Editing Robert Jenkins (master mariner) (section)

==Fact versus fiction==
The confrontational nature of British politics in 1738 led many who were opposed to launching a naval war against Spain to doubt the truthfulness of Jenkins' story.{{citation needed|date=January 2016}} No serious research was undertaken until the late 1880s when [[John Knox Laughton]], the founder of the [[Navy Records Society]], uncovered contemporary letters from Jamaica in September and October 1731 which substantiated Jenkin's account of his losing an ear to a Spanish ''Guarda Costa'' on 9 April 1731 (Old Style; 20 April New Style).  Writing from on board {{HMS|Lion|1709|6}} at Port Royal, Jamaica on 12 October 1731 [O.S.] to the Admiralty in London, Rear-Admiral [[Charles Stewart (Royal Navy officer)|Charles Stewart]] confided, "I was a little surprised to hear of the usage Captain Jenkins met with off the Havana." Earlier, on 12 September 1731, Rear-Admiral Stewart had written to the Governor of Havana to complain of the "''violence and villainies''" of a Guarda Costa commander named Fandino who, "about the 20th April last [N.S.] sailed out of your harbor in one of those Guarda Costas, and met a ship of this island bound for Britain; and after using the captain in a most barbarous inhuman manner, taking all his money, cutting off one of his ears, plundering him of those necessaries which were to carry the ship safe home...".<ref>"''Jenkins's Ear''", by John Knox Laughton, [https://archive.today/20120707154819/http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/IV/XVI/741 ''English Historical Review''], 1889 vol. 4, pp. 741–749: accessed on 11 May 2010.</ref>

Contained within the Admiralty records files with the 1731 correspondence from Jamaica was a ''List of British Merchant ships taken or plundered by the Spaniards'' compiled in 1737, listing 52 ships, among them, ''Rebecca, Robert Jenkins, Jamaica to London, boarded and plundered near the Havana, 9 April 1731.''<ref>"''Jenkins's Ear''", by John Knox Laughton, ''English Historical Review''], 1889 vol. 4, page 747; citing '''Home Office Records, Admiralty, No. 69 and 70'''.</ref><ref>''The Gentleman's Magazine'', [http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/ilej/image1.pl?item=page&seq=3&size=1&id=gm.1738.3.x.8.x.x.163 "''Historical Chronicle: List of British Merchant Ships taken or plundered by the Spaniards since May 1728''"] Vol. 8, March 1738, pp. 163–64; accessed 13 May 2010.</ref>

Shortly after Professor Laughton published his "Jenkins's Ear" research in the ''English Historical Review'', a Royal Navy colleague wrote, on 26 October 1889, to inform the historian: "I have a curious book connected with the subject, published in London in 1739, entitled ''England's Triumph: or a complete History of the many signals victories gained by the Royal Navy & Merchant Ships of Great Britain, for the term of 40 years past over the insulting & haught Spaniards'' by Captain Charles Jenkins, who has too severely felt the effects of Spanish tyranny. On page 64 is an illustration representing ''A Spanish Guarda Costa boarding Capt. Jenkin's ship & cutting off his Ear''." The 1889 correspondent noted that the 1739 author was named ''Charles'' Jenkins, while Laughton's research had proved the real mariner was named ''Robert'' Jenkins.<ref>Publications of the Navy Records Society, Vol. 143 '''Letters and Papers of Professor Sir John Knox Laughton, 1830–1915''', edited by [[Andrew Lambert]] (London: 2002) (pp.340) {{ISBN|0-7546-0822-0}}; citation pp. 63–64, letter of Captain Charles Firth to Laughton.</ref>

However, when Laughton subsequently examined the 1739 publication, he found it held little detail about Jenkins himself, and, in writing Robert Jenkins's entry for the ''[[Dictionary of National Biography]]'' he dismissed it as, "a catch-penny [[chapbook]], in which no reference is made to Jenkins's case, except in a worthless [[Book frontispiece|frontispiece]]".<ref>[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/olddnb/14734  ODNB 1891] (archived); recovered 8 Jan 2016</ref>

[[Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, Comte de Mirabeau|Mirabeau]] effectively quoted Jenkins's case when arguing before the French assembly (20–2 May 1790) against the policy of entrusting a popular assembly with the power of declaring peace or war.<ref>''Discours de … Mirabeau'' p. 48, quoted by Jenkins ODNB 1891</ref>