UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH Uarlington Alemorial Library 2^ THE NAVAL GALLERY OF GREENWICH HOSPITAL; COMPRISING A SERIES OF PORTRAITS AND MEMOIRS OF CELEBRATED NAVAL COMMANDERS. BY EDWARD HAWKE LOCKER, Esq. F.R.S. F.S.A. ONE OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF THE INSTITUTION. HARDING AND LEPARD, MDCCCXXXI. LONDON: PRINTEP UY WILLIAM NICOL, AT THE TO THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY. SIRE, The accession of Your Majesty to the Throne of your Fathers, has opened the most cheering prospect to your subjects, and especially to those of the Honourable Profession in which during a course of active service in every successive rank, Your Majesty acquired that inti- mate knowledge of its true interests, which was applied with so much zeal and solicitude in the important station of Lord High Admiral. In an undertaking designed to do honour to the Royal Navy in which I have passed through a long and arduous service, I should have hesitated to submit it to a judgement so well skilled as Your Majesty's in Naval affairs, were I not encouraged by the gracious readiness with which your Royal Patronage was conferred on this Work, and in now laying it at Your Majesty's feet, I may be permitted thus publicly to express the profound gratitude for this distin- guished favour, which binds me with increased attachment to Your Majesty's service, as a loyal subject and faithful servant. EDWARD HAWKE LOCKER. Royal Hospital, Greenwich, January 1, 1831. Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2010 witii funding from University of Pittsburgii Library System littp://www.arcliive.org/details/navalgalleryofgrOOIock MEMOIRS OF CELEBRATED NAVAL COMMANDERS, ILLUSTRATED BV ENGRAVINGS FROM ORIGINAL PICTURES IN THE NAVAL GALLERY OF GREENWICH HOSPITAL, BY EDWARD HAWKE LOCKER, Esq. F.R.S. F.S.A. ONE OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF THE INSTITUTION. HARDING AND LEPARD. MDCCCXXXII. LONDON : PRINTED BY WILLIAM NICOL, AT THE ADVERTISEMENT. The Work here offered to the Pubhc has been curtailed of its fair proportion owing to the declining health of the Author, and other circumstances which have obliged him to hmit his labours to a single volume. The original plan would have extended it to at least four volumes ; and these Memoirs when chronologically ar- ranged, and illustrated by the whole series of Pictures in the Gallery of Greenwich Hospital, would have presented a connected history of the Royal Navy of England, in a biographical form. He much regrets that a design which promised so well, and which was prose- cuted with so hberal a spirit by his Pubhshers, should now be reduced to a selection of detached Memoirs, which perhaps will be read with interest only by those who are more or less connected with the persons and the transactions here recorded. But although the Author has been thus disappointed in his wish to complete the whole undertaking, he enjoys the higher satisfac- tion of having succeeded beyond his hopes in the formation of a Naval Gallery. His ancestors for some generations having served with honour in the Naval Profession, and being himself associated with it during the greater part of his life, he no sooner became officially connected with Greenwich Hospital, than he formed the design of founding there a Gallery of Paintings illustrative of the eminent services of the Royal Navy. In the year 1823, he accord- ingly proposed the scheme to the late Directors of the Institution, suggesting that the " Painted Hall," (originally erected as the Refec- tory of the Pensioners, but which had then remained unoccupied ADVERTISEMENT. nearly a century,) oiFered the most appropriate receptacle for a Collection of Paintings and Sculpture ; and after obtaining the con- current opinion of Sir Thomas Lawrence, Mr. Chantrey, and Mr. Smirke, as to the fitness of the building for this object, it was finally adopted. As the Institution at that time possessed only a few pic- tures, and its funds could not be employed in the pm-chase of Works of Art, he made great personal exertions to secure the success of the Gallery, by obtaining donations to the Collection, and so well succeeded, that within three years he had the gratification of seeing the walls covered with portraits of most of the distinguished Naval Commanders, and representations of their actions. Through the medium of his much-valued friend Lord Fam- borough, he had in the first instance submitted the plan of the Naval Gallery to his late Majesty King George the Fourth, who was pleased to entertain the proposition most graciously, and im- mediately commanded that the whole of the Naval Portraits in the Royal Palaces of Windsor and Hampton Court should be removed to Greenwich ; and in succeeding years, the King further contributed several valuable pictures from his private collection. To the effectual influence of Lord Farnborough, the Gallery was also indebted for four large historical paintings, recording the principal victories of the last war, which the Directors of the British Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts, ordered to be painted and pre- sented to the Naval Gallery. His Lordship, with many other liberal donors, following the munificent example of their late Sovereign, have presented all the pictures which have been since added to the Collection. The same spirit which prompted these donations will doubtless extend to others, and gradually enrich the Gallery with works still wanting to render it complete, especially historical subjects in ADVERTISEMENT. which it is chiefly defective. Many of our readers who are fami- liar with the annals of the British Navy, will have seen, in some of the private Collections of this country, works of great merit pecu- liarly appropriate to Greenwich Hospital, and though the proprietors of such pictures have not been persuaded to present them to this National Depository, we cannot doubt that Hberal patrons as well as able artists will hereafter be found to contribute other pictures, representing the most brilliant exploits of our seamen which have not hitherto been so commemorated, and that the Naval Gallery will thus become a splendid memorial of their services. Such a Collection cannot fail of attracting pubhc interest, and it deserves mention that not less than fifty thousand persons annually visit the Painted Hall, where the small fee required for admission now produces an amount which forms an important item in the Revenues of this Noble Institution. E. H. L. Oreenwick Hospital, 1st August, 1832. CONTENTS. 1. Charles Howard, Earl of Nottingham, K. G. Lord High Admiral. 2. Robert Blake, Admiral and General of the Parliament Forces. 3. George Monk, Duke of Albemarle, K. G. Lord General of the Forces by Land and Sea. 4. Edward Montague, First Earl of Sandwich, K. G. Lieutenant Admiral of England. 5. Sir George Rooke, Knt. Lieutenant Admiral of England. 6. Vice Admiral John Benbow. 7. Edward Russell, Earl of Orford, Admiral, First Commissioner of the Admiralty. 8. George Byng, Viscount Torrington, K. B. Admiral, First Commissioner of the Admiralty. 9. Edward, Lord Hawke, K. B. Admiral, First Commissioner of the Admiralty. 10. Sir Charles Saunders, K. B. Admiral, First Commissioner of the Admiralty. 11. Rear Admiral John Kempenfelt. 12. Alexander, Viscount Bridport, K. B. Admiral. 13. Captain James Cook. 14. Hon. Samuel Barrington, Admiral. 15. Cuthbert, Lord CoUingwood, Vice Admiral. 16. Lieutenant Governor William Locker. 17. The Harry Grace a Dieu, a first rate Ship, bearing King Henry VIIL to Calais, 1520. 18. The Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 1588. 19. The Victory off Ushant by Earl Howe, 1794. 20. The Victory off the Nile by Sir Horatio Nelson, 1798. CII.MM.l'.S IIOWAIv'l), I'.AIvM. Ol'' \()'ril.\(,ll.\M, 1\ (V |-\IN'CI'.l) i:V ZIII'IIKI;, I'KKSK.N'i'i'.ii Til i;i;i,i;\\\ nil iii isrri_\i. in iiis m\ii;siv kint, (ii-.dki^-. tiik fiu'ktii. IJHJ..11 J'ttl'Ux/iA/ iltif tja.K iff //an/dfty .t UfhirJ f\JI Mu/I t:u^t. CHARLES HOWARD, EARL OF NOTTINGHAM, K. G. LORD HIGH ADMIRAL OF ENGLAND. A T the period when this distinguished nobleman was raised to the supreme command of the Royal Navy of England, that Navy had as yet few of the characteristics of a regular service of arms. So often as the nation was threatened by foreign invasion, or was engaged in hostile expeditions against other states, the sovereigns who preceded Ehzabeth on the throne of England, levied contribu- tions of ships and seamen from their subjects. At that time the Cinque Ports of Hythe, Sandwich, Queenborough, Rye and Dover, facing the coast of France, possessed the most immediate commerce with foreign nations. London, Bristol, and Harwich indeed shared in this traffic, but Portsmouth and Plymouth were as yet little more than fishing towns ; and Liverpool, which now almost equals the Metropohs in the extent of its trade, was not called into existence for a century afterwards. On occasions of naval warfare, the prin- cipal maritime towns were required to fiirnish an established quota of vessels of suitable burthen, and of mariners to navigate them. The King appointed officers and soldiers to embark on board them for the sole duty of fighting the battle ; and at the conclusion of the service these troops were re-landed, and the ships being disarmed were restored to their owners, to be employed in the more peaceful occupations of commerce. The ships which actually were the pro- perty of the Crown were few in number, and maintained rather as a part of the royal state of the monarch, than for the protection of the realm. When he embarked in person, crews were hired to navigate them, and, while so employed, were paid and clothed as a part of the royal household.