Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth

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Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth bigraphy, stories - Royal Navy admiral

Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth : biography

9 April 1757 – 19 July 1833

Admiral Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth, GCB (19 April 1757 – 23 January 1833) was a British naval officer. He fought during the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. His younger brother, Israel Pellew, also pursued a naval career.

Pellew was an officer of courage, leadership and skill, serving as a paragon of the versatility and determination of British naval officers during the Napoleonic Wars.

Childhood

Pellew was born at Dover, the second son of Samuel Pellew (1712–1764), commander of a Dover packet. The family was Cornish, descended from a family which came originally from Normandy, but had for many centuries been settled in the west of Cornwall. Edward’s grandfather, Humphrey Pellew (1650–1721), a merchant and ship owner, son of a naval officer, resided at Flushing manor-house in the parish of Mylor. Part of the town of Flushing was built by Samuel Trefusis MP for Penryn; the other part was built by Humphrey Pellew who was buried there. He also had a property and a tobacco plantation in Maryland. Part of the town of Annapolis stands on what was, before the revolt of the colonies, the estate of the Pellews. On the death of Edward’s father in 1764 the family removed to Penzance, and Pellew was educated for some years at Truro Grammar SchoolNicholas Carlisle, A concise description of the endowed grammar schools in England, vol. 1 (1818), He was a pugnacious youth, which did not endear him to his headmaster. He ran away to sea at the age of 14, but soon deserted because of unfair treatment to another midshipman.

Marriage and family

On 28 May 1783 Pellew married Susannah Frowde. They had four sons and two daughters. These children were:

  • Emma Mary Pellew, b. 18 January 1785. Married Captain Lawrence Halsted in 1803.
  • Pownoll Bastard Pellew, later 2nd Viscount Exmouth, b. 1 July 1786
  • Julia Pellew, b. 31 May 1787
  • Fleetwood Broughton Reynolds Pellew, later an admiral and knight, b. 13 December 1789
  • George Pellew, Dean of Norwich, born 3 April 1793
  • Edward William Pellew, later a minister, born 3 November 1799

Admiralcy and peerage

By 1794 he was Commodore of the Western Frigate Squadron. In 1795, he took command of HMS Indefatigable, the ship with which he is most closely associated. The squadron also comprised the frigates Argo, Concord, Révolutionnaire, HMS Amazon.Campagnes, thriomphes, revers, désastres et guerres civiles des Français de 1792 à la paix de 1856, F. Ladimir et E. Moreau. Librairie Populaire des Villes et des Campagnes, 1856 , pp.42-43

He was also a good swimmer and noted for saving the lives of several seamen who had fallen overboard. The most striking life-saving event was on 26 January 1796 when the East Indiaman Dutton, which was carrying more than four hundred troops together with many women and children, ran aground under Plymouth Hoe. Due to the heavy seas, the crew and soldiers aboard were unable to get to shore. Pellew swam out to the wreck with a line and with help from a young Irishman, Jeremiah Coghlan, helped rig a lifeline that saved almost all aboard: for this feat he was, on 18 March 1796, created a baronet.

On 13 April 1796, off the coasts of Ireland, his squadron captured the French frigate Unité, and the Virginie nine days later.

His most famous action was the Action of 13 January 1797 when, cruising in company with HMS Amazon, the British sighted the French 74-gun ship of the line Droits de l’Homme. Normally a ship of the line would over-match two frigates, but by skillful sailing in the stormy conditions, the frigates avoided bearing the brunt of the superior firepower of the French. In the early morning of 14 January, the three ships were embayed on a lee shore in Audierne Bay. Both the Droits de l’Homme and Amazon ran aground, but Indefatigable managed to claw her way off the lee shore to safety.