Robert Holmes (Royal Navy officer)
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (December 2021) |
Charles Duncombe | |
---|---|
Personal details | |
Born | 1622 |
Died | 18 November 1692 | (aged 69–70)
Nationality | |
Sir Robert Holmes (c. 1622 – 18 November 1692) was an
Holmes is chiefly remembered for his exploits on the cruise to
The Interregnum
Military beginnings
Born in or about 1622 the son of Henry Holmes,
He first appears in 1643 on the
When in 1648 a part of the fleet went over to the exiled king, Holmes (now an army captain), following Maurice and Rupert, came into his first contact with the navy. He participated in the epic cruise of the Royalist fleet of 1649 – 1652 to
Subsequently, Cromwell's intelligence service reports Holmes having obtained a privateer commission from the King of Spain (Thurloe State Papers VII, p. 248, 18 July 1658. N.S.), although the total absence of other evidence makes his actually setting out as a privateer improbable. He may, like other Royalist, and notably Irish, officers, have taken up service with the Imperial army. His epitaph in Yarmouth gives France, Flanders and Germany as scenes of military exploits. Immediately before the Restoration, Holmes acted as a courier between Charles II and Edward Montagu, by whose commission he obtained his first command in the navy, the Medway guardship Bramble.
Restoration Officer
Upon Charles II's return to England, Holmes was rewarded for his services with the captaincy of
The first African expedition
The reports Rupert had brought back from the Gambia of a "Mountain of Gold" just waiting there to be carried off to England, prompted the Royal African Company, whose director was the Duke of York (and whose paperwork was carried out by William Coventry) to launch an expedition to the Guinea Coast, then mostly in Dutch hands. Holmes, acquainted with this coast, was the man for this venture, and was appointed captain of the flagship, Henrietta and a squadron of four other of the King's ships: Sophia, Amity, Griffin, and Kinsale. His orders (drafted by Coventry) were to assist the company's factors in every way conceivable and to construct a fort. Privately, he was instructed to gather intelligence as to the expected "Mountain of Gold".
The results of the expedition were ambiguous. Touching at
The expedition was the turning point in Holmes's career. He had shown himself equal to dealing with Africans, company factors, the Dutch and his own men and officers alike, recommending himself as a prudent leader. He consequently was appointed captain of the
The second African expedition
The objectives of the famous 1664 Guinea expedition are unclear. Although Holmes was charged with exceeding his orders by capturing Dutch forts and ships there, Coventry talks of a "game" that was to be started there, which can only mean an Anglo-Dutch war (Bath MSS. CII, ff. 3-13). Holmes's orders, again drafted by Coventry and signed by James, were to 'promote the Interests of the Royall Company' in HMS Jersey and to 'kill, take, sink or destroy such as shall oppose you' (Bath MSS. XCV, ff.3-5) - especially the Goulden Lyon of
The reason for the charges against Holmes was that his success exceeded even the most unreasonable expectations, and that he was, diplomatically, a convenient scapegoat (a fact of which he seems to have been aware). In sight of the Dutch base at Gorée he took the West Indiaman Brill on 27 December 1663. Stirring up the Portuguese, Africans, and even such Dutch merchants as had a grudge against the WIC, he sank 2 ships and captured 2 others under the guns of Gorée (22 January 1664), and the next day took possession of the fort itself. On 28 March, in a tactically cunning action, he took Goulden Lyon meanwhile named Walcheren (taken into the Royal Navy as a fourth-rate).
On 10 April, he captured Anta Castle on the
In August, Michiel de Ruyter had clandestinely been sent to undo what Holmes had achieved. De Ruyter recaptured everything Holmes had conquered, except for Cape Coast Castle, which meant that after 1664, the English were on that coast to stay.
His return to England was desultory, as he tried to make out the repercussions his actions had evoked in London. Since he commanded navy ships, everything he had taken was not automatically the company's property, but would have to be cleared by
The Second Dutch War
Barely a month after his release and full pardon, Holmes assumed command of
On 27 March 1666, the powerful new third-rate Defiance (64) was launched in the presence of Charles II, James and Rupert, Holmes having been appointed captain and being knighted on the occasion. Part of the red squadron, Holmes was finally given acting flag-rank when the fleet was divided to shadow the Dutch and simultaneously intercept the French (which put him, satisfyingly, one step above Harman, rear-admiral of the white - a slighting of the principle of seniority which would have been unthinkable at the end of the century).
During the murderous
On 9 August 1666, Holmes achieved his best-known feat, characteristically (and, to Pepys and Coventry, exasperatingly) using his own judgement in interpreting his orders. Holmes was to land five hundred men on the island of
This, Holmes's Bonfire, was the heaviest blow the English ever dealt Dutch merchant shipping, severely endangering the Netherlands' war effort, at the cost of no more than twelve English casualties. Holmes now was in high favour. Early in 1667 he was appointed to command a squadron based in Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight, a lucrative appointment that even enabled him to fit one of the squadron's prizes as a privateer. In April 1667, he was commissioned a captain in the 2nd Regiment of Foot Guards, which he resigned before 1670.[3]
As early as December 1666, Pepys had commented on Holmes's stubborn opposition to the laying-up of the fleet in expectation of peace. Holmes was alive to the danger of a Dutch assault - which duly came on 10 June 1667, when Michiel de Ruyter during the Raid on the Medway entered the Medway, burned a large part of the fleet in ordinary (i.e. laid up) at Chatham and hijacked Royal Charles.
After that year's campaign had ended, Parliament's interest in naval administration intensified, much to Pepys's and Coventry's distress. Rupert and Albemarle, like most naval officers, especially of the
In addition, Holmes, in the winter of 1666/1667, had revived the quarrel with Sir Jeremiah Smith (possibly even fighting a duel with him), which only ended when the latter took
After peace was concluded, Holmes intensified his hold in the Isle of Wight by buying the governorship from
In addition, in October 1669, he was elected
The Third Dutch War
Among the preparations for provoking the Dutch into yet another war, was the appointment of Holmes as senior officer in Portsmouth, commanding a powerful squadron and the flagship St Michael, a first-rate of 90 guns. Holmes immediately pressed for the capture of a large number of Dutch ships, using English harbours under foreign colours; but the government procrastinated until the opportunity was gone.
On 23 March 1672, he finally got permission to attack the homeward-bound Dutch
After the end of the 1672 campaign, Holmes did not get another command, notwithstanding the constant intercession on his behalf of the new commander-in-chief, his stout friend Prince Rupert. Obviously, the King himself had no desire to re-employ him. Holmes's naval career had very abruptly ended.
Life in "retirement"
A stout supporter of his lifelong employers, the royal brothers, it is unclear why Holmes should have associated with Monmouth; at the centre of the question may lie the shady Irish financier Lemuel Kingdon, who sat for Newtown and Yarmouth together with Holmes's brother, John.
On 21 August 1687,
While the English fleet lay becalmed off Beachy Head and William III landed his forces at Torbay, Holmes wrestled with his mutinous militia. While James had fled his capital on 11 December (an action Parliament took as his relinquishing the throne) and one day later, the commander-in-chief, Sir George Legge, Lord Dartmouth brought the fleet over to William, it was not before 17 December that Holmes surrendered.
He continued as governor of the Isle of Wight, although he was occasionally suspected of Jacobite conspiracy. But such reservations as he had against the overthrow of James II stemmed from the loyalty of a military professional, and after his vote in parliament against the accession of William and Mary was defeated, he served them with the same determination as he had the Stuart kings. Although his health was now rapidly giving out and he had to spend more and more time of the year in Bath, the threat of French invasions in 1690 and 1692 made him hurry back to his post as swiftly as ever.
Family
Holmes died on 18 November 1692,[4] leaving one illegitimate daughter and heiress, Mary Holmes (born 1678). Her mother is believed to have been Grace Hooke,[5] a niece of the famous scientist Robert Hooke.
As had been her father's wish, Mary married
Genealogy
- Henry Holmes of Mallow, Cork, Ireland
- Colonel Thomas Holmes of Kilmallock, Limerick, Ireland
- Henry Holmes (c. 1660–1738) m. Mary Holmes (daughter of Admiral Sir Robert Holmes)
- Thomas Holmes, 1st Baron Holmes (1699–1764)
- Lieutenant General Henry Holmes (1703–62)
- Rear Admiral Charles Holmes (1711–1761)
- Elizabeth Holmes m. Thomas Troughear
- Leonard (Troughear) Holmes, 1st Baron Holmes (c. 1732–1804) m. Elizabeth Tyrrell (d. 1810)
- The Hon. Elizabeth Holmes m. Edward Rushout
- Descendants
- The Hon. Elizabeth Holmes m. Edward Rushout
- Leonard (Troughear) Holmes, 1st Baron Holmes (c. 1732–1804) m. Elizabeth Tyrrell (d. 1810)
- Henry Holmes (c. 1660–1738) m. Mary Holmes (daughter of Admiral Sir Robert Holmes)
- Admiral Sir Robert Holmes (c. 1622–1692), English Admiral
- Mary Holmes (wife of Henry Holmes)
- Lucretia Holmes m. William Sewell
- Lucretia Sewell m. Edward Hingston of Devon
- William Hingston (d. 2 Nov 1854 Buffalo, New York) m. Jane Carroll
- Samuel Hingston m. Anna Anderson
- Anna Eliza Hingston m. William Roggen Lansing of Rochester, New York, son of William van Kleeck Lansing of Albany, ancestor of the Lansing family of Rochester.
- Descendants, to include members of the MacCarthy Reagh dynasty and the Lord of the Manor of Didderston.[6][7]
- Anna Eliza Hingston m. William Roggen Lansing of Rochester, New York, son of William van Kleeck Lansing of Albany, ancestor of the Lansing family of Rochester.
- Samuel Hingston m. Anna Anderson
- William Hingston (d. 2 Nov 1854 Buffalo, New York) m. Jane Carroll
- Lucretia Sewell m. Edward Hingston of Devon
- Lucretia Holmes m. William Sewell
- Mary Holmes (wife of Henry Holmes)
- Admiral Sir John Holmes (1640?–1683), English Admiral leader
- Colonel Thomas Holmes of Kilmallock, Limerick, Ireland
References
- ^ C. H. Wilson, ‘Who captured New Amsterdam?’, The English Historical Review, 72 (1957), 469–474.
- ^ The Dutch Raid on the Medway, Samuel Pepys, 1667.
- ^ Mackinnon, Daniel (1833). Origin and Services of the Coldstream Guards. Vol. II. London: Richard Bentley. pp. 460–461.
- ^ Reported as dead by October 4 in a contemporary source – Newdigate family collection of newsletters L.c.2111: Newsletter received by Richard Newdigate, Arbury, 1692 October 4 (held in Folger Shakespeare Library)
- ^ "The Tragedy of Robert Hooke's Brother".
- ^ “Public Member Trees,” database, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 7 July 2022), “McCarthy-Leader Family” family tree, profile for Sir Robert Holmes Governor of the Isle of Wight (1622–1692).
- ^ "About". 28 February 2012.
- Richard Ollard: Man of War. Sir Robert Holmes and the Restoration Navy. London 1969
- J.D. Davies: Gentlemen and Tarpaulins. The Officers and Men of the Restoration Navy. OUP 1991