Copy of a letter received by William Wellesley-Pole from Isaac Coffin, 13 December 1807 (Series 40.088) - No. 0001

[Page 1]

Copy
Memo

His Majesty's Ship Gladiator
In Portsmouth Harbor

13th December 1807

Sir,

          The Members composing the Court Martial assembled this day for the Trial of Captain Short, on Charges exhibited against him by Lieutenant Tetley, have desired me to state for the information of my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, that he was instigated to bring forward part of the Charges by Captain Bligh the Governor of New South Wales (of which he has been acquitted) whereby Captain Short has been deprived of the Command of his Ship, precluded from benefitting by the benign intention of Government in locating a tract of Land ordered to be granted him, obliged with a Wife & six Children under twelve years of Age & an inclement Season of the Year to return to this Country in a leakly Ship, whose distresses occasioned the loss of his Wife and one Child;  from necessity constrained