The New England Historical and Genealogical Register

were sent out July 4th, by the Shirley-Galley, Capt. Rouse, who was recommended to the command of a snow; he returned to Louisbourg Sept. 23d, bearing the Duke of Newcastle's answers dated Aug. 10, 1745, and his own promotion to the rank of Post Captain in the regular service, the date being supplied the day after his arrival, at the express directions of the King. He was appointed to the command of his own vessel the Shirley-Galley, which had been purchased or hired into the navy as an armed ship on the sloop establishment, though Charnock says it was afterwards "put on the higher footing of a postship, or frigate." On a list of 1747, I find the vessel quoted at 16 guns, and at the peace of Aix la Chapelle, Oct., 1748, as carrying 14 guns, 14 swivels and 110 men, subsequent to which date I have met with no mention of the Shirley-Galley. It may be interesting to state that in March, 1749, Capt. Rouse was appointed to the Albany sloop, in which vessel he arrived June 21 at Chebucto, with Col. Cornwallis, Governor of Nova Scotia, in the Sphinx, and some two thousand adventurers in 15 transports, who intended to settle near there. Further mention of him will be found in Charnock's Biographia Navalis; he was employed principally on the American Station, and at the time of his death, which occurred at Portsmouth April 3, 1760, was in command of the Sutherland, a 50 gun ship.

More than half a century earlier than the period which marks the brilliant siege of Louisbourg, however, two armed vessels were built upon the Piscataqua River in America, by order of the British Government. The Freeman's Journal of Jan. 14, 1777, says: "the evidence of the above facts depends on an original manuscript letter from Mr. Emerson, formerly minister of New Castle, to the late Mr. Prince, and is to be found among the collection of manuscripts relating to the history of New England, made by fifty year's industry of that worthy. gentleman, unless it has been pilfered or destroyed by the Saracen-like barbarity of the late occupiers of the Old South meeting-house in Boston, in an apartment of which those valuable manuscripts were deposited."

The Rev. John Emerson, who died in 1732, at the age of 61 years, was settled at Newcastle in 1704, went to England four years later and resided some time in London, and after his return was in 1715 installed at Portsmouth. Both Newcastle and Portsmouth, in the immediate vicinity of each other, are now contained within the limits of the State of New Hampshire, and at the former place, situated on an island at the mouth of the Piscataqua, the two vessels were launched the Falkland in 1690, and the Bedford-Galley in 1696.

The first mention I find of these vessels is on a list of the navy at the death of William III., March 8, 170, wherein they are rated as follows: Falkland, fourth rate, 48 guns, 226 men; Bedford-Galley, fifth rate, 32 guns, 135† men; no commanders' names being given.

The galley was probably named from Lord William Russel, created Duke of Bedford in 1694, but I gain little satisfactory intelligence as to her actual service. Andrew Ley was appointed to her command as Captain, Jan. 26, 1709-10, and in 1712 he was superannuated with a pension. In 1711, when Adm. Sir Hovenden Walker was bound on

Schomberg's Naval History, vol. iv.

+ Afterwards quoted at 142 men.

his unfortunate expedition against Quebec, the Bedford-Galley accompanied the fleet 100 leagues westward of Scilly, and then parted company, together with the Diamond, Capt. John Lisle, and the Experiment, Capt. Matt. Elford, having under their protection a fleet of merchant ships bound for Lisbon. Having been changed to a fire-ship of 8 guns, 45 men, the galley was from 1719-'21, attached to the squadron despatched to the Baltic under Adm. Sir John Norris, and was commanded by Capt. James Luck or Luch, advanced afterwards (May 29, 1720) to the Port Mahon frigate. The vessel still appears as a fire-ship in 1723, but the name does not occur on a list of 1727, or thereafter.

A small frigate of 372 tons, ranking as a sixth rate, carrying 20 guns, and called by a very similar name, the Biddeford, was, as early as 1696, attached to the squadron of Commodore John Johnson ordered to block up the ports of Dunkirk and Calais; of this vessel Capt. Samuel Martin held the command until the accession of Queen Anne, and she appears to have been still employed in active service up to the year 1762, when we find her cruising in the North Sea under Capt. William Howe.

The galley, according to the English editor of Sieur Guillet's Art of Navigation (London, 1705), was a low built vessel, about 130 feet in length, and 18 feet in breadth in the middle; both oars and sails might be used, and the two masts (the fore and main) were struck or lowered at pleasure.

We now come to consider the Falkland, a regular line-of-battle ship which received its name, doubtless, in honor of Anthony Viscount Falkland, one of the Privy Council, Lord of the Admiralty 1691-'93, and during the latter year presiding at the head of the board. Although launched in 1690, the earliest mention of the vessel, as already observed, is on a list of 1702, at the death of King William III., being then ranked as a fourth rate of 48 guns, 776 tons, 226 men; though we soon after find her metal increased to 54 guns, with a crew of 280 men. The Falkland appears to have come under the description of war-vessels known as frigates, which were light built and good sailers, the larger ones usually furnished with two decks.

After the accession of Queen Anne, Capt. John Underdown was appointed to her command and sent on the Virginia station. He had been first appointed to the Guarland, 50 guns, with the rank of captain, Aug. 25, 1696, and when on March 31, 1703, the Hon. Algernon Grenville (second son of Lord Brooke), received the command of this vessel, Capt. Underdown was doubtless transferred to the Falkland. On his passage back from Virginia in company with the Dreadnaught, 60, Capt. Evans, and the Fowey, 40, Capt. Richard Browne, Underdown captured on the 24th of August 1704, a French vessel of 54 guns; this was called afterwards the Falkland Prize, since that vessel bore the brunt of the action, the Dreadnaught not getting up till the very end of the engagement. After this, Underdown was sent as Commander of an expedition designed against the French fisheries of North America. Arriving at St. Johns, Newfoundland, he, on the receipt of certain favorable intelligence, left that place July 26, 1707, to carry out his designs, being accompanied by the Nonsuch, 48, Capt. John Carlton, the Medway prize, Capt. Richard Hughes, and Major Lloyd at the head of a score of soldiers. On the 17th of August, he

returned to St. Johns, bringing with him as prizes, the Duke of Orleans of St. Malo, 360 tons, 30 guns, 110 men, and the Equeliere, 20 guns, 100 men; he had also taken and burned the Palme of St. Malo, 20 guns, 80 men, and had destroyed 228 fishing-boats, 480 boats and shalloways not employed that season in the fishery, 23 stages and 23 train vats, 77,280 quintals of fish, and 1568 hogsheads of train-oil. The enemy themselves had destroyed two vessels, the Mariana, 32 guns, and the Margaret, 26 guns, both of St. Malo, to prevent their falling into the Commodore's hands. Capt. Underdown continued in command many years, being employed principally on the West India and American stations, and died Nov. 4, 1728. Before his death the metal of his vessel was reduced to 50 guns, as appears by navy lists of 1723, and after this she was laid up for a period.

June 27, 1728, the Falkland was put into commission under Capt. Samuel Atkins, who was first appointed Dec. 3, 1718, to the Garland fire-ship. In April of the succeeding year she was again commissioned, with the same captain and a crew of 280 men; was in the fleet of Adm. Sir Charles Wager at Spithead during the following month, but was ordered to be paid off at Portsmouth on the 16th of October. Capt. Atkins was superannuated in 1747, with the half pay of a rearadmiral.

In Nov., 1733, the Falkland was ordered to be docked and cleaned for sea-service, and was put in commission Feb. 21st following, under Capt. Hon. Fitzroy H. Lee, with a crew of 300 men; in August fol lowing she was lying at Spithead, in the fleet of Adm. Cavendish. Capt. Lee, who was a son of the Earl of Litchfield, was soon after appointed commander-in-chief of the Newfoundland squadron and Governor of that island, and rose subsequently to the rank of Admiral. July 28, 1738, Capt. John Oliphant received the command; the vessel was for some time in the Mediterranean fleet of Rear-Admiral Haddock; in 1740 attached to the fleet of Adm. Sir John Norris, designed against Ferrol; but in January, 1741, was on the home station at Portsmouth, having her compliment of 300 men still kept up. Capt. Oliphant died in England, March 29, 1743.

Early in 1744, Capt. Thomas Grenville, who had received that rank two years before, was appointed to the F. He was the seventh son of Hesther, Countess Temple and Visc. Cobham, and Charnock in his Naval Biographies states that he was appointed to the Falkland, 50 guns, "just launched," which is undoubtedly an error. In August, 1744, she is mentioned among the fleet of Adm. Sir John Balchen, designed for the convoy of some 200 merchant ships to the coast of Portugal and the Mediterranean, and her name occurs during the same year in the squadron of Commodore Peter Warren at the Leeward Islands. Capt. Grenville took a French privateer of 14 guns, which he carried into Kinsale, in March, 1745; in December he sailed from the Downs on a short cruise under Adm. Vernon, and in 1746 captured another French privateer, the Tyger, 26 guns, 220 men. Subsequent to this event the F. was assigned to the command of Capt. Blumford Barradel or Borrowdell, who received the rank of Captain July 18, 1744. In April, 1747, she figures in the squadron of Vice Adm. Anson, and was engaged in the naval affair off Cape Finisterre on the 3d of May following, when the French squadron of De la Ionquiere was defeated. Capt. Barradel quitted the F. some time previous to

his death, which occurred in Nov., 1749; and after the peace of Aix la Chapelle (Oct., 1748), the vessel appears to have been laid up at Portsmouth a few years, at least it is so mentioned on a list dated September, 1755.

On the declaration of war with France, May 18, 1756, we again find her in commission (50 guns, 300 men) under Capt. Francis Wm. Drake, having sailed during the preceding month in the fleet of Adm. Boscawen; in November following she was cruising off Brest, in the fleet of Vice Adm. Knowles, and during the years 1757 and '58 was in the squadron of Commodore Moore, at the Leeward Islands, N. America. This is the same Capt. Drake to whom we have before made allusion, as captain of the Boston frigate in 1751; on his return from America in 1759, he was transferred from the Falkland to the Edgar, 64 guns, and the command of the former was given to his brother, Capt. Samuel Drake, with a crew of 350 men. This latter officer, who received the rank of Captain, November 15, 1756, was afterwards a Rear Admiral, and was in 1782 created a Baronet in reward for his services. During the year 1759, the vessel remained principally on the home or channel-station, under Commodore Duff, watching the French armament at Brest, and, having joined Adm. Sir Edward Hawke, was engaged in the fight of Belleisle on the 20th of November. The succeeding spring Drake arrived at Quebec in the squadron of Commodore Swanton; was soon ordered on the West India station, and at the close of 1761 was in the fleet of Rear Adm. Rodney, collected at Barbadoes for an expedition against Martinique, and other of the French islands. (The F. appears to have been one of the vessels which joined Commodore Sir James Douglas with a body of troops from the colonies.)

In 1762, Capt. Drake having been transferred to the Rochester, 50 guns, on the same station, the command of the F. was given to Capt. William Tucker,* who returned with her to England, and at the peace of Feb. 23, 1763, we find her on the home station. After this the vessel was laid up, and probably, having done good service for nearly three quarters of a century, was never again put in commission, for by a list of 1768 she was stationed at Chatham, but on the next list which I am able to consult, namely, one of 1778, the name of the Falkland is no longer found.

Dr. COTTON MATHER, in his life of the Rev. John Wilson, p. 28, remarks:

"Beholding a young man, extraordinary dutiful, in all possible ways of being serviceable, unto his aged mother, then weak in body, and poor in estate, he [viz. Rev. John Wilson] declared unto some of his family, what he had beheld; adding therewithal, I charge you, take notice of what I say. God will certainly bless that young man; John Hull (for that was his name) shall grow rich, and live to do God good service in his generation. It came to pass accordingly, that this exemplary person became a very rich, as well as emphatically a good man, and afterwards died a Magistrate of the Colony."

Appointed Captain in January, 1757; died about 1772.