Proceedings of the Old Bailey

Recently, I was investigating some matters of Pacific Northwest history and, while doing some internet searches of names of historical figures, I encountered a site which presents the records of the "Old Bailey," London's Central Criminal Courts. I was skimming down through a case that caught my eye--one from 1850 in which a man in his 70's, a certain Dixon Dawson, was being prosecuted for trying to cash a fraudulent check--and found this statement of his history (an account meant to mitigate his guilt):

The following written statement, put in by the prisoner before the Magistrate, was read:—"My Lord, your humble petitioner is a poor wornout seaman, being many years fighting for his country during the late war, which the Lords of the Admiralty, for my services that I done for my country, sent me down to that noble asylum, Greenwich. My Lord, I was in the battle with Nelson when he lost his life; I am now turned seventy-one years of age; I have been sorely wounded in the head, that I am at times in a deranged state of mind. My Lord, I am innocent of the crime laid to my charge; I have only been six weeks discharged from the strong-room in the Infirmary of Greenwich Hospital, which can be proved by Sir John Liddell, the doctor of Greenwich Hospital; I trust in God, my Lord, you and my prosecutors will show me mercy, and send me down to Greenwich, and they will keep me confined at the hospital; I have an only daughter; I am afraid it will break her heart if I am sent to prison; I hope, my Lord, you will show me mercy for God's sake, as we all expect mercy from God; I can assure you I know not what I have done, or what has been done.—Your humble petitioner, Dixon Dawson. My Lord and Gentlemen, your most humble petitioner states that it is upwards of sixty years ago since I first went to sea; the first engagement I was in was the landing of the British troops in Egypt, in 1801, when Sir Ralph Abercrombie lost his life; the next was in the year 1803, in cutting out of Cape Legat a large armed schooner full of Spanish and French troops, and I received many severe blows on the head, which caused me to be in a deranged state of mind now I have advanced in years, and at times to be very troublesome; I likewise was on board the Victory, in the battle of Trafalgar, with my Lord Nelson, when he fell wounded; I likewise was wounded at the same time, and fell close to him on the quarter-deck of the Victory, on that glorious day, 21st Oct., 1805; and in 1807, I was in Gaeta, in Italy, when the French army stormed the fort I was in, and there I was slightly wounded in four places; and was at the taking of the Island of Capua, the mouth of Naples Bay; from there went to land Generals Moore and Fox on the Calabria shore, and beat the French army back into Naples; from there I was sent with Sir Samuel Hood, to take Madeira, which we did succeed; and was engaged off Guadaloupe, in the West Indies, with two frigates, French, and seven batteries on our ship for two hours and forty minutes; and likewise burning two frigates belonging to the French, and taking the island of Martinique, in 1809; came home to England, and was sent on board the Fatale Minotaur, seventy-four guns; I was one of the first men on board the eleven Danish gun-boats, that our ships destroyed by fire under the batteries of Copenhagen. In coming to England our ship was lost, and 600 men with her; I had to swim three miles, and was two hours and three-quarters in the sea before I got on Camperdown, made prisoner-of-war of, and sent to France; remained nearly four years in Valenciennes, half-starved, and when the French were in full retreat from Moscow we were marched 600 miles in that dreadful winter in 1814, through frost and snow, and almost naked, and nearly starved. My Lord, I was never in prison in my life for any crime till now; I hope and trust in God that some humane gentleman will come forward and plead my cause, and snatch two human beings from the brink of ruin; the daughter from a broken heart, and the father that will never be able to look up any more through disgrace; if Mr. Hawes is in Court, I call on him to be so kind as to give me a character since 1816 to July, 1850, and I will for ever pray for all. My Lord and gentlemen, I hope you will help me in the means of procuring a gentleman of the law to plead for me; I am afraid, if I am found guilty, of losing my home for life."

What an amazing life-story--if even half of what he says is true. As it is, I have found documentation that lists him as a survivor of the Minotaur--a well known (and well documented) tragedy. As to his being near Nelson when he fell or any of the other events, who can say? I've found nothing that supports his story. But what a story, eh? Even as a bold concoction! Here, knock yourself out at the Proceedings of the Old Bailey: http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/.

Here's Turner's depiction of the Minotaur sinking:

CD