manned on the lowest peace establishment. To carry out the rigour of the ‘Boston Port Bill’ without a due number of small craft, well manned and armed, was impossible; but of such there were none on the station. The sloops of war were most inefficient, and the country vessels that were taken up by the admiral were able to irritate but not to coerce. It is thus not to be wondered at that during the period of Graves's command the insurrection continued to gather strength, or that an incapable government at home should gladly make Graves responsible for the hopeless state of affairs. No charge was made against him, nor was he directly blamed; but he was guilty of not succeeding under circumstances amid which success was impossible, and on 27 Jan. 1776 he was superseded from his command. He had no further service, for though in September 1777 he was offered the command at Plymouth, he angrily declined it, at the same time signifying his readiness to accept any active employment. On 29 Jan. 1778 he was advanced to be admiral of the blue, became admiral of the white on 8 April 1782, and died at his seat at Hembury Fort, near Honiton, on 8 March 1787.
[Charnock's Biog. Nav. v. 301; Addit. MSS. 14038–9; official correspondence in the Public Record Office.]
GRAVES, THOMAS, Lord Graves (1725?–1802), admiral, second son of Rear-admiral Thomas Graves (d. 1755) of Thanckes in Cornwall, entered the navy at an early age under the care of Commodore Medley, and afterwards in the Norfolk, commanded by his father, was present in the unsuccessful expedition against Cartagena in 1741. From the West Indies the Norfolk was sent into the Mediterranean, and on 25 June 1743 Graves was made lieutenant into the Romney of 50 guns, in which he was present in the notorious action off Toulon on 11 Feb. 1743–4. In 1746 he was a lieutenant of the Princessa, with Admiral Richard Lestock [q. v.], in the expedition against L'Orient, and, on the admiral's death, was appointed to the Monmouth, with Captain Harrison. In her he was present in Anson's action off Cape Finisterre, and Hawke's action in the Bay of Biscay (3 May, 14 Oct. 1747). In 1751 he went out to the coast of Africa in the Assistance with Commodore Buckle, and afterwards with Commodore Stepney. On his return in 1754 he was promoted to the command of the Hazard sloop, and the following year, 8 July 1755, was posted to the Sheerness, a 20-gun frigate, in which he continued to be employed on the home station and the coast of France. In this ship, on the night of 26 Dec. 1756, he met a large French ship, which he and all his officers concluded to be a ship of the line; in the morning she was still in sight, and shortened sail, offering the Sheerness battle, which Graves, still supposing her to be a ship of the line, refused. The admiralty, on the affair being reported, came to the conclusion that she was rather a homeward-bound East Indiaman, and that Graves ought to have engaged her. They therefore ordered him to be tried by a court-martial, which, on 27 Jan. 1757, decided that he ought to ‘have attempted to discover her force by going down and engaging her;’ that he had not ‘avoided coming to action through negligence, disaffection, or cowardice;’ that he did not ‘fall under any part of the 10th, 12th, or 13th articles of war;’ but ‘that his offence was owing to an error in judgment;’ that he fell under the 36th article of war; and sentenced him to be publicly reprimanded by the president (Minutes of the Court-Martial). Now the 36th article was to the effect that all crimes not specially mentioned, and for which no punishment was directed, should be punished according to the laws and customs used at sea. The case, of no great consequence in itself, derives a peculiar interest from the fact that this sentence was passed at Plymouth on the very same day as, at Portsmouth, Admiral John Byng [q. v.] was condemned to death under the 12th article; for it has frequently been argued that the court at Portsmouth wished to bring Byng in guilty of an error in judgment; but were, by the articles of war, unable to do so. The sentence on Graves proves this contention to be erroneous, and that a court-martial clearly understood the difference between ‘negligence’ under the 12th article and an ‘error in judgment’ under the 36th.
In January 1758 Graves was appointed to the Unicorn of 28 guns, attached to the grand fleet under Anson, and in the following year to the squadron under Rear-admiral Rodney, at the bombardment of Havre de Grace. From September 1760 to May 1761 he had temporary command of the Oxford; he was then appointed to the Antelope of 50 guns, and sent out in charge of convoy to Newfoundland, where, in the summer of 1762, he assisted in repelling an attack of the French under M. de Ternay. In November 1764 he was appointed captain of the Téméraire, guardship at Plymouth, and from her, in January 1765, was sent on special service to the coast of Africa, with a broad pennant in the Edgar. On his return in August he resumed the command of the Téméraire,
