forth by the Earl of Leicester and others, of which Frobisher was to have the command; but as the instructions issued to him in February 1582 were changed for the purposes of trade, and not discovery, as originally intended, Frobisher retired in favour of Fenton, who finally sailed in April 1582. In September 1585 Frobisher sailed from Plymouth in charge of the Primrose, in Drake's expedition to the West Indies as vice-admiral, where he distinguished himself in an assault upon Cartagena, and returned to England in July 1586 (Hakluyt, iii. 534).
In 1588 Frobisher commanded the Triumph in the great Armada fight. On Sunday, 21 July (O.S.), in conjunction with Drake in the Revenge, and Hawkins in the Victory, he first beat the Spanish rear-admiral; later in the day he with Hawkins engaged Don Pedro de Valdez, leader of the Andalusian squadron, who, however, did not yield until Drake came to their assistance next morning, very much to Frobisher's annoyance. On Wednesday the 24th, when the English fleet was augmented from the Thames, Frobisher led one of the four newly formed squadrons. On Monday the 29th, Frobisher, with Drake and Hawkins, gave their final blows to the remains of the armada while in difficulties on the shoals off Gravelines. During the week previous Frobisher was knighted at sea by the lord high admiral, Charles, lord Howard of Effingham (ib. i. 600). Frobisher's services this year terminated with his appointment on 26 Nov. to the Tiger, in command of a squadron of six ships to sweep the Narrow Seas. On 7 May 1589 he was engaged off Ostend (Jones, p. 282). In May 1590 he proceeded to sea as vice-admiral to Sir John Hawkins [q. v.], with a fleet of twelve or fourteen ships, to intercept the Portuguese carracks coming from India, but without result, as means were found by Philip II to warn them to delay sailing (Lediard, p. 275). In the summer of 1591 Frobisher was residing at Whitwood in Yorkshire, when he married his second wife, Dorothy, widow of Sir W. Widmerpoole, daughter of Lord Wentworth. In the following May he was sent by Sir W. Raleigh in the Garland ‘to annoy the Spanish fleet’ off the coast of Spain, while Sir John Burroughs, his colleague, proceeded towards the Azores to intercept the Plate fleet from Panama. Frobisher soon afterwards capturing a large Biscayan ship with a valuable cargo of iron, &c., worth 7,000l., returned home, while Burroughs joined the Earl of Cumberland (Monson, p. 23). In 1593 he paid his last visit to his Yorkshire home, where he became a justice of the peace for the West Riding.
In the autumn of 1594 Frobisher with the Dreadnought and ten sail co-operated with Sir John Norris in the relief of Brest and the adjoining port of Crozon, already in the hands of the Spaniards. In the last fight, when the garrison surrendered and the fort was reduced to ashes, Frobisher was wounded in the hip while leading his men on shore; this ultimately led to his death through unskilful surgery (Lediard, p. 308). He died soon after reaching Plymouth, where his entrails were buried in the church of St. Andrew, while his other remains were interred in St. Giles's, Cripplegate, 14 Jan. 1595 (Jones, p. 335). An impartial account of Frobisher is still a desideratum, as recent attempts to exalt his fame at the expense of Drake and Hawkins have only served to obscure it. Although a gentleman by birth, Frobisher was no scholar, as his letters prove (cf. ib. p. 284). Frobisher from his youth was trained in a rough school, whose highest ideal was courage, tempered by piracy, which was either patronised or reprobated according to its value or inconvenience to the state.
Frobisher's portrait, often reproduced, will be found in Holland's ‘Herωologia.’ Two cartographical relics remain to be noticed, ‘a chart of the navigation of 1578,’ and Frobisher's ‘plot of Croyzon, 1594,’ where he met with his death-wound (Hatfield MSS., Hist. MSS. Comm. 7th Rep. Appendix, pp. 192–3).
[Best's True Discourse, 1578, 4to (reprint in Hakluyt, 1599, vol. iii.); Collinson's Frobisher's Voyages (Hakluyt Soc.), 1867; Fox Bourne's English Seamen, 1862; Hakluyt's Navigations, 1589, fol. (for Ellis and Hall's Narratives); ib. Voyages, 1599–1600, 3 vols.; Holland's Herωologia, 1620; F. Jones's Life of Frobisher, 1878; J. J. Cartwright's Life of Frobisher in Chaps. of Yorkshire History, 1872; Lediard's Naval Hist. 1734, fol.; Sir W. Monson's 1st naval tract, War with Spain, 1682, fol.; Settle's True Report (2nd voyage), 1577, 8vo (reprint in Hakluyt, 1589); Frobisher MSS. in Brit. Mus. and State Papers.]
FRODSHAM, BRIDGE (1734–1768), actor, was a native of Frodsham, Cheshire. He was admitted on the foundation of Westminster School in 1746, but forfeited his position by running away. In 1748, however, he was received back at the school, being apparently the only instance of a boy twice admitted on the foundation. He ran away a second time, and making his way to Leicester attached himself to a troop of players in that town. He was encouraged by J. G. Cooper of Thurgarton, Nottinghamshire, once also a Westminster boy, to make acting his profession, and joined the company at York. He quickly attained a very high degree of
