Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 44.djvu/283

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

five hundred guineas. He then went out to the Mediterranean in the Iphigenia of 36 guns, and from her was moved, in January 1813, to the Resistance of 46. That vessel in the following October was part of a strong squadron which silenced the batteries at Port d'Anzo and brought out a convoy of twenty-nine vessels that had taken refuge there. In February 1814 the Resistance was ordered home and paid off, in consequence, as it seemed, of a mutiny on board, for which several men were condemned to death, and several to be flogged. The sentence was, however, quashed on account of a technical error in the proceedings; and, though it did not appear officially, it was freely said that the men had been goaded to mutiny by Pellew's harshness. In June 1815 he was nominated a C.B.; and from August 1818 to June 1822 he had command of the Révolutionnaire of 46 guns, after which he was on half-pay for thirty years.

In January 1836 the king conferred on him the K.C.H., and at the same time knighted him. On 9 Nov. 1846 he was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral; and in December 1852 he was appointed commander-in-chief on the East India and China station, not without a strong expression of public opinion on the impolicy of sending out a man so old to conduct what might be a troublesome war in the pestilent climate of Burma. In April 1853 he hoisted his flag on board the Winchester, which returned to Hongkong in the following September, when the men applied for leave. The question of leave at Hongkong was then, and for some years afterwards, an extremely difficult one, on account of the great heat, the poisonous nature of the spirits sold in the low grog-shops, and the filthy condition of the Chinese. Pellew determined that the men should not have leave, at any rate till the weather was cooler; but he neglected to make any explanation to the men. The consequence was a mutinous expression of feeling. The admiral ordered the drum to beat to quarters, and as the men did not obey, the officers, with drawn swords, were sent on to the lower deck, to force the men up. Some three or four were wounded, and the mutiny was quelled; but on the news reaching England, the ‘Times,’ in a succession of strong leading articles, pointed out the coincidence of a mutiny occurring on board the Winchester and the Resistance within a short time of Pellew's assuming the command, and demanded his immediate recall. Even without this pressure the admiralty would seem to have decided that he had shown a lamentable want of judgment, and summarily recalled him. He had attained the rank of vice-admiral on 22 April 1853, and became admiral on 13 Feb. 1858, but had no further service, and died at Marseilles on 28 July 1861. He married, in 1816, Harriet, only daughter of Sir Godfrey Webster, bart., and by her (who died in 1849) had issue one daughter. He married again, in 1851, Cécile, daughter of Count Edouard de Melfort, but was divorced from her in 1859.

[Marshall's Royal Naval Biogr. v. (suppl. pt. i.) 402; O'Byrne's Naval Biogr. Dict.; Times, 21 Dec. 1852, 5, 14, 16 Jan. 1854; Minutes of Courts Martial, vol. 168, in the Public Record Office.]

J. K. L.

PELLEW, GEORGE (1793–1866), theologian, third son of Edward Pellew, first viscount Exmouth [q. v.], was born at Flushing, Cornwall, in April 1793. He was educated at Eton from 1808 to 1811, and admitted as gentleman-commoner at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, on 20 March 1812, graduating B.A. 1815, M.A. 1818, and B.D. and D.D. in November 1828. In 1817 he was ordained in the English church, and in February 1819 he became, by the gift of the lord chancellor, vicar of Nazeing, Essex. In November 1820 he was advanced by the same patron to the vicarage of Sutton-in-the-Forest, or Sutton Galtries, Yorkshire. He subsequently was appointed seventh canon in Canterbury Cathedral (14 Nov. 1822 to 1828), rector of St. George-the-Martyr, Canterbury (1827–8), prebendary of Osbaldwick at York (15 Feb. 1824 to September 1828), prebendary of Wistow in the same cathedral (18 Sept. 1828 to 1852), rector of St. Dionis Backchurch, London (October 1828 to 1852), dean of Norwich 1828, and rector of Great Chart, Kent, 1852; and he held the last two preferments until his death. As dean of Norwich he had a seat in convocation, where he took a very active part in the debates, and threw in his influence with the moderate party. Pellew died at the rectory, Great Chart, on 13 Oct. 1866, and the east window of the church was afterwards filled with stained glass in his memory. He married, on 20 June 1820, Frances, second daughter of Henry Addington, prime minister and first viscount Sidmouth, and left issue one son and three daughters. The widow died at Speen Hill House, Newbury, Berkshire, on 27 Feb. 1870.

Pellew printed many sermons and tracts, the most important of which was a ‘Letter to Sir Robert Peel on the means of rendering Cathedral Churches most conducive to the Efficiency of the Established Church.’ Many of his sermons were included in two volumes printed in 1848, and entitled ‘Sermons on