Thomas Graves, 1st Baron Graves

Admiral The Right Honourable

The Lord Graves

KB
Portrait by Thomas Gainsborough, 1786
Born23 October 1725
Plymouth, Devon
Died9 February 1802(1802-02-09) (aged 76)
Devon, England
AllegianceGreat Britain
Branch
Royal Navy
Service years
1740–1802
Rank
Admiral of the White
CommandsNorth American Station
Plymouth Command
Conflicts
Seven Years' War
American War of Independence
French Revolutionary Wars
Spouse
Elizabeth Williams
​
(m. 1771)​
ChildrenThomas
RelationsAlfred van der Smissen, 2nd Baron van der Smissen, his great-nephew.
Viceregal styles of
The Lord Graves
Reference styleHis Excellency
Spoken styleYour Excellency

Admiral of the White Thomas Graves, 1st Baron Graves, KB (23 October 1725 – 9 February 1802) was a Royal Navy officer, politician and colonial administrator who served in the Seven Years' War and American War of Independence. He also served as the Commodore-Governor of Newfoundland from 1761 to 1764.[1]

Military career

Born in England in October 1725, Graves was the second son of Rear-Admiral Thomas Graves of Thanckes in Cornwall.[2] Graves' first military experience was as a volunteer with Commodore Henry Medley's crew around 1740. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1743, and captain in 1755. In the first year of the Seven Years' War, Graves failed to confront a French ship which gave challenge.[1] He was tried by court-martial for not engaging his ship, and reprimanded.[1] Graves became Commodore-Governor of Newfoundland in 1761[1] and given the duty of convoying the seasonal fishing fleet from England to the island. In 1762 he learned that French ships had captured St. John's. Graves, Admiral Alexander Colville and Colonel William Amherst retook the port city.[1]

With the end of the Seven Years' War, Labrador came under his responsibility as French fishing fleets returned to the French Shore and St. Pierre and Miquelon. Graves strictly enforced the treaties to the extent that the French government protested. Graves' governorship ended in 1764. He returned to active service during the American War of Independence, being promoted to Rear-Admiral of the Blue on 19 March 1779, Rear-Admiral of the White on 19 March 1780 and Rear-Admiral of the Red on 26 September. Graves became commander-in-chief of the North American Squadron in 1781[1] when Mariot Arbuthnot returned home.

On 5 September 1781, a fleet under Graves was defeated by a French fleet led by the Comte de Grasse in the Battle of the Chesapeake at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, leading to the surrender of a besieged British army under Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown not long afterwards. In September 1782, a fleet under his command was caught in a violent storm off the banks of Newfoundland. The captured French ships from the Battle of the Saintes Ville de Paris (110 guns) and HMS Glorieux (74 guns), and the British ships HMS Ramillies (74 guns) and Centaur (74 guns) foundered, along with other merchant ships, with the loss of 3,500 lives. In 1786 Graves became Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth.[1][3] He was promoted to Vice-Admiral of the Blue on 24 September 1787 and Vice-Admiral of the Red on 1 February 1793.[4]

During the French Revolutionary Wars, Graves was promoted to Admiral of the Blue on 12 April 1794 and served as the second-in-command to Admiral of the Blue Richard Howe, Earl Howe at the Glorious First of June on 1 June, suffering a severe injury to his right arm. Following the battle, Graves was elevated to the Irish peerage as Baron Graves of Gravesend on 24 October.[5] However, his wound led to the end of Graves' active career and he retired to estate in Devon. Graves was promoted to Admiral of the White on 1 June 1795.[6]

Personal life

Lord Graves married Elizabeth, daughter of William Peere Williams, in 1771. The couple had a son, Thomas, in 1775. Following several battle injuries, Graves retired to his Devon estate in 1794, and died in February 1802, aged 76.[7]

Arms

Coat of arms of Thomas Graves, 1st Baron Graves
Crest
A demi-eagle displayed and erased Or encircled round the body and below the wings by a ducal coronet Argent.
Escutcheon
Gules an eagle displayed Or ducally crowned Argent. On a canton of the last an anchor Proper.
Supporters
Two royal vultures wings close Proper.
Motto
Aquila Non Captat Muscas [8]

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Article by Kenneth Breen, ‘Graves, Thomas, first Baron Graves (1725–1802)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008; Retrieved 4 June 2008.
  2. ↑ Historic Cornwall website: Thanckes estate near Torpoint.
  3. ↑ "Admiral Graves, we hear, will succeed Admiral Mark Milbanke in the Station of Port Admiral at Plymouth". The Public Advertiser. 22 February 1786. p. 2. Retrieved 2 January 2014.
  4. ↑ https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/graves_thomas_5E.html
  5. ↑ London Gazette no. 13727. p. 1178
  6. ↑ https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/graves_thomas_5E.html
  7. ↑ "Graves, 1st Baron Thomas (1725-1802)". Archived from the original on 12 September 2015.
  8. ↑ Burke's Peerage. 1949.

References

  • Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990,
  • Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages
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