Mount Vernon’s Admiral

To have and to hold to him and the heirs of his body lawfully procreated

The tradition of inheritance varies widely from one country to another and, in some countries, by regions of the same country.  In Kent, England, for example, the dominant inheritance code was called gavelkind, which meant that all sons inherited their father’s estate equally.  The predominant rule in the medieval period, however, was male-preferred primogeniture.  In this case, estates were passed in total to the eldest son.  Women could inherit, but only if they had no brothers.  This changed in 1925.  In the system of primogeniture, second and younger sons would have to fend for themselves in a topsy-turvy world.  This is not to say that loving fathers did not do their best to help pave a way forward for the younger boys — only that they had no legal obligation to do so.

Edward Vernon (November 12, 1684 – October 30, 1757) was a second son.  He was born in Westminster, London, to James Vernon, who served King William III as Secretary of State.  James Vernon’s elder son was also named James.  The eldest son, James, was his father’s heir.  This position allowed James to serve as British envoy to Denmark, as a member of Parliament, and as Clerk of the Privy Council.

James (the Elder) did his best to provide for the youngest son, Edward, by educating him at the Westminster School and, at the age of 16, sending him to serve in the Royal Navy.  That accomplished, Edward’s fate was entirely up to him.

Thus, on May 10, 1700, Edward joined the Royal Navy as a Volunteer Per Order aboard His Majesty’s Ship (HMS) Shrewsbury.  Edward’s secondary education was unusual for the Royal Navy because most officers of his day received an elementary education before they went to sea (around age 12).  Edward’s advantage was that he was more mature when he joined the Navy.  In 1701, he transferred to HMS Mary.  He was advanced to lieutenant and appointed to serve aboard HMS Lennox, part of the Channel Squadron.  When Lennox was transferred to the Mediterranean fleet, the Royal Navy paid him off in 1704.  It was likely due to his father’s standing that he was subsequently appointed to serve aboard HMS Barfleur, Admiral Cloudesley Shovell’s flagship in the Mediterranean.  Barfleur was present at the capture of Gibraltar and the Battle of Malaga.

In 1705, Edward accompanied Admiral Shovell to HMS Britannia.  He was promoted to captain and appointed to HMS Dolphin, only to be moved again ten days later to HMS Rye and remained in the Mediterranean until 1707.  He returned to England with Admiral Shovell’s fleet and was fortunate to escape the Scilly Islands incident disaster.

In October 1707, HMS Association served under the command of Captain Edmund Loades; Admiral Shovell was also aboard.  The 21-ship fleet was returning from the Mediterranean after the Toulon campaign.

The fleet entered the mouth of the English Channel on the night of October 22, 1707. At around 2000 hours, HMS Association struck the Outer Gilstone Rock off the Isles of Scilly and was wrecked, losing its entire crew (around 800 men).

The disaster was caused by errors in navigation; the ships were not where they were supposed to be.  According to the eyewitness accounts, the Association went down within three or four minutes time.  The dead included Captain Loades and Admiral Shovell, Shovell’s stepsons Sir John Narborough and James Narborough, and Henry Trelawney, the second son of the Bishop of Winchester.  Three other ships were also lost: HMS Eagle, HMS Romney, and HMS Firebrand.  In total, more than 2,000 officers and men were killed — it was not a good day for second sons.

Within a few days of the Scilly Isles disaster, Edward joined HMS Jersey.  In April 1708, he assumed command authority over the West Indies Squadron, and two years after that, Vernon broke up a Spanish squadron operating off of Cartagena (present-day Colombia).  At the end of the War of Spanish Succession (1712), he returned home to England.

The British Military and Naval Tradition

The British Army and Navy personnel policies were similar in some areas and utterly dissimilar in others.  For example, the British Army permitted wealthy officers to purchase their promotions, which helps to explain how it was possible to encounter a 30-year-old major general.  In contrast, the Royal Navy never permitted the purchase of commissions.

Half-pay developed in the Army and Navy during the 17th century.  This system allowed serving officers to voluntarily become inactive for half of their active duty pay (also called retainer pay) — which was particularly popular among the very wealthy military officers who would rather not have to serve at sea or on foreign shore.

Additionally, the Army and Navy could involuntarily place officers on half-pay whenever their services were not required (subject to recall) or when officers were well positioned socially but proven incompetent to command.  However, during long periods of peace, the half-pay system increased the number of senior officers lacking vital combat experience.  Transfers to and from the half-pay list were always subject to the approval of the Secretary of War or the British Admiralty.

At various times in British history, it was common for Army officers to sell their “half-pay” commissions to help pay off gambling or other debts.

When Vernon was paid off (sent to half-pay status) in 1717, he remained on inactive service for eighteen months.  In 1719, the Navy recalled him for service aboard HMS Mary in the Baltic Sea.  By 1720, he served as commodore of the Jamaica Station.  He was placed on half-pay again in 1721 and remained there for five years.

During the preceding period, Edward Vernon became a member of Parliament for Penryn, the seat held by his father until his death.[1]  He was recalled to active service from 1726 through 1728 when peace was made with Spain.  In the mid-1730s, while back in Parliament, Vernon took up the case of Welshman Robert Jenkins, a merchant seaman who claimed to have had his ear cut off by Spanish privateers in 1731.  For an interesting summary of the War of Jenkins Ear, see also American Marines and Gooch’s Colonial Marines.  My readers may find it interesting that George Washington’s brother, Lawrence, was an American Marine captain at one time.

Edward Vernon was a popular man in both the United Kingdom and the American colonies — a favored son of British war hawks.  In 1741, he commanded the so-called “great fleet” of 195 ships and 30,000 men of arms, whose objective was to seize the Spanish port of Cartagena de Indias, at the time the main port city of the Viceroyalty of New Grenada.  Unfortunately for Vernon (and around 4,000 British seamen and Marines),  the port at Cartagena was well-defended.  In addition to personnel losses due to combat, around 70% of the American regiment was rendered ineffective due to deadly and debilitating diseases, and Vernon lost six ships of the line.

Post War    

While he had been away at sea, Admiral Vernon was elected as a Member of Parliament for Ipswich — and while serving in this capacity, Vernon became an irritant to the government over matters of naval policy.  Nevertheless, he was promoted to full Admiral in 1745 and appointed to command the North Sea Fleet in response to threats by French forces supporting Bonnie Prince Charlie.  It would become his last operational command.  When the British Admiralty refused to grant him the status of Commander-in-Chief, Vernon asked to be relieved.  Between 1745 and 1746, Vernon entered into a massive pissing contest with the Admiralty.  As a result, the Admiralty brought the matter to King George II’s attention, who viewed Vernon’s actions as insubordination and dismissed him from Royal Navy service.  Subsequently, his political career also declined.  Historians argue that Vernon’s one enduring legacy was his nickname — achieved when he ordered the fleet to dilute the ship’s company’s rum ration with water, a solution the sailors called “Grog.”  Vernon thus became known as “Old Grog.”

Conclusion

As previously mentioned, Lawrence Washington was acquainted with Admiral Vernon and greatly admired his ability as an officer of the Royal Navy.  Captain Washington, recruited as an American Marine and later commissioned as a Royal Marine, served aboard Vernon’s flagship, HMS Princess Caroline, in 1741.

To honor Admiral Vernon, Lawrence named his Virginia estate Mount Vernon.  When Lawrence died from tuberculosis (aged around 34), his brother George inherited the estate.  George Washington continued to refer to the estate as Mount Vernon, as it remains today — which reminds us of a very controversial British admiral whom King George II sent packing without retirement income.

Endnotes:

[1] To my knowledge, House of Commons seats were never hereditary, so Edward Vernon would have to win the seat in an election.  I am unable to determine the pay of a member of the House of Commons in the 1720s.  In 1911, it was £400.00/annually.  Today, the salary of a member of the House of Commons exceeds £91,000.  By comparison, a member of the US House of Representatives is paid $174,000 annually.

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