Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Corbett, Thomas
CORBETT, THOMAS (d. 1751), secretary of the admiralty, of the family of Corbet of Moreton Corbet, and apparently a near relation of Andrew Corbett, an ‘instrument’ of the treasurer of the navy, temp. William III Cal. S. P., Treasury), was secretary to Sir George Byng, viscount Torrington [q. v.], during the expedition to Sicily (1718–20), of which he afterwards published an account. On his return to England he was appointed chief clerk of the admiralty in 1723, and in 1728 second secretary of the admiralty under Josiah Burchett [q. v.]; on Burchett's retirement in 1742 he became senior secretary, with John Cleveland under him. He held this office till his death in 1751, and during the whole time lived on terms of friendly equality with the many distinguished officers with whom he was thrown in contact. His letter to Anson (Add. MS. 15955, f. 250), pointing out the impropriety of his promotion of Peircy Brett [see Anson, George, Lord], is not that of a mere official, but rather that of an old shipmate and social equal.
[Corbett's official letters in the Public Record Office are very numerous, but contain little of biographical interest. The notice of the family in Burke's ‘Landed Gentry’ is very inaccurate, and makes it quite impossible to identify this member of it. It is there said that William Corbett, who adopted the mode of writing his name with two t's, was secretary of the admiralty and had three sons, Thomas, Vincent, and William, cashier of the navy. Thomas, the secretary of the admiralty, had a younger brother, William, who began life as secretary to Viscount Torrington in the Baltic expedition of 1717, and was afterwards cashier of the navy; but there never was a William Corbett secretary of the admiralty; and Andrew Corbett, the ‘instrument’ of the treasurer of the navy, signed his name with two t's. It seems not improbable that Thomas's father was William, that Andrew was his uncle, and that Burke has confused the three.]