Volumes 77 & 81, Letters and Papers of Admiral The Hon. Samuel Barrington Vols. I &2,
ed. D. Bonner-Smith (1937-1941)

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Profile

Samuel Barrington (1729–1800), a son of the first Viscount Barrington, entered the Royal Navy in 1740. Commissioned lieutenant in 1745, he was posted in 1747 and over the next seven years had command of a succession of frigates. During that period he negotiated at Tetuan the release of British subjects held by the Barbary corsairs, and cruised off the coast of Guinea where, as seen in the first of the two extracts below, some Royal Navy captains had been personally profiting from commercial dealings including the transportation of slaves. Commanding the 60-gun Achilles, he served from 1757-59 under Admiral Sir Edward Hawke and Rear-Admiral George Rodney off the coast of France, in 1760 under Captain the Hon. John Byron destroying the fortifications of Louisbourg in North America, and in 1761 under Commodore Augustus Keppel in the operations against Belle-Ile. From 1762 until the 1763 Treaty of Paris, he commanded the 74-gun Hero.  From 1768, when he again took to sea, until 1778 when he received his flag, he saw service in the dispute with Spain over the Falkland Islands (1771) and in the Channel.  From 1778-79 he was Commander-in-Chief on the Leeward Islands station.  He was powerless tp prevent the French capture of Dominica but in December 1778 participated, with General James Grant, in the combined naval and military reduction of St. Lucia, his squadron withstanding an assault from a larger French force under Comte d’Estaing. The latter’s intention to starve the British into surrender was thwarted by the arrival at St Lucia in January 1779 of Vice-Admiral Byron’s fleet, with which Barrington’s squadron subsequently merged.  Barrington, who became a vice-admiral that March, led the van division of Byron’s fleet at the battle with d-Estaing off Granada on 6 July 1779. Later, in 1780, he was briefly Admiral Sir Francis Geary’s second-in-command of the Channel Fleet.  He fell foul of Lord North’s administration, but returned to the Channel Fleet in 1782 as Admiral Lord Howe’s second-in-command, and during the latter’s illness commanded the fleet off Ushant.  In April his ships intercepted a French convoy bound for the East Indies. That September he sat on the court-martial which tried the survivors of the Royal George tragedy at Spithead, and the following month, having sailed with Howe to the relief of Gibraltar, commanded the van division at the battle of Cape Spartel (20 October) against the French and Spanish.  Promoted admiral in 1787, he last saw active service in 1790 during the so-called Spanish Armament at the time of the crisis regarding Nootka Sound. Papers in the possession of Barrington’s collateral descendants form these two volumes. Papers in the possession of Barrington’s collateral descendants form these two volumes. They comprise order books (1747-71), a private letter book (1770-99), his journal and three bound documents relating to the Leeward Islands command (1778-79), some loose correspondence, and printed matter: the general sailing and fighting Instructions, two signal books, and instructions. None of Barrington’s public letter books survives.

Contents

Volume 1
The Hon. Samuel Barrington, Admiral of the White [port]. Frontispiece
Preface                                                                                                      vii
I. To the Peace of 1748                                                                               1             
II. The Seahorse                                                                                        45                  
III. The Crown                                                                                          95      
IV. The Norwich                                                                                     111                                                  
V. The Achilles                                                                                       167
VI. The Hero                                                                                          375
VII. The Venus                                                                                       387
VIII. The Albion                                                                                     413
IX. The Prince of Wales                                                                         443
Index                                                                                                      455

Volume 2
Preface                                                                                                     vii
Introduction                                                                                              xi
I.The Outbreak of War                                                                               1
II.The Capture of St. Lucia                                                                    113
III. Superseded by Vice-Admiral Byron                                                171
IV.Last services                                                                                      333
Index                                                                                                       365
Plan: St Lucia Operations                                             preceding page 115

Further Reading

Alan G. Jamieson, ‘Samuel Barrington’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004), which includes a portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1779).

Alan G. Jamieson, ‘War in the Leeward Islands, 1775–1783’, unpub. DPhil dissertation, University of Oxford (1981).

Piers Mackesy, The war for America, 1775–1783 (1964)

J. H. Owen, ‘Operations of the western squadron, 1781–82’,Naval Review, 15 (1927), 33–53

N. A. M. Rodger, The Insatiable Earl: a life of John Montagu, fourth earl of Sandwich (1993)

Further archival material is contained in British Library MSS, Rep 9389  PRO, dispatches, logs, etc., PRO 30/20; NMM, letters to Lord Sandwich.

Extracts

Vol. 1, pp. 103-4: Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to Captain Barrington. 20th June 1753

     But whereas complaints have been made that Captains of His Majesty’s Ships have been made ill-use of this liberty, by trading themselves on the Coast of Africa, and have even transported great numbers of Negroes in His Majesty’s Ships to Barbadoes, for public sale, to the dishonour of His Majesty’s Service, the prejudice of the fair Trader, and in breach of an Act of Parliament …We do hereby strictly enjoin and require that you do not directly or indirectly concern yourself in any sort of Trade whatsoever, as you will answer to the contrary at your peril …

Vol. 2, p. 162: Rear-Admiral Barrington, Prince of Wales, in the Grand Cul de Sac in the Island of St Lucia, December 23, 1778 at Night, to the Secretary of the Admiralty

     This being the situation of the Squadron, and the Army being in possession of all the strong holds in the neighbourhood of the [Du Choc] Bay, such a spirit of cheerfulness, unanimity and resolution actuates the whole of our little Force both by land and sea (notwithstanding the amazing fatigue they have undergone) that we are under no apprehensions from any attempts the Enemy may meditate: And from the accounts  which have been transmitted to me … that Vice-Admiral Byron was to sail from Rhode Island for Barbadoes the 19th of last month, with sixteen Sail of the Line, and several Frigates, there is every reason to hope he will soon be here; in which case affairs in this Country must take a very decisive turn in favour of His Majesty’s Arms.