Volume 32, Letters and Papers of Charles, Lord Barham, 1758-1813 Vol.I,
ed. Sir J.K. Laughton

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Charles Middleton was one of the most interesting, influential and unlikeable characters in the British naval history. As Controller of the Navy 1778-1790, a member of the Admiralty Board 1794-95, and First Lord 1805-06, as well as the confidential naval adviser of several prime ministers, he played a decisive part in reform and centralization of naval administration over thirty years, and was finally (at the age of eighty) responsible for guiding the Trafalgar campaign. Much of this volume deals not with naval administration, but with correspondence from his seagoing friends (notably Sir Samuel Hood and Captain Walter Young) relating the course of the American war at sea.