Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v1p2.djvu/124

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548
VICE-ADMIRALS OF THE BLUE.

16, 1820. His commission as Vice-Admiral bears date July 19th, 1821.

Sir Richard King married, 1st, in November 1803, Sarah-Anne, only daughter of the late Admiral Sir John Thomas Duckworth[1]; and secondly, May 16, 1822, Maria-Susanna, daughter of his old friend and commander, Sir Charles Cotton, Bart.

Residence.– Bellevue, Kent.




EDWARD GRIFFITH COLPOYS, Esq
(late griffith.)
Vice-Admiral of the Blue.


At the commencement of the French revolutionary war, we find this officer proceeding to the West Indies, as third Lieutenant of the Boyne, a second rate, bearing the flag of Sir John Jervis, by whom he was made a Commander into the Avenger sloop; and from that vessel promoted to the rank of Post-Captain, May 21, 1794.

In the course of the same year, Captain Griffith was appointed to the London, of 98 guns, bearing the flag of his friend the late Sir John Colpoys, in which ship he appears to have been engaged in the action off l’Orient, June 23, 1795[2]. The London on that occasion bad 3 men wounded. From this time until the end of 1796, Vice-Admiral Colpoys. with his flag in the London, was employed in the command of different cruizing squadrons.

Early in 1797, symptoms of mutiny and discontent displayed themselves in his Majesty’s fleet at Spithead. In the month of February, petitions were sent from all the line-of-battle ships at that anchorage, and in Portsmouth harbour, to Earl Howe; but as they were considered to be only the productions of a few factious individuals, they were wholly disregarded. This neglect, however, tended to a more extensive dissemination of mutinous principles; and on the 15th April,

  1. Sir Richard’s first lady died on board his flag-ship, the Minden, on the passage to Bombay, March 20, 18
  2. See p. 246.