Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall sp4.djvu/135

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POST-CAPTAINS OF 1817.
123

late acting lieutenant of the Triuculo, was tried for contempt; for unofficer-like conduct to a centinel, while he himself was under arrest; for making use of improper language in the gun-room; and for being one of a combination against Captain Renny. The Court decided, that he was guilty of the first two charges alleged against him, but acquitted him of the latter: he was consequently adjudged to be incapable of receiving promotion for two years, and admonished to be more circumspect in his conduct for the future. In Feb. following, Lieutenant Cornelius Lascelles, likewise of the Trinculo, was tried in the some port, for a violation, of the 23d and 27th articles of war, and for conspiring against his commander. The whole of these charges being proved, he was sentenced to be dismissed from the naval service, and rendered incapable, for ever, of serving his Majesty.

Captain Renny obtained post rank, Jan. 1, 1817 ; and died at Paris, June 13, 1826.



JOHN LAWRENCE, Esq.
A Companion of the Most Honorable Military Order of the Bath.
[Post-Captain of 1817.]

This mark of distinction was conferred upon Captain Lawrence for his gallant and zealous services, while commanding the Fantome brig, under the immediate orders of Rear-Admiral (now Sir George) Cockburn, whose flag we find flying on board that vessel, in April, 1813. The following is a copy of the Rear-Admiral’s official letter to Sir John B. Warren, detailing his operations against the Americans, at the commencement of the ensuing month:

H.M.S. Maidstone, at anchor off Turkey Point,
3d May, 1813.


“Sir,– I have the honor to inform you, that whilst anchoring the brigs and tenders off Spesuçie island, agreeable to my intentions, notified to you in my official report of the 29th ultimo[1], I observed guns fired, and American colours hoisted at a battery lately erected at Havre-de-Grace, at the entrance of the Susquehanna river. This of course, immediately gave to