Alexander Trotter

Alexander Trotter served as paymaster of the Navy under Melville from 1786-1800.  During that time he managed nearly £75000 of monies appropriated from Naval funds by Melville, £40000 of which was to be used by the firm of Messrs. Boyd and Co. to pay an installment on a loan, thereby preventing the failure of the company and what might have created a public crisis in the banking business.   The remaining monies were taken from Naval funds by Melville and treated as personal loans, with Trotter acting as Melville’s agent. No interest was ever paid on these loans.  All these actions, some of which were approved by Pitt, violated a 1785 act of Parliament and led to Melville’s impeachment.  The Indemnity Act allowed Trotter not to be held legally accountable for his part in the transactions.  When the Indemnity Act was first proposed in the summer of 1801, Benjamin Flower commented: “Seldom or never, was there an instance, in which a nation has been so scandalously treated, on pretences so perfectly futile; but there appears to be no species of insult or oppression, but what the people will bear, and which we may justly add, they, for their stupidity, servility, and profligacy, do not deserve to bear!” (Cambridge Intelligencer, 4 July 1801).