French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars - Scotland - South Africa - Argentina

French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars - Scotland - South Africa - Argentina
Papers of Lieutenant-General Robert Campbell of Kintarbert, Argyll, 1790s-1810s
All manuscript unless otherwise stated, comprising: 1) Early career of Robert Campbell. Group of documents and letters: a) George III (1738-1820), document signed, 1793, ordering ‘one company to be forthwith raised under your command’, printed text with autograph signature of George III, countersigned by George Yonge as secretary at war and one other; b) War Office, 2 further memoranda, 1790-1, each 2 pp., concerning Campbell's raising of a volunteer company and his commission as captain, one signed by George Yonge (the other signature illegible); c) John Campbell, 5th Duke of Argyll (1723-1806), 2 documents signed, 1797, one appointing Robert Campbell deputy lieutenant of Argyll, one headed ‘Instructions by His Grace John Duke of Argyll … to Robert Campbell Esq. of Kintarbert', outlining Campbell's duties as deputy lieutenant; d) 3 similar foolscap documents (Duke of Argyll, ‘General Orders’, Inveraray, 1797, single bifolium, containing general orders and lists of commissions, relating to Cowal, Islay, Campbeltown; bifolium of copy letters from Neil MacGibbon, Glasgow, to Archibald McNeil of Colonsay, 1790, concerning recruitment for Campbell's company; summary of the career of Robert Campbell up to 1791);  2) Battle of Blaauwberg (Cape Town) and British occupation of Buenos Aires, 1806: a) Robert Campbell, 5 autograph letters to Hector MacNeill of Lochgilphead, respectively dated Wyndeberg [Wynberg], Cape of Good Hope, January 1806 (3 pp., describing hostilities and the British victory), Cape of Good Hope, March 1806 (3 pp., foolscap, on the taking of La Volontaire, French frigate, 48 guns, and ‘the intelligence obtained from her’), Buenos Aires, July 1806 (2 letters, one foolscap, both 3 pp., the first a dispatch describing the capture of Buenos Aires), Montevideo, September 1807 (2 pp., announcing his releasing from imprisonment); b) ‘Copy of the Articles of Capitulation as made and entered into by major General Beresford’, Fort of Buenos Aires, August 1806 (2 pp.), c) Memorandum describing the recapture of Buenos Aires, August 1806 (4 pp.);3) 20 muster rolls and similar documents for Robert Campbell's and related companies of foot, Linlithgow, 1790, and Dorking and Reigate, Surrey, 1791; 4) 18 enlistment certificates for private soldiers joining Robert Campbell's independent company of foot, 1790, each a pre-printed foolscap sheet completed in manuscript (including signatures of the examining surgeon), various tears, one certificate torn into two sections; 5) Approx. 22 letters and documents, 1790-1800, mainly letters to Robert Campbell concerning recruitment, transport of troops and ordnance, local civic matters in Argyll and environs, etc., together with a secretarial copy of a circular letter from Henry Dundas as secretary of state for war, 1798 (recommending the recruitment of gamekeepers ‘and persons skilful in the use of fowling pieces … to act as sharp shooters or riflemen'), 2 draft letters from Robert Campbell (one addressed to the Duke of York) summarising his military career, a copy letter from one Neil MacGibbon to the Duke of Argyll, Glasgow, 1790, concerning recruitment for Robert Campbell's company and enclosing ‘an abstract of the present state of the company’ (present), and similar;6) Collection of letters and documents relating to the later history of the Campbell family, 19th century
By descent from Robert Campbell of Kintarbert to the present owner.
A draft letter written by Robert Campbell (d.1837), included with the lot and correcting an ‘imperfect account’ in the Royal Military Calendar, provides a useful summary of his career: ‘Major General Robert Campbell entered the service 2nd January 1779 as an ensign in the 2nd Battalion of the First or Royal Regiment of Foot, in which he was appointed a lieutenant on the 13th October 1780, and continued to serve with that regiment in England, Ireland, and at Gibraltar untill the 24th January 1791 when he obtained promotion to the rank of captain by raising an independent company, which being soon afterwards drafted he was placed on half pay. He received the brevet rank of major in the army 1st January 1798, that of lieutenant colonel 29th September 1803, and served in the 42nd Royal Highland, and 71st Regiments of Foot. Was present with the latter at the reduction of the Cape of Good Hope, and lightly wounded on the 8th January 1806 in the action at Blueberg [Blaauwberg] which decided the fate of that colony. He afterwards embarked with the detachment which on June 1806 took Buenos Ayres … and detained upwards of twelve months as prisoner of war in the interior of South America. The 1st January 1812 he obtained the rank of Colonel in the Army; and that of Major General 4th June 1814.' Robert Campbell died in 1837.