SIR HENRY HEATHCOTE, KNT.
[Post-Captain of 1798.]
This officer, a younger son of Sir William Heathcote, Bart., of Hursley in Hampshire, and formerly M.P. for that county, by Frances, daughter and co-heiress of John Thorpe, of Embley, Hants., Esq., is descended from Samuel, third son of Gilbert Heathcote, of Chesterfield, co. Derby, Esq. who in the early part of his life went to Dantzic, where he acquired a considerable fortune with an unsullied character. He returned to England, and enjoyed the esteem of all who knew him, being a man of uncommon understanding, great commercial knowledge, and unquestionable integrity: he had the honor of being the intimate friend of the celebrated John Locke, who consulted with, and had much valuable assistance from him, in that useful undertaking, the regulation of the coin of Great Britain, as well as in several other public affairs.
Mr. Henry Heathcote was born in 1777; and early in the French revolutionary war, we find him serving as a Midshipman on board the Proserpine frigate, in the West Indies. He commanded the Alliance store-ship, on the Mediterranean station, in 1797; obtained post-rank, Feb. 5, 1798; and, in the course of the same year, brought home the Romulus of 36 guns. From this period we lose sight of him, until the renewal of hostilities in 1803, when he was appointed to the Galatea frigate. In Feb., 1804, he escorted a fleet of merchantmen to the West Indies; and on the 14th Aug. following, made an unsuccessful attempt to cut out the General Ernouf, a French privateer, formerly the British sloop of war Lilly, lying at the Saintes near Guadaloupe, The party sent on this enterprise, consisted of about 90 officers and men, no less than 65 of whom were either killed or wounded, including among the former their gallant leader, Mr. Charles Hayman, first Lieutenant of the Galatea.
Captain Heathcote was subsequently appointed in succession to la Desirée frigate, and the Lion of 64 guns. On the 30th Aug., 1811, he was tried by a court-martial at Batavia, for a breach of the 27th article of war[1], and for disobedience
- ↑ No person shall sleep upon his watch, or negligently perform his duty, or forsake his station, upon pain of death, or such punishment as a court-martial shall think fit to inflict.
