Recording of my RGS talk and more archival exploring.
New FitzNewsletter! Subscribe to stay up to date about my Fitzjames research adventures, events and publications.
Today's Document
Xuebing Du

oozey mess
Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her

Love Begins
KIROKAZE
dirt enthusiast
RMH
Alisa U Zemlji Chuda

Product Placement
Not today Justin

titsay

⁂

Kaledo Art
Game of Thrones Daily
d e v o n
No title available
Sweet Seals For You, Always
Misplaced Lens Cap

if i look back, i am lost
seen from United States

seen from United States

seen from United States

seen from United States
seen from United States

seen from United Kingdom
seen from Canada

seen from United States
seen from Kazakhstan
seen from United States

seen from Germany

seen from Malaysia
seen from Australia

seen from United States

seen from Canada
seen from United States

seen from Australia
seen from Saudi Arabia
seen from Kazakhstan

seen from Canada
@jamesfitzjamesdotcom
Recording of my RGS talk and more archival exploring.
New FitzNewsletter! Subscribe to stay up to date about my Fitzjames research adventures, events and publications.
O'Byrne's naval biography (1849)
John Barrow Jr. helped O'Byrne gain access to Admiralty papers and before publication asked to see only one biography in advance... that of his "esteemed & gallant friend" James Fitzjames.
[William O'Byrne, A Naval Biographical Dictionary, p. viii]
The dictionary is available online, but I love to have physical copies of books when possible.
Fitzjames lecture in Abbots Langley, 11 July 2026
Tickets are now available for Captain James Fitzjames RN - from Abbots Langley to the Arctic at The Manor House Sports and Social Centre, Ab
After two years of leading a Fitzjames Tour around Hertfordshire on Fitzjames' birthday, I will this year, on 11 July, give a lecture about his life and career in Abbots Langley, the village where he lived as a child. The lecture is in person only. Would be great to see many people there!
James Fitzjames and his funny hair 🫶🏻🤍
Fitzjames talk at the Royal Geographical Society, 27 April
This talk explores the roles of Captain James Fitzjames and sources that reveal a more accurate, underexplored portrait of this remarkable o
🥳🥳🥳 Very excited to announce my talk at the RGS, it's both in person and online.
ONE WEEK FROM NOW! 🤩 I'm almost finished writing my lecture. 😄
I've seen it implied somewhere (forgot where, sry) that the fact that it strange and perhaps indicative of illness that Fitzjames explained how the victory point note was found, retrieved, and moved.
And I'll be honest, I find that odd too! He had so little space to write, and he "wasted" it on this kind of useless information? Instead of, for example, naming their all dead. I know they hoped to deliever that information in person, but come on man.
Here's my question, since you know Fitzjames better than anyone on this planet, could he have just written this explanation because he just... was like that? Like, this wasn't lead poison or whatever messing with his mind, but just his personality (or ADHD, though I very much dislike slapping diagnoses onto every random historical figure).
Another thing I wanted to ask, what do you think about the fact that he, "one of the best walkers in the service", died so close to the ships? I'm starting to think that it might not have been one long march south, but that they went back, and that Fitzjames died not quite reaching the ships.
I'm a Crozier girlie (genterneutral), but I'm very excited to read your biography of him when it comes out!
Hi! First of all, thank you, I really can't wait until my Fitzjames biography is finished/published and to hear what everybody thinks! Concerning the Victory Point Note and the scant information it contains: I think it's plausible that there were more records and of course there were the ships' logs that would have contained more detailed information on what happened. But the only written evidence that survived was that one note left at Point Victory. Fitzjames didn't need to go into detail about who died or what else happened to the expedition because that information was already recorded elsewhere.
(I do suspect that he had ADHD, but that's just my unprofessional impression.) Regarding the location where Fitzjames' remains were found, the archaeological evidence unfortunately can't tell us much about the timeline of the expedition's proceedings. That Fitzjames died in a camp near the ship doesn't mean that he couldn't reach the ship or that he hadn't been on the ship and that they had to abandon the ship for some reason.
A case of mistaken identity that continues to be repeated Daguerreotype by Richard Beard, taken May 1845. Colourised by Ross Day. By Fabiënn
One of the first pieces of research I did back in 2021, but I finally added more proof. Edward Couch was NOT in the Excellent and did not go to China with Fitzjames, it's all based on Battersby's mistake.
Fitzjames talk at the Royal Geographical Society, 27 April
This talk explores the roles of Captain James Fitzjames and sources that reveal a more accurate, underexplored portrait of this remarkable o
🥳🥳🥳 Very excited to announce my talk at the RGS, it's both in person and online.
'The Arctic Council' print underneath which Lady Franklin/Sophia Cracroft pasted the signatures of all in the portrait. Love how Fitzjames and John Barrow Jr. are next to each other! [Derbyshire Record Office]
See it on Google Arts & Culture to zoom in.
What are your thoughts on Barrow's Boys by Fergus Fleming? I'm reading it at the moment and while it is a very compelling narrative, I have a fear in the back of my mind that it may be filled to the brim with false information, just like other books about polar exploration you've been asked about before that are generally recommended but not correctly researched.
If you haven't read it and therefore can't say, that's completely fine because I'm very willing to do my own research as well! I just thought you might be a good person to ask since you have shown how thorough you are with historical research. :)
I haven't read Barrow's Boys in its entirety yet; it's not the kind of book I would confidently use as a source for my research because it is a popular history book written by a non-historian with scarce citation of sources. But I suppose it is an entertaining read and an accessible introduction to Arctic exploration in the early 19th century for the general public. However, the one part of the book that I read for my research article (now under review with an academic journal) about the group portrait The Arctic Council, was ridiculously imaginative and had few sources cited of course. Because Fleming's story about The Arctic Council, which he believes is an actual council (it was not), is discussed in one of the few academic articles about the painting, I had to mention and analyse it as well. The inaccuracy and imagination of Fleming's treatment of The Arctic Council makes me distrust the factuality of the rest of his book. I wouldn't say that the entire book is inaccurate, but definitely don't just take Fleming's word for anything he says, especially if he doesn't cite a source.
Another common mistake (that I used to make, too):
The correct way to refer to this woman is Lady Franklin. Her name is Jane Franklin, but unlike her husband, who can be called Sir John, she cannot be called Lady Jane. You can however say Jane, Lady Franklin.
Source: https://www.baronetage.org/baronets/addressing-a-baronet/
Common mistake (I also got it wrong in the beginning):
You either say HMS Erebus or the Erebus. It's never "the HMS (His/Her Majesty's Ship)".
[Image not of Erebus, but ships drawn by Secret FitzUncle, [Redacted] Archive.]
After reading William Battersby’s book ‘James Fitzjames – The Mystery Man of the Franklin Expedition’ (2010) I was left with some questions
Posting this here too for those not on Twitter.
I'm very happy to have obtained William Battersby's updated research on Fitzjames' parents after it had been presumed lost and nobody I approached knew what had happened to it. This publication includes a wonderful introduction by Battersby's daughter.
Happy reading everybody!
Battersby chapters removed
Almost 4 years ago, I published two revised chapters of Battersby's prospective second edition of his Fitzjames biography on my website. At the time, I was at the beginning of my own Fitzjames research and lacked the knowledge to fact-check Battersby's work. The more research I subsequently did, the more inaccuracies I noticed in these revised chapters, and I felt uneasy about spreading misinformation that Battersby himself never made public. A few months ago, I decided to remove the chapters from my website. And then there's the 2023 posthumous paperback edition of Battersby's book, which strangely perpetuates something from the revised chapters... Read more on my site:
Clarification about Battersby’s updated research and the 2023 paperback William Battersby published his Fitzjames biography, The Mystery Man
The goal of this blog is to present a comprehensive compilation of the life of Edward Little, Royal Navy Commander, mostly known for
IT'S HERE ! After a year of hard work, I'm finally done writing a regular blog/website to compile everything I have written about Edward Little.
I added more context and sources to most articles and already have new ones planned.
Please bare with me as I'm going to improve it over time and thank you again for your continued support !
When I went to Sotheby's three times to gaze at the Franklin Expedition daguerreotypes...
[Video by me. September 2023.]
I hate that historical documents can just be bought and sold by rich people as collectors items. They should all be in archives that are open to the public.
I think that it should be mandatory that private collectors let archives copy what they have. The amount of interesting and important historical documents and objects that I know must be casually in somebody's home while this person possibly doesn't even care that much... endlessly frustrating. I try and make contact with private collectors who may have things of interest to me, but it's always a delicate thing as they are private people and getting invited into their home is not a given. I have been lucky thus far, though. But I'm always glad when something I need is in an archive, then I can go and see it whenever I wish.
Greetings,
I'm currently reading the second edition of Battersby's Fitzjames biography (and definitely agree with the criticism you have levelled so far). Since I just reached the part where he claims/suspects that Fitzjames marked the days he had sexual encounters on with a X in his journal (I'm extremely curious how he drew that conclusion because it feels somewhat random), I was wondering what you personally deem the biggest myths and misinterpretations of the book. It's unfortunately fairly hard to double check the information provided.
All the best!
Ps. Did you ever find out where Battersby got the journals of Dr. (& Mrs.) Helfer from that apparently tagged along on the Euphrates Expedition? I suppose they were written in German and I'm curious how well Battersby's translations replicate the original.
Hi! The new Fitzjames biography I am writing will discuss and correct all of the mistakes/misinterpretations/fabrications of Battersby's book. Now that I have seen all of his sources and more, I see mistakes on almost every page. His book is a good example of someone who does not quite understand how historical research works and who wants to write an exciting story above all. In true popular history style, there's barely any proper citation of sources. Battersby's biggest myths/misinterpretations are I think him believing that Fitzjames was half-Portuguese and born in Brazil. If he had bothered to check where Sir James Gambier was around November 1812 when Fitzjames was conceived, he would have found that Gambier had already returned to England in 1811. This information can easily be obtained from the Foreign Office papers. Plus two of Gambier's sons were born in England just before and after Fitzjames. The whole Brazil theory was therefore based on lazy research. Battersby's other unsubstantiated and frustratingly wrong theory of Fitzjames saving George Barrow (it wasn't even George, it was Peter Barrow) from some supposed scandal and henceforward being helped by Sir John Barrow is complete nonsense. It's not impossible that the X's that were not even X's but clear +'s, signified a sexual encounter. But it could easily have meant something else. If it meant sex, well good for you Fitzjames! So yeah, when my book is out, all of the misconceptions about Fitzjames can finally be put to rest! I'm still doing research after 4 years, that's how thorough I am. Battersby didn't read the actual journals of the Helfers. Decades after the expedition, Pauline Helfer published an account of her and her by then deceased husband's travels, which were translated into English. You can find the books (2 volumes) here: https://archive.org/details/travelsofdoctorm01nost/mode/2up