Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth
The Viscount Exmouth | |
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Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath | |
Relations | Israel Pellew (brother) |
Childhood
Pellew was born at Dover, the second son of Samuel Pellew (1712–1764), commander of a Dover packet,[1] and his wife, Constantia Langford.[2]
The Pellew family was
On the death of Edward's father in 1764 the family removed to Penzance, and Pellew was educated for some years at Truro Grammar School.[1][3] He was a pugnacious youth, which did not endear him to his headmaster. He ran away to sea at the age of 14, but soon deserted because of unfair treatment to another midshipman. Pellew described himself as "pock-marked, ugly, uninteresting and uneducated"; a naval historian adds that he was "tough, brave, skilful, lucky, and unscrupulous".[4]
Early career
1770s
In 1770, Pellew entered the
He was later in
He returned to England and was promoted on 9 January 1778 to be lieutenant of the Princess Amelia guardship at Portsmouth. He wanted to be appointed to a seagoing ship, but Lord Sandwich considered that he was bound by the terms of the surrender at Saratoga not to undertake any active service. Towards the end of the year, he was appointed to the Licorne which went out to Newfoundland in the spring of 1779, returning in the winter, when Pellew was moved into the Apollo with his old captain Pownoll. On 15 June 1780, the Apollo engaged a large French privateer, the Stanislaus, off Ostend. Pownoll was killed by a musket-shot, but Pellew continued the action and dismasted the Stanislaus, driving her on shore where she was protected by the neutrality of the coast. On the 18th, Lord Sandwich wrote to him: "I will not delay informing you that I mean to give you immediate promotion as a reward for your gallant and officer-like conduct." On 1 July, he was accordingly promoted to the command of the sloop Hazard, which was employed for the next six months on the east coast of Scotland and was then paid off.
Peacetime service
In March 1782 Pellew was appointed to the
From 1786 to 1789, he commanded the frigate
The Russians offered him a command in the Russian navy but Pellew declined the offer. He was still struggling with the difficulties of his farm when the revolutionary government of France declared war on Great Britain on 1 February 1793.
Wartime service
Pellew immediately applied for a ship and was appointed to the Nymphe, a 36-gun frigate which he fitted out in a remarkably short time. He had expected a good deal of difficulty in manning her and had enlisted some 80 Cornish miners who were sent round to the ship at Spithead. He put to sea with these and about a dozen seamen, plus officers who were obliged to help in the work aloft. He filled his complement of crew by pressing from the merchant ships in the Channel, but with very few seasoned navy men. On 18 June, Nymphe sailed from Falmouth on the news that two French frigates had been seen in the Channel.
At the
Pellew transferred to HMS Arethusa in December 1793. In 1794, Arethusa was part of the western squadron of frigates based at Falmouth under Sir John Borlase Warren. On 23 April, the squadron engaged a French squadron to the southwest of Guernsey, the stronger British force quickly overpowering their opponents in an action where Arethusa played the primary role in fighting the Pomone, at the time the largest frigate in service. Pomone surrendered after an engagement that lasted less than half an hour. The French had suffered between 80 and 100 casualties; Arethusa had only three dead and five wounded. Warren's squadron went on to destroy one frigate and capture another. They also drove ashore the corvettes Alerte and Espion, both of which had been Royal Navy sloops. Pellew refused to burn either ship, as they contained wounded men, and the French later refloated Espion. The squadron also captured many vessels from French coastal convoys.
Service in the French Revolutionary War
By 1794, he was commodore of the Western Frigate Squadron. In 1795, he took command of HMS Indefatigable, the ship with which he is most closely associated. The squadron also comprised the frigates HMS Argo, HMS Concord, HMS Révolutionnaire, and HMS Amazon.[5]
He was a good swimmer and noted for saving the lives of several seamen who had fallen overboard. The most striking life-saving event was on 26 January 1796 when the
On 13 April 1796, off the coasts of Ireland, his squadron captured the French frigate Unité, and the Virginie nine days later.
His most noted action was the
Pellew was also responsible for pressing young violinist and composer Joseph Antonio Emidy who had been playing in the Lisbon Opera orchestra.
Admiralcy and peerage
Pellew was promoted to rear admiral in 1804. He was then appointed
When in February 1808 Pellew was at sea in his flagship, HMS Culloden, he heard of the outbreak of war between the United Kingdom and Denmark. He immediately sailed to the Danish settlement at Tranquebar, taking it by surprise. When Admiral Drury arrived to replace Pellew as C-in-C, East Indies, and to seize Tranquebar, he found that he was too late. Pellew's seizing the moment gained him some £40,000–50,000 in prize money.[7]
Following his return from the east in 1809, he was appointed to the position of Commander-in-Chief, North Sea from 1810 to 1811[8] and Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean, from 1811 to 1814,[1] and again from 1815 to 1816.[9]
He bought Bitton House in Teignmouth in 1812 and it was his home until his death in 1833. He was buried in Christow on the eastern edge of Dartmoor on 30 Jan 1833. A note on the parish burial record states, "No Singing, No Sermon". The museum in Teignmouth has a comprehensive collection of artefacts that belonged to him.[11]
Marriage and family
On 28 May 1783, Pellew married Susan Frowde.[1] They had four sons and two daughters. These children were:[12]
- Emma Mary Pellew (18 January 1785 – March 1835). Married Captain Lawrence Halsted in December 1803.
- Pownoll Bastard Pellew, later 2nd Viscount Exmouth (1 July 1786 – 2 December 1833)
- Julia Pellew (28 November 1787 – 26 December 1831)
- Fleetwood Broughton Reynolds Pellew, later an admiral and knight (13 December 1789 – 28 July 1861)
- George Pellew, Dean of Norwich (3 April 1793 – 13 October 1866)
- Edward William Pellew, later a minister (3 November 1799 – 29 August 1869), whose daughter Frances Helen Pellew married Sir Louis Mallet[13]
Geographical namesakes
The Sir Edward Pellew Group of Islands situated in the Gulf of Carpentaria were named after Pellew by Matthew Flinders, who visited them in 1802. Other Australian geographical features include Cape Pellew (adjacent to the islands) and Exmouth Gulf.
Point Pellew, Alaska was named after Pellew by Captain George Vancouver during his expedition in 1794.[14]
There is also a building named after him in HMS Raleigh, where Naval basic training is conducted, that is used as sleeping quarters for new recruits. Additionally, a Sea Cadet Unit in Truro is called T.S. Pellew.
A building at Wyvern Barracks in Exeter, Devon is used as a temporary billet and a training facility for the Army Cadet force as well as other units. It was handed over to the army from the navy. However, it retains the name Pellew House in memory of Sir Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth.
Fictional appearances
Pellew is featured as the Captain of
Arms
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Notes
- ^ required.)
- ^ "Samuel Pellew (1712–1765)". Ancestry.com. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
- ^ Nicholas Carlisle, A concise description of the endowed grammar schools in England, vol. 1 (1818), p. 151
- ^ The Command of the Ocean. A naval history of Britain 1649-1815. Nicholas A. M. Rodger. Penguin, 2006, p. 386.
- ^ Campagnes, thriomphes, revers, désastres et guerres civiles des Français de 1792 à la paix de 1856, F. Ladimir et E. Moreau. Librairie Populaire des Villes et des Campagnes, 1856 Tome 5, pp.42-43
- ^ Moseley, Brian (11 January 2011). "The "Dutton" and Captain Edward Pellew". The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History. Archived from the original on 28 September 2013. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
- ^ "Sunday's Post". Bury and Norwich Post: Or, Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, and Ely Advertiser (Bury Saint Edmunds, England),16 August 1809; Issue 1416.
- ^ A New Biographical Dictionary, of 3000 Cotemporary Public Characters, British and Foreign, of All Ranks and Professions. G. B. Whittaker. 1835. p. 36.
- ^ Parkinson, pp. 417, 470.
- ^ "Dix Noonan Webb". Dnw.co.uk. 12 June 1991. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
- ^ "Teignmouth & Shaldon Museum". Devonmuseums.net. 2006. Archived from the original on 2 May 2008. Retrieved 2 December 2007.
- ^ Lodge, Edmund (1844). The Peerage of the British Empire as at Present Existing. London: Saunders and Otley. p. 216.
and Burke's Peerage (99th ed.). 1949. p. 732., for dates of death that occurred after Lodge was published. - ^ "Frances Helen Pellew (1835–1917)". Ancestry.com. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
- ^ Orth, Donald J., "Dictionary of Alaska Place Names", page 747, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1967.
- ^ Burke's Peerage. 1838.
References
- Adkins, Roy; Adkins, Lesley (2007). The War for All Oceans. London: Abacus. ISBN 978-0-349-11916-8.
- Mahan, A.T. (1902) "Pellew: The Frigate Captain and Partisan Officer" in: Types of Naval Officers: drawn from the history of the British Navy; Chapter VII. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, Available on Project Gutenberg– accessed 10 June 2007
- Osler, Edward (1854) Life of Admiral Viscount Exmouth. London: Geo. Routledge & Co., 235 p., Available on Project Gutenberg – accessed 10 June 2007
- Parkinson, C. Northcote (1934) Edward Pellew, Viscount Exmouth, Admiral of the Red. London: Methuen & Co., 478 p.
- Taylor, Stephen (2012) Commander: The Life and Exploits of Britain's Greatest Frigate Captain, Faber
External links
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Viscount Exmouth
- Edward Pellew (1757–1833) at Three Decks - Warships in the Age of Sail.
- Hutchinson, John (1892). . Men of Kent and Kentishmen (Subscription ed.). Canterbury: Cross & Jackman. pp. 99–100.
- Royal Naval Biography. Vol. 1, part 1. 1823. pp. 209–228. .
- Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 10 (11th ed.). 1911. pp. 73–73. .
- Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth Wikipedia audio article on YouTube