Hugh Cloberry Christian

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Hugh Cloberry Christian
Cape of Good Hope Station
Battles/wars
AwardsKnight Companion of the Order of the Bath

Sir Hugh Cloberry Christian

American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary Wars
.

Details of his early life are obscure, but he appears to have served initially in the

American War of Independence
.

Returning to Britain at the end of the war, he spent a period without active employment, before receiving a post as second captain aboard

Spanish Armament. He temporarily left her when the crisis abated, but the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars led to his return to Queen Charlotte. Christian stepped down from her in 1794 to join the Transport Board
, and in 1795 was promoted to rear-admiral.

He was made commander-in-chief in the

Saint Vincent and Grenada, before returning to England. He was made second in command at the Cape of Good Hope
in 1797, succeeding to commander-in-chief the following year, and he died while in command there in November 1798.

Family and early life

Christian, descended from residents of the Isle of Man, was born at Hook Norton, Oxfordshire in 1747.[1] His father, Thomas Christian, was a captain with his own privateer, whilst his mother, Anne Penny was a poet.[2] He followed his father into the navy in 1761, spending time in the English Channel and the Mediterranean, but few details of his early service survive, other than that he took his lieutenant's examination in 1767, and received his commission on 21 January 1771.[3][4] He married Ann Leigh, resident of the Isle of Wight on 6 March 1775, and was promoted to master and commander in 1778.[3]

American War of Independence

Christian received a further promotion to

Joshua Rowley.[3][4] Rowley sailed from Spithead on 25 December in command of a squadron of seven ships of the line, which was part of the fleet under the overall command of Lord Shuldham escorting the trade convoys to the colonies. Rowley and the Suffolk were assigned to the West Indies-bound convoy.[4][5] The Suffolk arrived in the Leeward Islands on 12 February 1779, and Christian remained with Rowley in the West Indies, serving with Vice-Admiral John Byron at the Battle of Grenada on 6 July 1779.[3] Christian led the van of the British attack, and the Suffolk lost seven killed and 25 wounded.[3][5] Byron returned to England after this, being replaced by Rear-Admiral Hyde Parker, with Rowley retaining Suffolk as his flagship.[5] Towards the end of 1779 intelligence reached Parker that three French ships had been sighted from Morne Fortune, sailing northward. Parker sent Rowley to intercept them, and after chasing them for several hours, all three were captured.[5] They were revealed to be the 42-gun Fortunée, the 36-gun Blanche and the 28-gun Ellis, with all three being added to the Royal Navy.[5]

Christian was again in action on 18 December, helping to capture and destroy a large French convoy off

Battle of St. Kitts on 25 and 26 January 1782, attached to the centre division.[4][6] He was still with Rodney's fleet when the Battle of the Saintes was fought against the Comte de Grasse on 9 to 12 April 1782.[4][6]

End of the war

Christian sailed north from

Spanish Armament in 1790, when he is recorded as being appointed as second captain aboard Lord Howe's flagship, the 100-gun HMS Queen Charlotte.[3][6][8] The easing of tensions meant that Queen Charlotte was paid off at the end of the year, and Christian again found himself without a ship.[6]

French Revolutionary Wars

The outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in early 1793 provided Christian with further employment. Queen Charlotte was recommissioned, and he again became her second captain, still under Lord Howe.[3][6] He stepped down from his post in August the following year, becoming a commissioner of the Transport Board, and on 1 June 1795 he was advanced to rear-admiral of the blue.[3][9] He was then appointed commander-in-chief of the Leeward Islands Station in 1796,[10] and was instructed to take a fleet out with a convoy of transports, carrying soldiers for operations against the French and Dutch colonies there.[9] He duly hoisted his flag aboard the 98-gun HMS Prince George and assembled his squadron and the transports, numbering over two hundred merchants carrying 16,000 men, and making up the largest troop convoy to leave England to that date.[3][9][11]

Attempts to cross the Atlantic

The fleet did not leave Spithead until 16 November, the departure having been delayed until late in the season.[4][9] The delay proved disastrous: two days after departing, a westerly gale blew up, dispersing the fleet and driving the ships back to port. Several of the merchantmen were wrecked with heavy loss of life; over 200 bodies washed up on the coastline between Portland and Bridport.[3][9]

Christian shifted his flag to the 90-gun

Saint Vincent and Grenada.[14][16]

Later years

Christian was succeeded as commander in the West Indies by Rear-Admiral

Cape of Good Hope Station later in the year and duly sailed to take up the post on the 44-gun HMS Virginie.[16][17] He succeeded Admiral Thomas Pringle as the station commander in 1798,[18] but died on 23 November that year at the age of 51.[15] His wife, who had been seriously ill for sometime, died two months later, without having heard of her husband's death.[15][17] Hugh Cloberry Christian had been created a peer, and chose the title of Lord Ronaldsway to honour his ancestor, Manx politician Illiam Dhone, but died before the patent reached him.[1][15] He was buried at the Cape.[17] He and his wife had two sons and three daughters; one son, Hood Hanway Christian, became a Rear Admiral.[15]

Notes

  1. ^ a b Stewart. Admirals of the world: a biographical dictionary, 1500 to the present. p. 66.
  2. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/5357. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Tracy. Who's who in Nelson's Navy. p. 74.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g "Christian, Sir Hugh Cloberry (1747-1798)". Dictionary of National Biography. 1888. p. 278.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Campbell. Naval history of Great Britain. p. 246.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Campbell. Naval history of Great Britain. p. 247.
  7. ^ Winfield. British Warships of the Age of Sail: 1714–1792. p. 215.
  8. ^ Winfield. British Warships of the Age of Sail: 1714–1792. p. 8.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Campbell. Naval history of Great Britain. p. 248.
  10. ^ Haydn, Joseph (13 June 2008). The Book of Dignities: Containing Lists of the Official Personages of the British Empire ... from the Earliest Periods to the Present Time ... Together with the Sovereigns and Rulers of Europe, from the Foundation of Their Respective States; the Peerage of England and Great Britain Original 1851 Digitized by the University of Michigan. Longmans, Brown, Green, and Longmans. p. 279.
  11. ^ Winfield. British Warships of the Age of Sail: 1714–1792. p. 22.
  12. ^ Winfield. British Warships of the Age of Sail: 1714–1792. p. 24.
  13. ^ Richardson. A Mariner of England. p. 127.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g Campbell. Naval history of Great Britain. p. 249.
  15. ^ a b c d e Tracy. Who's who in Nelson's Navy. p. 75.
  16. ^ a b c d e "Christian, Sir Hugh Cloberry (1747-1798)". Dictionary of National Biography. 1888. p. 279.
  17. ^ a b c Campbell. Naval history of Great Britain. p. 250.
  18. ^ Hiscocks, Richard (17 January 2016). "Cape Commander-in-Chief 1795-1852". morethannelson.com. Retrieved 19 November 2016.

References

Military offices
Preceded by Commander-in-Chief, Leeward Islands Station
1796 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Commander-in-Chief, Cape of Good Hope Station

1798 		Succeeded by
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