbourn, who, according to Camden and others, traced his descent back to Ancherus, first Duke and Earl of Kent, who defeated the Dames in 853; she consequently is in the relationship of grandmother to the subject of our sketch, Mary Teale, who was related either by blood or marriage with the Bullens, the Rawleighs, and other noble and illustrious families, was born at Canterbury in 1763, and married, in 1781, to Charles Shipley, a gentleman remarkable alike for his pure Saxon descent, his great abilities, and true nobility of character, Having studied military engineering at Woolwich, he received his commission at the early age of fourteen, and served at Minorca until the year 1778, when he returned home. In the year of his marriage lie was appointed ccunmanding engineer at the Leeward Islands; he conducted the defence of St. Lucia, and received the public thanks of his countrymen after the retreat of the Marquis Se Bouille. lie was again in England in 1792, and evinced his skill and science as an engineer by planning some of the most important fortifications of Dover Castle and Heights.
In 1794, at the request of Sir John Vaughan, commander-in-chief of the station, he was ordered to the West Indies, and embarked with his wife and family in a government store-ship, called the Woodley, in November of that year. The ship was a bad sailer, sprung a leak, and dropped astern of the rest of the convoy; was nearly wrecked in a storm in the Mediterranean, but providentially found refuge in Gibraltar thirteen days after she left Plymouth Sound. At the end of three weeks she again sets sail, but is obliged by stress of weather to put into Cadiz. Once more she proceeds on her voyage, and gets within seventeen leagues of Barbadoes, when she is pounced upon by a French corvette, called the Perdrix, and captured. After cruising about for some lime, Mr. and Mrs. Shipley, and their children, are placed on board a prison-ship, lying off the Island of St. Martin, and are afterwards sent to Guadaloupe, whose Governor, the republican General Victor Hugue, had treated with great atrocity all British prisoners, and especially the "aristocrats," as it was the fashion of his day to call those of gentle birth and breeding.
Lady Shipley has written a most interesting narrative, remarkable alike for its simple pathos and high-souled lone of sentiment, and from this we glean the few remaining particulars of her life, which we are here enabled to furnish:—
Before the prisoners embarked for Guadaloupe, Major Shipley, with much difficulty, obtained leave to go on board the vessel which was to convey them, in order to make some arrangements for the comfort of his wife and family. But the canoe into which he stepped was maliciously overturned, and his distracted wife heard him straggling in the water, from which he was with great difficulty rescued, much bruised and exhausted; and this was but one of of a long series of sufferings and indignities which the party had to endure at the hands of their captors. As they passed from the landing-place to the common gaol, they were surrounded by a brutal mob, hooting, yelling, and expressing in various ways their hatred and triumph; and on being brought before the governor at the National House, they had to listen to abuse and invectives against their nation, and threats of severe treatment, which must have filled the breast of the tender wife and mother with terror, and that of the patriotic husband with indignation.
After a lime, it was determined to send away to Martinique, then the head-quarters of the British army, such prisoners as were incapable of bearing arms, the number having so greatly accumulated as seriously to embarrass the French governor. Accordingly Mrs. Shipley received orders to embark with her children, one of whom was sickening for the measles, and unfit to be removed. We may imagine her agony of mind when the peremptory order was delivered and when, in answer to her entreaties that her husband might be permitted to accompany her on his parole, Hugue exclaimed, "Tell the woman that a vessel is under orders to convey her to Martinique, and let her go down to the beach." "Alas!" she says, three months' endurance had taught me submission, and I was taken on board, after having seen, as I then thought, the last of him who was so justly entitled to, and possessing, my utmost affections."
Mrs. Shipley's reception at Martinique was of the kindest description; all ranks and conditions of people appeared to strive who should pay her the greatest attention. But her fears for her husband's safety, and sorrow for his absence, so fully occupied the mind of this true wife, that she could not enjoy her altered circumstances, nor the delicate attentions which were paid her, grateful as she felt for them. Innumerable were the plans which she devised for effecting the deliverance of one so dear to her, and most urgent were her entreaties with the different naval and military commanders for permission, and the means to carry them into execution. One proposal which she made was that she might be entrusted with the delicate commission of negotiating an exchange between Major Shipley and a French officer of equal rank, with some inferior prisoners, which might be demanded on account of the high position occupied by her husband as commanding engineer of the West India station. After many objections on the score of personal danger to the adventurous lady, on account of the unscrupulous character of the enemy she had to treat with, permission was given for her to make the attempt, which was rendered doubly difficult and hazardous (torn the circumstance that ail communications, except by arms, between the English and French had ceased, on account of the utter disregard of the usages of civilized warfare exhibited by the latter.
Behold this devoted woman then setting forth on her perilous enterprize, in a small vessel manned only by the prisoners to be exchanged, as she hoped, for her husband, a captain, and five seamen, and accompanied by but one female attendant, a black woman; without even the protection of a flag of truce, she ventures forth upon the boisterous sea, and boldly steers her course towards an enemy's country, whose ruler she knows from sad experience to be harsh and brutal, and animated with a deadly hatred towards those of her name and nation.
One is altogether amazed at the heroism of this desperate venture, and sees in its success (for successful it was) a manifestation of the finger of Providence. She left Port Royal, as she says in her narrative, "under the protection of Heaven;" other protection had she none, except the prayers and good wishes of all who knew of her expedition, and especially of the many who gathered to witness the departure of her little bark, which through the tempestuous night was tossed about upon the ocean. But we must not dwell upon the particulars; suffice it that she reached Guadalonpe in safety, met good friends there, who brought her into communication with the governor, and he was so much struck with her heroism and devotedness, that he allowed her husband to return with her to Martinique. William the Fourth, then Duke of Clarence, testified his high sense of the merit of this extraordinary act in a letter to Major Shipley, who subsequently attained the rank of Major-General, was knighted, and made governor of Granada, after having performed many valuable and important services to his country, chiefly in the West Indies. He died at the seat of his government, November 30th., 1815; and the French monarch Louis the Eighteenth, out of consideration for the service which he had rendered to the Bourbon family, assigned to Lady Shipley a residence at St. Cloud, and treated her and her daughters with the greatest kindness and attention. This royal bounty and sympathy, however, she did not long live to enjoy, dying August 6th., 1820. Her daughters continued to reside at St. Cloud until the change in the reigning dynasty took place. Lady Shipley was first interred in the English burying ground at Boulogne; but afterwards, in 1831, when it was likely that her remains might be disturbed, in consequence of some contemplated alterations, they were brought to England, and placed in Canterbury Cathedral, the Duke of Clarence generously defraying a considerable portion cf the necessary expense.
Lady Shipley left three daughters, Catharine Jane, married to Colonel Edward Warner, to an ancestor of whose was given by James the Second the celebrated Essex ring, which remains as an heir-loom in the family; Augusta Mary, married to James Alexander Manning, Esq.; and Elizabeth Cole, married to the Earl of Buchan. The first of these ladies performed the pious office of printing for private distribution the simple and affecting narrative drawn up by her mother, from which we have gathered the above particulars. To it are appended some introductory remarks, which show how fondly she cherishes the memory of her beloved mother, and what a feeling of, we had almost said, reverence she entertains for her noble qualities of heart and mind.