William Bokenham (died 10 November 1702) was Royal Navy officer and Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1701 to 1702. [1]
Bokenham was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Royal Navy on 10 August 1681 and became a captain on 7 May 1689. He was captain of HMS Happy Return from 1689 to 1690, of HMS Monck in 1691 and on HMS Duchess from 1693 to 1694. [2] In 1696 he was first captain to Sir George Rooke and was later first captain to Lord Berkeley. [3]
In 1700 Bokenham acquired Digs Court, otherwise called Digges, in the parish of Westwell, Kent. [4]
In November 1701 Bokenham was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Rochester in the government interest, and held the seat until July 1702. [5]
In August 1702, Bokenham became captain of HMS Association, a ninety gun ship. [2] He took part in the Battle of Vigo Bay on 23 October 1702 when his ship fired broadsides at the battery on the left of the harbour, which soon disabled it. Vigo Bay was a resounding victory for the Anglo-Dutch forces against the French. [6]
Bokenham's property in Rochester was inherited by his brother Robert, who was also a naval captain. The properties were later inherited by another brother Harry Bokenham, and Harry's daughter Anne Bokenham and her husband John Dumaresq, son of Elias Dumaresq who sold it in 1729. [7] [8]
Admiral of the Fleet Sir George Rooke was an English naval officer. As a junior officer he saw action at the Battle of Solebay and again at the Battle of Schooneveld during the Third Anglo-Dutch War. As a captain, he conveyed Prince William of Orange to England and took part in the Battle of Bantry Bay during the Williamite War in Ireland.
Admiral George Carnegie, 6th Earl of Northesk was a Scottish naval officer and peer. He was the son of David Carnegie, 4th Earl of Northesk and Lady Margaret Wemyss and was born on 2 August 1716. A career Royal Navy officer, he fought in the War of the Austrian Succession and the First Carnatic War, where in the East Indies he participated in the action of 6 July 1746. His service was curtailed by a series of debilitating illnesses and he never served at sea again after being promoted to rear-admiral in 1756. He died on 20 January 1792 at age 75.
Sir Thomas Hopsonn or Hopson was an English Royal Navy officer and politician. His most famous action was the breaking of the boom during the battle of Vigo Bay in 1702. After retiring from active service, he became a Navy Commissioner and the governor of Greenwich Hospital.
Sir Charles Rich, 3rd Baronet was an officer in the Royal Navy during the War of the Spanish Succession.
Admiral Nicholas Haddock was an admiral in the Royal Navy and Commander-in-Chief of Britain's naval forces in the Mediterranean between 1738 and 1742. Despite an active and successful early and middle career, his reputation was tarnished in 1740 when he failed to prevent the Spanish and French fleets from combining to support an invasion of Italy. Amid public outcry he was forced to resign his naval responsibilities and return to England, where he fell into a melancholic state.
Admiral Sir Richard Haddock was an officer of the Royal Navy. He served during the Anglo-Dutch Wars, eventually rising to the rank of Admiral in August 1690. In Herge's Adventures of Tintin, Richard Haddock was one of the inspirations for Captain Haddock's 17th century ancestor, Sir Francis Haddock.
Francis Barrell was an English Tory politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1701 and 1702.
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Stafford Fairborne was a Royal Navy officer and Whig politician. As a captain he saw action in command of various ships at the Battle of Beachy Head, at the Battle of Barfleur and at the Battle of Lagos during the Nine Years' War.
Richard FitzPatrick, 1st Baron Gowran was a British naval captain.
Sir Thomas Adams, 6th Baronet was an officer in the Royal Navy who served during the Seven Years' War.
Captain Lord George Graham was a Scottish officer of the Royal Navy who saw service during the War of the Austrian Succession. He embarked on a political career, and was a Member of Parliament.
George St Lo was a British naval officer and politician.
Vice Admiral Charles Cornewall or Cornwall, of Berrington, Herefordshire, was an officer in the Royal Navy and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1709 and 1718.
Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Dilkes was an officer in the Royal Navy.
John Charnock was a Royal Navy volunteer and author. He wrote a book on the history of marine architecture, a book on Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, and Biographia Navalis about leading figures in Britain's Royal Navy.
Admiral Thomas Dumaresq was an officer in the British Royal Navy that rose to the rank of Admiral. Dumaresq was notable for his role as Captain of HMS Repulse in the Battle of the Saintes during the American Revolutionary War.
Elias Dumaresq, 3rd Seigneur of Augrès was born to Abraham Dumaresq, 2nd Seigneur of Augrès and Susan de Carteret daughter of Philippe de Carteret I, 2nd Seigneur of Sark and his wife Racheal Paulet. He was a Royalist and a Jurat of the Royal Court.
Captain Thomas Durell (1685-1741) was a British naval officer most famous for his role in the capture of the Spanish ship Princesa.
Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Hardy was a Royal Navy officer of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Having joined the navy sometime before 1688, Hardy's career was supported by Captain George Churchill, whom he served as first lieutenant during the Battle of Barfleur in 1692. Promoted to captain in 1693, Hardy served in the Channel Islands and off the coast of England until 1702 when he was given command of HMS Pembroke off the coast of Spain. He fought at the Battle of Cádiz, and subsequently discovered the location of the Franco-Spanish fleet through the intervention of his chaplain, which resulted in the Battle of Vigo Bay. Hardy was knighted for his services.
Captain Sir Andrew Leake was a Royal Navy officer of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, who distinguished himself at the Battle of Vigo Bay, during the War of the Spanish Succession. From Lowestoft, Leake joined the navy in 1688 under the patronage of John Ashby. Promoted to commander, Leake fought under Ashby as a supernumerary at the Action at La Hogue in 1692. His services at La Hogue brought him promotion to captain, and a series of commands that culminated in 1702 with Leake joining HMS Torbay. At Vigo Bay later that year Torbay broke the boom protecting a Franco-Spanish treasure fleet, resulting in the capture or destruction of the entire fleet. Leake was knighted for this, and went on to command HMS Grafton at the Capture of Gibraltar in 1704. He was mortally wounded at the Battle of Málaga later the same year.
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