Talk:Watkin Tench

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Bligh

I am not sure that the Bligh Tench served with was William Bligh of Bounty fame. Tench was imprisoned with Richard Rodney Bligh - ref http://www.jmr.nmm.ac.uk/server/show/conJmrBookReview.6 - hence I have asked for sources citation against Bligh. --A Y Arktos\^talk 22:13, 13 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Well spotted, A Y Arktos! It was indeed Richard Rodney Bligh. I was fooled by a reference in a letter by Tench in 1808 referring to the rum rebellion:

I was firmly and decidedly of opinion that Governor Bligh by tyranny, oppression and rapacity has drawn upon himself the just resentments of the inhabitants of the Colony and met with that spirited opposition and final defeat which I trust all unprincipled despots, whether in courts or cottages, always will encounter.

which I took to be from firsthand knowledge. I should have picked up that they didn't serve together when Tench went on to write,

...I had long possessed the strongest testimony from a friend who had served with Governor Bligh that he was not only a tyrant, but a poltroon.

which makes it clear that they hadn't known each other. I've done a more careful check, and definite identification of Tench's Admiral as R R Bligh is given in footnote 8 to letter I of Gavin Edwards' edition of the Letters (page 136).

I've changed the text of the page. Ecb 20:55, 14 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]