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Memoirs Relating to the Lord Torrington

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

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Memoirs Relating to the Lord Torrington
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Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1889

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References

page 1 note a [If the 36 in the margin is intended to fill up the blank, it is erroneous. George Byng was Member for Rochester, 27th Elizabeth, 1584.]

CAMD. SOC.

page 2 note a [Younger brother of Sir Richard Haddock, afterwards Comptroller of the Navy.]

page 2 note b Each of those captains had orders to sail with the ship under their comand into the Downs and there to remain till further orders; one on the 17 of May, the other on the 26 October 1678.

page 3 note a On the 6 August 1678, Capt. David Loyde had orders to receive on board the Reserve 3 companies of foot of about 100 men each, part of the Duke of Monmouth's batallion of foot, and to transport them to Ostend, and after landing them to return into the river. [Lloyd left the Navy at the Revolution and followed the fortunes of King James, as whose agent he is said to hare carried on negotiations with Russell and other officers of the fleet in 1692, previous to the battle of La Hogue. Cf. Macaulay's Hist, of England (cab. edit.), vi. 57. He died in 1714.]

page 3 note b [Lawrence Wright, in 1690–1, was Commandcr-in-Chief in the West Indies, where a violent quarrel broke out between him and Christopher Codrington, the Governor-General. On his return home, Wright was charged before a courtmartial, 20 May 1693, with neglect of duty; but the court, on the evidence brought before it, pronounced the charges malicious and rising out of private resentment. Wright was fully acquitted (Minutes of the Court-Martial), but had no further service at sea; though in the reign of Queen Anne he was for some time employed as Resident Commissioner of the Navy at Kinsale.]

page 3 note c On the 5th of June, 1679, Capt. Talbot in the Mary Rose was by orders appointed to be one of the convoys to Newfoundland fishery for the ensuing season, and was to follow such orders as shoud be given him by Capt. Wright, Comander of the Reserve.

page 3 note d See what flag Admirall Herbert had, i.e. what admirall he was. [He seems to have had the local rank of vice-admiral under Sir John Narbrough in 1679–80; and in July 1680 to have been appointed admiral and commander-in-chief, presumably with the union flag at the fore and main respectively, as was then usual; but of this there is no distinct record.]

page 3 note e On the 12th of June, 1680, Capt. Blagg, Comander of the Phœnix, had orders to receive on board such soldiers, with their ruggs and billows, as were to be put on board by order of the Comissioners of the Navy, and to be transported by him unto Tangier in company with the Ruby and Guarland. He was likewise to sail to Kingsale with the Ruby and to proceed as above, and then to return to Plymouth.

page 4 note a [sc. the general.]

page 4 note b Capt. Joseph Haddock…George Byng. Ent. 11 July, 1678. Dis…28 Nov. 1678.

Swallow…Cap. Thos. Fowler.

Capt. David Loyde……Do. …… Ent. 28 Nov. 1678. Dis…9 June, 1679.

Reserve…Cap. Lawrence Wright.

Capt. Charles Talbot……Do. …… Ent. 9 June, 1679. Dis…8 June, 1680.

Mary Rose.

Capt. Wm. Blagg …Do. …… Ent. 11 April, 1681. Dis…10 May, 1681.

Phœnix.

page 5 note a [Charles Churchill, a younger brother of John, afterwards Duke of Marlborough.]

page 5 note b [Andrew Mitchell.]

page 6 note a [Sie; but by the dates in the margin, 9.]

page 7 note a [Saldinia, now Table Bay.]

page 7 note b [Mobilla.]

page 10 note a [Cf. Alexander Hamilton's New Account of the East Indies, i. 131, where the date is given 1686.]

page 11 note a [On Salsette Island, nine miles north of Bombay.]

page 11 note b [Mangarol.]

page 11 note c [“The river of Sindy would be hard to be found, where it not for the tomb of a Mahometan samt, who has an high tower built over him called Sindy Tower. It is always kept white to serve as a landmark. … This is only a small branch of Indus, which appellation is now lost in this country … and is called Divellee, or Seven Mouths.” Hamilton's New Account of the East Indies, i. 129. No branch of the river now bears this distinctive name; and the white tower is not mentioned in the Sailing Directions.]

page 12 note a [Ras al Hadd.]

page 12 note b [Karyat.]

page 12 note c [Now Dwarka. See West Coast of Hindostan Pilot (1880), p. 222.]

page 12 note d [Patan.]

page 16 note a [Rodriguez.]

page 16 note b [Now called the binnacle compass.]

page 17 note a [On 12th April, 1692, the Phœnix, then commanded by Captain Banks, was driven ashore on the coast of Spain and bnrnt, to prevent her falling into the enemy's hands.—Minutes of the Court Martial, 9 July, 1692.]

page 17 note b The gate at New Richmond Park is called Loans Gate, and the house by it Loans Farm. Q. Itt being Loan Parish.

page 17 note c [Now styled flag captain.]

page 18 note a [Afterwards Admiral Sir John Ashby; died 1693.]

page 19 note a [The text of these instructions is given by Burchett, Trainaotioni at Sea, p. 408.]

page 23 note a [For the text of these instructions, see Burchett, p. 412.]

page 27 note a [Wolfran Cornewall, died in 1719. His nephew, Charles Cornewall, was Vice-Admiral and second in command under Byng in the action off Cape Passaro in 1718, and grandfather of Charles Wolfran Cornwall, Speaker of the House of Commons 1780–9.]

page 27 note b [Matthew, afterwards Lord Aylmer, at this time Captain of the Swallow; died, Admiral of the Fleet and Rear-Admiral of Great Britain, in 1720.]

page 28 note a [S.W. by S.]

page 29 note a [Cf. Burchett, 414.]

page 32 note a [Blank in MS. Anthony Hastings was at this time Captain of the Woolwich.] [David Lloyd, see ante, p; 3.]

page 33 note a [Afterwards Admiral Sir Clowdisley Shovell.]

page 33 note b [The title became extinct on his death in 1696.]

page 34 note a [Richard Carter, at this time Captain of the Plymouth. He did not become rear-admiral till January 1692, and was slain a few months later in the battle of Barfleur, 19 May, 1692. See post, p. 64.]

page 38 note a [Louis François de Ronsselet, Comte de Château-Renault; born 1637; lieutenant-général, 1688; vice-admiral de Levant, 1701; Maréchal de France, 1703; died 1716. See Abraham Du Quesne et La Marine de Son Temps, par A. Jal. ii. 586.]

page 39 note a [Both 4th Kates.]

page 39 note b [Sir Francis Wheler; Captain, 1680; knighted by King James, Nov., 1688; Rear-Admiral in 1692, and Commander-in-chief in the West Indies; in Dec., 1693 appointed Commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean; lost at sea off Gibraltar, in a violent storm, 19 Feb., 1693–4. Cf. Playfair's Scourge of Christendom, 164, where the date is wrongly given 19 March.]

page 40 note a [Passage de l'Iroise.]

page 41 note a [Corunna.]

page 42 note a [A dangerous group of islands and rocks nearly midway between the Hook and Carnsore points.]

page 42 note b [Hoylake.]

page 43 note a [Anne Hilarion de Cotentin, Comte de Tourville, born 1642; vice-amiral de Levant, 1689 ; Maréchal de France, 1693 ; died 1701. The best sketch of his noteworthy career is in Jal's Dictionnaire Critique de Siographie et d'Histoire.]

page 43 note b [Cornelia Evertsen, luitenant-admiraal, son of Luitenant-admiraal Cornelis Evertsen, who was slain in the four-days fight, 1666.]

page 45 note a [According to the plans, both English and French, the lines headed towards the N.W. or N.W. by W., the wind north-easterly. Charnock's Biog. Nav., vol. i., and Eugène Sue, Hist. de la Marine Française, iv. 366.]

page 45 note b [Died, Admiral of the blue, 1707 : buried in Westminster Abbey.]

page 45 note c [Victor Marie, Comte d'Estrées, son of Jean, Comte d'Estrées, who commanded the French squadron associated with the English under the Duke of York or Prince Rupert in 1672–3; born 1660; Maréchal de France, 1703 ; chief of the staff and virtual commander in-chief in the battle off Velez-Malaga, 13 Aug. 1704; died 1737.]

page 47 note a [Commanded by Tyrrell, Byng's old captain in the Phoenix.]

page 47 note b [The Maze, of 64 guns, Captain Jan Snellen. He was promoted to be Rear-Admiral (Schout-bij-Nacht); his son, who was on board, was made lieutenant; and the crew were granted a month's pay.—De Jonge, iii. 213.]

page 48 note a [Blank in the MS. He was sent down to Sheerness on 6 December; and the court-martial was held on board the Kent on 8th—10th.]

page 48 note b [Cf. Reasons for the Tryal of the Earl of Torrington by Impeachment by the Commons in Parliament, rather than any other may, 1690, sm. 4°.]

page 49 note a [The correct names of the Dutch ships and their commanders are given in italics from De Jonge, Gesehiedenis van het Nederlandsche Zeewezen, iii., and the continuation of Aitzema, Saken van Staat en Oorlogh, 1687–92.]

page 50 note a [The figures in the MS. are unusually clear and distinct; but there can be little doubt that the 1 is written in error for 4.]

page 51 note a [The Royal Sovereign: this was the magnificent ship built by Charles I. in 1639; there is a beautiful model of her at Greenwich ; she was accidentally burnt at Gillingham on 27 Jan., 1695–6.]

page 52 note a [See Charnock's Biographia Navalis, vol. iv. p. 24 ; s.n. Streynsham Master, her brother.]

page 52 note b [See Burchett, p. 433.]

page 52 note c [“By 20 Dutch ships of war, or at least 18.” (Burchett.)]

page 53 note a [“With the Commander-in-Chief of which squadron he was to leave instructions.” (Ibid.)]

page 53 note b [“The consequences of which restraint was not, I am apt to think, so thoroughly considered as it ought to hare been.” (Ibid.)]

page 55 note a [Should be sixth, and is so given in Burchett, p. 435.]

page 56 note a [For several of them were of the line of battle ; but since the falling of the tides would prevent the French getting out of that port, ours were soon expected thence, and when they were arrived, the Admiral proposed etc.” (Burchett.)]

page 56 note b [Burchett gives the detail of this settlement.]

page 56 note c [George Churchill, brother of the Duke of Marlborough, and senior member of the Lord High Admiral's Council in the reign of Queen Anne.]

page 57 note a [“Besides, the Admiral was in doubt that if, &c.” (Burchett.)]

page 57 note b [“With 100 sail of transports, and that the men of war which convoyed them cruised between that river and Galway.” (Burchett.)]

page 57 note c [Kinsale. (Burchett.)]

page 59 note a [“If the French fleet was not at sea, or in such a station where prudently he could attack them.” (Burchett.)]

page 60 note a [The battle of Beachy Head was a consequence ; the Queen becoming the focus of personal intrigue, and issuing the orders to engage on the private and irresponsible representations of Russell himself, who ought at the time to have been with the fleet, as admiral of the blue squadron.

page 62 note a [This is not correct. Two ships, tie Coronation, a 2nd rate, and the Harwich, a 3rd rate, were lost, with the greater part of their men. (Burchett, 448–9 ; Home Office Records, Admiralty, No. 10.)]

page 62 note b [Nov. 12. Cf Parl. Hist. v. 657.]

page 63 note a [The cause and meaning of these orders have naturally been a fertile source of discussion in France. There seems little doubt that they sprang out of the ignorance and jealousy of M. de Pontchartrain, the Minister of the Nary at that time. See “M. le Bonrepaus et le disastre de la Hougue,” in Annuaire-Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de France (1877).]

page 64 note a [A pension of £200 per annum was settled on his widow, by Admiralty Minute, 9 Oct. 1692.]

page 66 note a [Monmouth, Capt. Pickard, and Resolution. (Burchett, 496.)]

page 68 note a [Cape de Palos and 17 July are in agreement with Burchett, 506, but not with the previous clause, “got into the Streights,” which is clearly a mistake. Cape de Gate was first written, but erased in favour of Cape Paul.]

page 68 note b [Baltasar, 5th Marquis of Camarasa, general of the galleys of Naples and Viceroy of Aragon. See Burgos, Blason de España, torn. ii. 129.]

page 68 note c This extreme care for the safety of the Turkey fleet must be referred to the terrible disaster which befell the Smyrna fleet in the previous year off Cape St. Vincent. (See Burchett, 485.)]

page 70 note a [Sc. Russell.]

page 73 note a [Hyères.]

page 73 note b [Sc. Evertsen.]

page 73 note c [Cape Savora.]

page 74 note a [About midway between Barcelona and Palamos.]

page 75 note a [? Colonge.]

page 75 note b [A few miles to the eastward.]

page 78 note a [Van der Goes.]

page 81 note a [Leake, afterwards Sir John, died, admiral of the fleet, 1720. According to Charnock (Biographia Navalis, ii. 169), Leake was recommended to the Earl of Pembroke by George Churchill, and the preference given to Byng may perhaps have had something to do with the grudge Churchill seems to have borne him.]

page 82 note a [Sc. George Churchill.]

page 82 note b [Sc. George Churchill.]

page 82 note c [Sc. Aylmer's.]

page 83 note a [Sc. Marlborough's.]

page 87 note a [This seems to be meant for Jean Bart, who had found a good deal of employment for the squadrons watching Dunkirk in the previous war. He died 27 April, 1702, N.S.]

page 88 note a [?Roches de Porsal.]

page 93 note a [Sir Thomas Hopsonn, knighted for this service on 29 Nov. 1702; a pension of £500 a year was settled on him, with a reversion of £300 to his wife if she survived him. He died 12 Oct. 1717. There is a fine portrait of him in the Painted Hall at Greenwich.]

page 93 note b [Capt. William Bokenham in the Association; the same ship in which Sir Cl. Shovell was lost five years afterwards.]

page 93 note c [Torbay, of 80 guns.]

page 95 note a [Cf. Burnet's History of his Own Time. Byng was not at Cadiz, and his evidence respecting it does not rest on his own judgment; but Rooke was a Tory, Byng had thrown in his lot with the Whigs, and the question of mismanagement was very much a matter of party.]

page 95 note b [Robert Hollyman.]

page 98 note a [Burchett, book V. chap. xiv. p. 646.]

page 102 note a [Norris, afterwards Sir John; died, admiral of the fleet, 1749.]

page 103 note a [7 miles west of Cape Noe.]

page 103 note b [The neighbourhood of Cape Milonia.]

page 107 note a [The town seems to have interpreted this salute differently; for in November, 1706, when Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Dilkes demanded a salute of 17 guns, the answer retnrned by the Grand Duke's Secretary of State was: “That the castle of Leghorn never saluted any flag under the degree of a vice-admiral, and therefore Sir Thomas Dilkes, being a rear-admiral only, had no right to expect it. As to the number of guns that Sir Cloudesley Shovell was content with, was ,11, and returned the same number.”—Charnock's Biog. Nav. ii. 251.]

page 108 note a [Pembroke, of 60 guns, Capt. Robert Arris, and Tartar, of 32 guns, Capt. John Cooper. In his memoir of Arris, Charnoek gives a very detailed account of the whole unfortunate business.—Biog. Nan. iii. 120.]

page 108 note b [William Scaley; commanded the Gloucester at Vigo in the previous year.]

page 109 note a [Sc. Shoyell..]

page 112 note a [Cf. Lane-Poole's Life of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, ii. 91.]

page 112 note b [Wager, afterwards Sir Charles, at this time Captain of the Hampton Court. In 1708 commodore in the West Indies, captured or destroyed the Spanish treasure fleet, to the value, it was said, of fifty millions of dollars. First lord of the Admiralty, 1733—1742; Treasurer of the Navy at his death in 1743. Monument in Westminster Abbey.]

page 112 note c [Baker, John; Captain of the Monmouth, died Vice-admiral and Commander in chief in the, Mediterranean in 1716. Monument in Westminster Abbey.]

page 113 note a [10 April, 1682. Cf. Hertslet's Treaties, i.58; Playfair's Scourge of Christendom, Chap. IX.]

page 115 note a [Sc. the Dey.]

page 118 note a [This was the celebrated Great Storm “Such as of late o'er pale Britannia parsed.”]

page 118 note b [Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Dilkes, died at Leghorn Dec. 1706. See ante, p. 107.]

page 118 note c [This was then the usual form.]

page 120 note a [Cf. Burton's Reign of Queen Anne, i. 104.]

page 121 note a [Louis Alexandra de Bourbon, Comte de Toulouse, legitimated son of Louis XIV. and Mine, de Montespan, born 1678 ; Admiral of France, 1683; in 1702 commanded a squadron on the coast of Sicily; Commander in Chief in the fleet of 1704, with the Comte d'Estrées as chief of the staff (see ante, p. 45); died 1737.]

page 123 note a [Burchett, p. 672.]

page 123 note b [The north-west point of Bretagtie. (Seller's Coasting Pilot).]

page 126 note a [The bay on the north side, between St. Julians and Belem.]

page 132 note a [Las Puercas, rocks off the town to the north.]

page 134 note a [George Delavall—a distant kinsman of Sir Ralph Delavall (ante, p. 45) was at this time in command of the 50-gun ship Tilbury. In 1718 rear-admiral of the white and commander in the 3rd post under Byng in the action of Cape Passaro: vice-admiral in 1722: killed by a fall from his horse in 1723.]

page 140 note a [Edward Whitaker, captain of the Dorsetshire, knighted for his services on this occasion. Died 1735. He is frequently confused with his brother Samuel, who commanded the Nottingham in this same squadron.]

page 141 note a [William Jumper, knighted for his service on this occasion. Died, resident commissioner of the navy at Plymouth, 1715.]

page 141 note b [Gaspar Hickes, captain of the Yarmouth, died in 1714: from the similarity of name, presumably the son of Gaspar Hiekes, vicar of Lanerake in Cornwall, died 1677 (Wood's Athen. Oxon., iii. 1107).]

page 142 note a [Sc. Whitaker's.]

page 142 note b [Robert Fairfax; Kerrill Roffey; James Mighells, nephew of Sir John Ashby; Edward Acton, slain in fight 1707.]

page 143 note a [Sc. Byng's.]

page 147 note a [8 or 10 miles to the east of Tetuan.]

page 148 note a [A carious correspondence as to Sir James Wishart's seniority is given by Charnock, Biog. Nov. ii. 301.]

page 148 note b [John Herne, of the 50-gun ship Centurion. After the battle of Malaga he was promoted to the Grafton, of 70 guns, in place of Sir Andrew Leake, who had been slain. Died at Lisbon in December, 1705.}

page 149 note a [Some 20 miles to the westward of Malaga.]

page 157 note a [No description in the MS. The list, being 41 English and 12 Dutch, is given by Lediard, p. 791.]

page 158 note a [Fore and main: the expression is unusual.]

page 159 note a [This must have been the Vainqueur, commanded by the Bailli de Lorraine, who was killed in the action. The French accounts do not mention the death of the captain.]

page 161 note a [At a court-martial held at Deptford on 8 Jan., 1704–5, to enquire into the reasons of several of the ships going out of the line during the engagement, the evidence as to two of them was peculiar. Captain Clevland of the Montagu had still 10 rounds for his lower tier, but “was wrongly informed by Lieutenant Lancaster who commanded that deck, and is since dead;” had the Admiral's permission to go out of the line. Captain Acton of the Kingston could not find any shot in the hold, having then water over the ballast. The gunner, since slain, said there was none, and by permission of the flag the Kingston drew out of the line. Afterwards, when they had freed the ship of the water, they found ten rounds. They were both acquitted. Minutes of the Court Martial, (Courts Martial, vol. 13).]

page 163 note a [The French loss seems fairly described by Troude, i. 254: cf. Brun, Guerres Maritimes de la France, i. 114.]

page 163 note b [To this list of officers killed Troude adds Belle-Isle and Phelypeaux.]

page 163 note c [John Cowe, of the Ranelagh, Byng's flag-captain, and Sir Andrew Leake, of the Grafton.]

page 164 note a [The arithmetic here is faulty. Burchett (p. 681) gives the number of men slain in Sir John Leake's division as 89, which brings the total slain to 687; but he makes the same mistake in the total killed and wounded. He puts the Dutch loss at 400.]

page 166 note a [tided.]

page 166 note b [The author seems here to have jumbled two men into one; the Chevalier Saint-Pol, who was at this time at Dunkirk or in the North Sea; and Du Guay Trouin, who really was in She Channel, and fell in with some of Byng's ships. See Laughton's Studies in Naval History, 317.]

page 169 note a [Blank in the MS., and the line of battle has no place in it.]

page 171 note a [To get a clear view of.]

page 172 note a [Runners : ships which sailed independently, i. e. without convoy; running through the enemy's cruisers or blockade, at their own risk, trusting to “a clean pair of heels.”]

page 173 note a [To have the waterline and just below it scrubbed and tallowed.]