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Newfoundland Station
The Newfoundland Station was a formation or command of, first, the Kingdom of Great Britain and, then, of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. Its official headquarters varied between Portsmouth or Plymouth in England where a squadron of ships would set sail annually each year to protect convoys and the British fishing fleet operating in waters off the Newfoundland coast and would remain for period of approximately six months based at St. John's Harbour. In 1818 the station became a permanent posting headquartered at St John's. It existed from 1729 to 1825. History The Commodore-Governor was both a British Government and a Royal Navy official who was commander-in-chief of the annual fishing convoy which left England each spring, sometimes from Portsmouth and other times from Plymouth, to fish off Newfoundland: the fleet were tasked with protecting the fishing convoys from harm. They were also responsible for administrative and judicial functions, including assisting the fishing admi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The UK includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and most of List of islands of the United Kingdom, the smaller islands within the British Isles, covering . Northern Ireland shares Republic of Ireland–United Kingdom border, a land border with the Republic of Ireland; otherwise, the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea and the Irish Sea. It maintains sovereignty over the British Overseas Territories, which are located across various oceans and seas globally. The UK had an estimated population of over 68.2 million people in 2023. The capital and largest city of both England and the UK is London. The cities o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Newfoundland Colony
Newfoundland was an English, and later British, colony established in 1610 on the island of Newfoundland. That followed decades of sporadic English settlement on the island, which was at first only seasonal. Newfoundland was made a Crown colony in 1824 and a dominion in 1907. Its economy collapsed during the Great Depression. On 16 February 1934, the Newfoundland legislature agreed to the creation of a six-member Commission of Government to govern the country. In 1949, the country voted to join Canada as the province of Newfoundland. History Indigenous people like the Beothuk (known as the in Greenlandic Norse), and Innu were the first inhabitants of Newfoundland and Labrador. During the late 15th century, European explorers like João Fernandes Lavrador, Gaspar Corte-Real, John Cabot, Jacques Cartier and others began visiting the area. From around the beginning of the 16th century, fishing vessels with English, Portuguese, French and Spanish crews started visiting o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Edwards (died 1773)
Richard Edwards (died 16 June 1773) was an officer of the Royal Navy who served for a brief time as List of governors of Newfoundland and Labrador, Commodore Governor of Newfoundland. Career Edwards entered the navy and rose through the rank. He received a promotion to the rank of post captain on 4 November 1740 and given command of the 24-gun . He commanded her until 1742, during which time he captured a 10-gun Spanish privateer named ''Justa Resina''. He next commanded , and by early 1746 was in command of HMS Mary (1704), HMS ''Princess Mary''. He was appointed governor of Newfoundland that year, but was ordered to go to North America and place himself under the command of Commodore Peter Warren (Royal Navy officer), Peter Warren at Fortress of Louisbourg, Louisbourg, where he was Siege of Louisbourg (1745), besieging the fort. Edwards arrived on 11 July, bringing with him two other ships, and . Louisbourg surrendered four days later, and Edwards sailed to Newfoundland to t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Hardy
Admiral Sir Charles Hardy ( – 18 May 1780) was a Royal Navy officer, politician and colonial administrator who sat in the House of Commons of Great Britain between 1764 and 1780. He served as governor of New York from 1755 to 1757. Early career Born at Portsmouth, the son of Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Hardy, Charles Hardy joined the Royal Navy as a volunteer in 1731. He became a captain in the Royal Navy on 10 August 1741, around the age of 27. His first command was the 24-gun , stationed off the British Carolinas from January 1742 to February 1744. In 1744 he was appointed governor and commander-in-chief of the British colony of Newfoundland, though there is no record of his visiting it during his term in office. In 1745 he took command of HMS ''Torrington'', assisting in the protection of a convoy which brought reinforcements from Gibraltar to the newly captured fortress of Louisbourg. He was knighted in 1755 and served as governor of the Colony of New York from 1755 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Byng
Admiral (Royal Navy), Admiral John Byng (baptised 29 October 1704 – 14 March 1757) was a Royal Navy officer and politician who was court-martialled and executed by firing squad. After joining the navy at the age of thirteen, he participated at the Battle of Cape Passaro in 1718. Over the next thirty years he built up a reputation as a solid naval officer and received promotion to Vice-admiral (Royal Navy), vice-admiral in 1747. He also served as List of governors of Newfoundland and Labrador, Commodore-Governor of Newfoundland Colony in 1742, Leith Station, Commander-in-Chief, Leith, 1745 to 1746 and was a Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), member of Parliament from 1751 until his death. Byng failed to relieve a besieged British garrison during the Battle of Minorca (1756), Battle of Minorca at the beginning of the Seven Years' War. He had sailed for Minorca at the head of a hastily assembled fleet of vessels, some of which were in poor condition. In the ensuing battle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Smith (Royal Navy Officer, Died 1762)
Admiral of the Blue Thomas Smith (1707 – 28 August 1762) was a British admiral and colonial governor, credited with the invention of the divisional system that remains in use on ships of the Royal Navy. He served as Commander-in-Chief, North Sea, Commander-in-Chief, Leith and Commander-in-Chief, the Downs Early life Born in England around 1707, Smith was the illegitimate son of Sir Thomas Lyttelton and a woman of whom details are unknown. He was raised a member of the Lyttelton family, who provided for Smith's education and aided him in the beginnings of his career in the Royal Navy. Early naval career The precise date as to when Smith entered the Royal Navy is unknown, but his first notable appointment in the Service was to the position of junior lieutenant aboard the ''Royal Oak'' on 6 February 1728, at the appointment of his commanding officer Sir Charles Wager. In June of the same year he was moved to the 44-gun ''Gosport'' under the command of Captain Duncombe Dr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Medley
Henry Medley (1687 – 5 August 1747) was an officer of the Royal Navy, rising to the rank of vice-admiral. Life Medley entered the Royal Navy in 1703, and in 1706 was midshipman of the 80-gun with Captain Price at the relief of Barcelona. He passed his examination as lieutenant on 8 February 1710, and on 5 September 1710 was promoted by Sir John Norris to be lieutenant of ; a few months later he was moved into the 70-gun . In 1717 he was a lieutenant of the 90-gun , flagship of Sir George Byng in the Baltic Sea. Early in 1720 Medley was promoted to the command of , a fire-ship, and on 17 February 1721 was posted into the 60-gun . In 1722, while commanding the 50-gun in the Mediterranean, he seized a ship named the ''Revolution'', lying within the mole of Genoa, on information of her being in the service of the Old Pretender. He later commanded the ''Leopard'' on the coast of Portugal and in the English Channel until the end of 1728. From 1731 to 1735 Medley was employed o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
FitzRoy Henry Lee
Vice-Admiral Fitzroy Henry Lee (2 January 1699 – 14 April 1750) was a British Royal Navy officer who served as Commodore Governor of the Colony of Newfoundland. Lee supposedly inspired the character "Hawser Trunnion" in Tobias Smollett's novel, ''The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle''. Life Lee was the seventh son of Edward Henry Lee, 1st Earl of Lichfield, and Lady Charlotte Fitzroy, Charles II's illegitimate daughter. Lee was born in Oxfordshire, England. He entered the Royal Navy in 1716, and obtained a promotion to lieutenant in 1722. Lee became captain of in 1734 and was commissioned Governor of Newfoundland in May 1735. Around 1746, the Navy relieved Lee of command, based on charges of debauchery and drunkenness. A pending promotion to rear-admiral was suspended. However, in October 1747, when Lee arrived back in England, the Navy reinstated his promotion, effective 15 July 1747. On 12 May 1748, Lee was promoted to vice-admiral of the white, but he had no further s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert MacCarty, Viscount Muskerry
Robert MacCarty, Viscount Muskerry (1698 – 19 September 1769) was an Irish officer of the Royal Navy and a colonial administrator. He belonged to the MacCarthy of Muskerry dynasty. Muskerry was the son of Donough MacCarty, 4th Earl of Clancarty, and Lady Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Spencer, 2nd Earl of Sunderland. He was educated at St Paul's School. His father was attainted in 1691 after serving in the Jacobite Irish Army of the Catholic James II, with his titles forfeited, and Muskerry was never allowed to succeed in the earldom. However, he continued to be known under his courtesy title Viscount Muskerry. From 1733 to 1734, he served as Commodore Governor of Newfoundland, becoming the first Irishman to hold this post. In 1741 he resigned his commission in order to join the Jacobites and moved to the exiled Stuart court at Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. As a result, he was excepted from the Indemnity Act 1747, which pardoned many Jacobites. He was granted a pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Falkingham
Captain Edward Falkingham (c. 1683 – 18 September 1757) was an officer in the Royal Navy. He served for a time as Governor of Newfoundland and Comptroller of the Navy. Naval career Falkingham received his first commission in 1703 when he was promoted to lieutenant. On 26 February 1713 he was promoted to the rank of captain in command of HMS ''Weymouth''. Falkingham in charge of HMS ''Gibraltar'', along with Commodore Thomas Kempthorne aboard of HMS ''Worcester'', was charged with overseeing the enforcement of Treaty of Utrecht when it came to the fishing grounds of Newfoundland in 1715. A major concern to the merchants of England was the over-wintering of fisherman in Newfoundland and William Arnold, a New England trader, was suspecting of enticing those fisherman to over-winter in New England. Falkingham was assigned the duty of observing Arnold in the summer of 1715. Falkingham went on to command various vessels in both the Baltic and the Mediterranean. In 1718 he com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Clinton (Royal Navy Officer)
Admiral of the Fleet George Clinton (c. 1686 – 10 July 1761) was a Royal Navy officer and politician. Benefiting from the patronage of Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle, he served as a naval captain during the 1720s and 1730s. Clinton went on to be Governor of the Colony of Newfoundland, Commodore and Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet and then Governor of the Province of New York where he had to deal with the threat of a French attack during King George's War. He could not cope with the liberal politicians of the New York assembly who were led by James De Lancey and resigned in 1753. Clinton also served as Member of Parliament for Saltash, a rotten borough in Cornwall, from March 1757 until his death in July 1761. Early career Born the second son of Francis Clinton, 6th Earl of Lincoln, and Susan Clinton (née Penninston), Clinton joined the Royal Navy in 1708 during the War of the Spanish Succession. Clinton enjoyed the patronage of Thomas Pel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
