Captain Josias Roberts (1755-24 April 1795), was a British naval officer who fought in the American Revolutionary War and the campaigns in Grenada and Martinique.
Captain Josias Roberts (1755-24 April 1795), was a British naval officer who fought in the American Revolutionary War and the campaigns in Grenada and Martinique.
Born at Lymington, Hampshire, Rogers' father seems to have had a large interest in the local salterns. In October 1771 he entered the Royal Navy on board the fifth-rate HMS Arethusa (1759) with Captain (afterwards Sir) Andrew Hamond, whom he followed to HMS Roebuck in 1775. In March 1776 he was sent away in charge of a prize taken in Delaware Bay, and, being driven on shore in a gale, fell into the hands of the American enemy. He was carried, with much rough treatment, into the interior, and detained for upwards of a year, when he succeeded in making his escape, and, after many dangers and adventures, in getting on board his ship, which happened to be at the time lying in the Delaware River. For the next fifteen or eighteen months he was very actively employed in Roebuck's boats or tenders, capturing or burning small vessels lurking in the creeks along the North American coast, or landing on foraging expeditions. On 19 October 1778 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, and after serving in several different ships, and distinguishing himself at the Siege of Charleston, South Carolina in May 1780, on 2 December 1780, he was promoted to the command of HMS General Monk, a prize fitted out as a sloop of war with eighteen guns. After commanding her for sixteen months, in which time he took or assisted in taking more than sixty of the enemy's ships, on 7 April 1782 General Monk, while chasing six small privateers round Cape May, got on shore, and was captured after a stout defence, in which the lieutenant and master were killed and Rogers himself severely wounded. He was shortly afterwards exchanged, and arrived in England in September, still suffering from his wound. From 1783 to 1787 he commanded HMS Speedy in the North Sea, on anti-smuggling operations, and from her, on 1 December 1787, he was advanced to post rank.
In 1790 Rogers was flag captain to Sir John Jervis (afterwards Earl of St. Vincent) in the second-rate HMS Prince. In 1793 he was appointed to the fifth-rate frigate HMS Quebec, and in her, after a few months in the North Sea and off Dunkirk, he joined the fleet which went out with Jervis to the West Indies. He served with distinction at the reduction of Martinique and Guadeloupe in March and April 1794, and was afterwards sent in command of a squadron of frigates to take Cayenne in French Guiana. One of the frigates, however, was lost, two others parted company, and the remainder of his force was unequal to the attempt. In May 1794, along with Robert Faulknor in HMS Blanche and two other ships, Rogers took the Saints from the French. [1] He then rejoined the admiral at a time when yellow fever was raging in the fleet, and Quebec, having suffered severely, was sent to Halifax, Nova Scotia. By the beginning of the following year she was back in the West Indies and was under orders for home, when, at Grenada, where he was conducting the defence of the town against an insurrection of the slaves, he died of yellow fever on 24 April 1795. He was married and left children; his second daughter Augusta Louise (1791–1852) married Edmund Lyons, 1st Baron Lyons on 18 July 1814 at Southwick, Hampshire. [2]
After his death Rogers' widow erected a plaque in his memory at the Church of St Thomas the Apostle, Lymington. [3]
Admiral Sir William Cornwallis, was a Royal Navy officer. He was the brother of Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, British commander at the siege of Yorktown. Cornwallis took part in a number of decisive battles including the siege of Louisbourg in 1758, when he was 14, and the Battle of the Saintes but is best known as a friend of Lord Nelson and as the commander-in-chief of the Channel Fleet during the Napoleonic Wars. He is depicted in the Horatio Hornblower novel, Hornblower and the Hotspur.
Admiral Sir George Bowyer, 5th and 1st Baronet, was a Royal Navy officer and politician of the eighteenth century. He participated in the Seven Years' War, fighting at the Battle of Minorca, Raid on Rochefort, and Siege of Louisbourg as a junior officer. Promoted to commander in 1761 his first command, the cutter HMS Swift, was captured by the French in June of the following year. Acquitted by his subsequent court martial, Bowyer was promoted to post-captain in October 1762.
Captain Charles John Moore Mansfield (1760–1813) was a British naval officer who served in the Royal Navy during the American Revolutionary War, the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars. Unlike many of his dashing companions of this period, Mansfield is notable for his reticent social life which contrasted sharply with his dashing and action-filled military career.
HMS Zebra was a 16-gun Zebra-class sloop of the Royal Navy, launched on 31 August 1780 at Gravesend. She was the second ship to bear the name. After twenty years of service, including involvement in the West Indies campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars, she was converted into a bomb vessel in 1798. In this capacity she took part in attacks on French ports, and was present at both battles of Copenhagen. The Navy sold her in 1812.
Robert Faulknor the younger (1763–1795) was an 18th-century Royal Navy officer, part of the Faulknor naval dynasty. He was court-martialled and died in an action off Guadeloupe in the eastern Caribbean Sea.
HMS Alarm was a 32-gun fifth-rate Niger-class frigate of the Royal Navy, and was the first Royal Navy ship to bear this name. She was built at King's Yard in Harwich by John Barnard.
Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Thompson, 1st Baronet was a British Royal Navy officer. After long service in the Seven Years' War, American Revolutionary War and French Revolutionary Wars, he was second in command at the battle of Cape St Vincent. However, his disregard for Sir John Jervis' signal to tack to counter a Spanish attacking move nearly lost the battle, and began an enmity with Jervis that eventually led to Thompson's retirement. From 1796 to 1799 he was also MP for Monmouth.
Admiral of the Fleet Sir James Hawkins-Whitshed, 1st Baronet,, was a Royal Navy officer. He saw action in command of a sloop at the Battle of Martinique during the American Revolutionary War. He went on to serve under Sir John Jervis in the Mediterranean and took part in the battle of Cape St. Vincent during the French Revolutionary Wars.
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William Prowse CB was an officer of the Royal Navy, who saw service during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Rising from humble origins and joining the navy as an able seaman, he had a highly active career, serving under some of the most famous naval commanders of the age of sail, and participating in some of their greatest victories. He was at Grenada and Martinique under Byron and Rodney, the Glorious First of June under Howe; and commanded ships at Cape St Vincent under Jervis, Cape Finisterre under Calder and Trafalgar under Nelson. He finished his career by serving with distinction in the Mediterranean, and died with the rank of Rear-Admiral.
Vice-Admiral Thomas Pringle was a British officer of the Royal Navy. He served during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
Sir James Athol Wood CB, was an officer of the Royal Navy. After serving on merchant ships for the East India Company from a young age, he entered the Royal Navy in 1774. Wood served in the navy for almost his whole life, and took part in several of the wars fought by Kingdom of Great Britain throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth century. During his career he was involved in several personal conflicts and feuds, which resulted in him being the subject of two courts-martial.
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HMS Roebuck was a fifth-rate ship of the Royal Navy which served in the American and French Revolutionary Wars. Designed in 1769 by Sir Thomas Slade to operate in the shallower waters of North America, she joined Lord Howe's squadron towards the end of 1775 and took part in operations against New York the following year. She engaged the American gun batteries at Red Hook during the Battle of Long Island in August 1776, and forced a passage up the Hudson River in October. On 25 August 1777, Roebuck escorted troopships to Turkey Point, Maryland, where an army was landed for an assault on Philadelphia. She was again called upon to accompany troopships in December 1779, this time for an attack on Charleston. When the ships-of-the-line, which were too large to enter the harbour, were sent back to New York, Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot made Roebuck his flagship. She was, therefore, at the front of the attack, leading the British squadron across the shoal to engage Fort Moultrie and the American ships beyond.
Velters Cornewall Berkeley was an officer in the Royal Navy. He served in both the American and French Revolutionary Wars but never rose above the rank of Captain. He died at his home in Oxford in 1804, aged 50.
Samuel Campbell Rowley was a politician and Royal Navy officer who was born in Ireland in 1774. Rowley attended the Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth in 1785 and joined his first ship in March 1789, serving in the West Indies. He passed the lieutenant's examination in 1792 but was not promoted until January 1794, when he joined HMS Vengeance. In her, Rowley took part in the West Indies campaign under Sir John Jervis and Sir Charles Grey, and was present at the capture of Martinique, St Lucia and Guadeloupe. Rowley returned to England at the beginning of 1795 and shortly after, was appointed to the 32-gun HMS Astraea, serving in the English Channel, where, on 10 April 1795, he assisted in the taking of the French 42-gun frigate, Gloire.
HMS Assurance was a 44-gun fifth-rate Roebuck-class ship of the Royal Navy launched in 1780. Commissioned in the same year, the ship served throughout the remainder of the American Revolutionary War on the North America Station. Her service there included capturing the American privateer Rattlesnake on 17 June 1781 and coordinating the evacuation of Savannah, Georgia, in July 1782. Having briefly served as a troop ship during the subsequent peace, Assurance was recommissioned in 1793 for the French Revolutionary Wars. Operating in the West Indies, she served in Sir John Jervis' fleet that captured Martinique, St Lucia, and Guadeloupe in March and April 1794, also playing a part in the capture of the French frigate Bienvenue on 17 March.
James Carpenter was a British Royal Navy admiral.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : "Rogers, Josias". Dictionary of National Biography . London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.| International | |
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