Sir Roger Strickland (1640–1717) was an English admiral and Member of Parliament.

Life

Strickland was the second son of Walter Strickland of Nateby Hall, Lancashire, and lived at Thornton Bridge near Aldborough in Yorkshire, a property acquired from his cousin

Sir Thomas Strickland ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as part o ...

of Sizergh. He received his first command in 1665, and the following year he commanded the 48-gun ''Santa Maria'' in the

Four Days' Battle The Four Days' Battle was a naval engagement fought from 11 to 14 June 1666 (1–4 June O.S.) during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. It began off the Flemish coast and ended near the English coast, and remains one of the longest naval battles in ...

(1–4 June 1666). In 1672, he commanded the 58-gun ''Plymouth'' at the

Battle of Solebay The Battle of Solebay took place on 6 June 1672 New Style, during the Third Anglo-Dutch War, near Southwold, Suffolk, in eastern England. A Dutch States Navy, Dutch fleet under Michiel de Ruyter attacked a combined Kingdom of England, Anglo-King ...

, during which he recovered the ''Henry'', which had been captured by the Dutch. He also served in the battles of Schooneveld and

Texel Texel (; Texels dialect: ) is a municipality and an island with a population of 13,643 in North Holland, Netherlands. It is the largest and most populated island of the West Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea. The island is situated north of Den ...

in 1673, as a result of which he was knighted. In 1677, he was promoted to rear-admiral and served as John Narbrough's third-in-command; on 1 April 1678, with Narbrough's successor, Admiral Herbert, he captured a 40-gun Algerian cruiser. Suspected (rightly) of being a crypto-Catholic, Strickland found his career stagnating during the later years of Charles II’s reign, and spent a period ashore in England, during which he was elected MP for Aldborough. However, he received immediate advancement on the accession of James II and returned to sea, being promoted first to vice-admiral and then to Admiral of the Blue. In the summer of 1688, he took command of the

Channel Fleet The Channel Fleet and originally known as the Channel Squadron was the Royal Navy formation of warships that defended the waters of the English Channel from 1854 to 1909 and 1914 to 1915. History Throughout the course of Royal Navy's history th ...

, but his attempt to have the mass said publicly on board his flagship, the Mary, caused a mutiny, and he was shortly afterwards replaced by Lord Dartmouth. Nevertheless, he retained his rank until the

Revolution In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...

, after which he resigned his commission and joined the dispossessed James II in France, later accompanying him to Ireland though apparently holding no command during the unsuccessful invasion. Strickland’s name was originally included in the list of names to be attainted for treason for his support of James, though it was later removed for lack of evidence. Nevertheless, he was afterwards described officially as outlawed, and his estates were confiscated for "high treason committed on 1 May 1689". He died in exile at St Germain in 1717.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Strickland, Roger 1640 births 1717 deaths 18th-century English people English MPs 1685–1687 People from Boroughbridge 17th-century Royal Navy personnel English Roman Catholics Military personnel from North Yorkshire