Vice-Admiral Vice admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, usually equivalent to lieutenant general and air marshal. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral. Australia In the Royal Australian Navy, the rank of vic ...

Thomas Davers (1689 – 16 September 1746) was a

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

officer who served as Commander-in-Chief of the Jamaica Station.

Naval career

Born the third son of

Sir Robert Davers, 2nd Baronet Sir Robert Davers, 2nd Baronet ( – 1 October 1722) was a British Tory politician and landowner. Early life in Barbados Robert Davers was born in the English colony of Barbados. He was the only surviving son of Sir Robert Davers, 1st Barone ...

, Davers was promoted to

post captain Post-captain or post captain is an obsolete alternative form of the rank of captain in the Royal Navy. The term "post-captain" was descriptive only; it was never used as a title in the form "Post-Captain John Smith". The term served to di ...

in January 1713 on appointment to the command of the

sixth-rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a sixth-rate was the designation for small warships mounting between 20 and 28 carriage-mounted guns on a single deck, sometimes with smaller guns on the upper works an ...

HMS ''Seaford''. He transferred to the command of the sixth-rate

HMS ''Solebay'' HMS or hms may refer to: Education * Habib Medical School, of the Islamic University in Uganda * Hartley–Melvin–Sanborn Community School District of Iowa, United States * Harvard Medical School of Harvard University * Heidelberg Middle Sch ...

in August 1718, of the

fifth-rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a fifth rate was the second-smallest class of warships in a hierarchical system of six " ratings" based on size and firepower. Rating The rating system in the Royal N ...

HMS ''Adventure'' in 1719 and of the fifth-rate HMS ''Dolphin'' in 1728. He went on to take the command of the

third-rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy, a third rate was a ship of the line which from the 1720s mounted between 64 and 80 guns, typically built with two gun decks (thus the related term two-decker). Rating When the rating system was f ...

HMS ''Grafton'' in March 1734, of the

fourth-rate In 1603 all English warships with a complement of fewer than 160 men were known as 'small ships'. In 1625/26 to establish pay rates for officers, a six-tier naval ship rating system was introduced.Winfield 2009 These small ships were divided ...

HMS ''Deptford'' in October 1734 and of the third-rate HMS ''Grafton'' again in October 1739. After that he took the command of the third-rate HMS ''Stirling Castle'' in May 1742 and of the

second-rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a second-rate was a ship of the line which by the start of the 18th century mounted 90 to 98 guns on three gun decks; earlier 17th-century second rates had fewer guns ...

HMS ''Duke'' in July 1743. Davers served as Commander-in-Chief of the Jamaica Station, with his flag in the third-rate HMS ''Cornwall'', from 1744 until he died of yellow fever in

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

on 16 September 1746. He married Catherine Smithson with whom he lived at Horringer Hall at

Horringer Horringer, formerly also called Horningsheath, is a village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. It lies on the A143 about two miles south-west of Bury St Edmunds. The population in 2011 was 1055. Herit ...

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Davers, Thomas Royal Navy vice admirals 1689 births 1746 deaths People from Horringer Deaths from yellow fever Infectious disease deaths in Jamaica Younger sons of baronets 18th-century Royal Navy personnel