Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Troubridge, Edward Thomas

793728Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 57 — Troubridge, Edward Thomas1899John Knox Laughton

TROUBRIDGE, Sir EDWARD THOMAS (d. 1852), rear-admiral, only son of Rear-admiral Sir Thomas Troubridge [q. v.], entered the navy, in January 1797, on board the Cambridge, guardship at Plymouth, and remained, borne on her books, till April 1799. In January 1801 he joined the Achille, with Captain George Murray, whom he followed to the Edgar, and in her was present in the battle of Copenhagen. He was afterwards moved into the London, and the following year to the Leander. In July 1803 he joined the Victory, flagship of Lord Nelson in the Mediterranean, and in August 1804 was moved from her to the Narcissus frigate. On 22 Feb. 1806 he was promoted to be lieutenant of the Blenheim, going out to the East Indies as flagship of his father, by whom he was appointed to command the Harrier brig. In her, in company with the 32-gun frigate Greyhound, he assisted in destroying a Dutch brig of war under the fort of Menado, on 4 July 1806, and on the 26th in the capture of the 36-gun frigate Pallas and two Indiamen under her convoy. After this Troubridge was appointed captain of the Greyhound. His commission as commander was confirmed on 5 Sept. 1806, that as captain on 28 Nov. 1807. In June 1807, when his letters from the Cape of Good Hope forced the commander-in-chief, Sir Edward Pellew, to fear that the Blenheim (commanded by Troubridge's father) and Java had been lost, Troubridge, in the Greyhound, was ordered to go in search of intelligence, carrying a letter from Pellew to the captain-general of the French settlements. Neither at the French islands nor along the coast of Madagascar was anything to be heard of the missing ships, and the conclusion was unwillingly come to that they had foundered in the hurricane [see Troubridge, Sir Thomas]. By the death of his father, Troubridge succeeded to the baronetcy. In the following January he invalided, and had no further service till February 1813, when he commissioned the Armide frigate for the North American station, where he was landed in command of the naval brigade at New Orleans. From April 1831 to October 1832 he was commander-in-chief at Cork, with a broad pennant on board the Stag. From April 1835 to August 1841 he was one of the lords of the admiralty. He was nominated a C.B. on 20 July 1838, and was promoted to be rear-admiral on 23 Nov. 1841. From 1831 to 1847 he was M.P. for Sandwich. He died on 7 Oct. 1852. He married, in October 1810, Anna Maria, daughter of Admiral Sir Alexander Forrester Inglis Cochrane [q. v.], and had issue Sir Thomas St. Vincent Hope Cochrane Troubridge [q. v.]; Edward Norwich Troubridge, a captain in the navy, who died in China in 1850; and two daughters.

[O'Byrne's Naval Biogr. Dict.; Gent. Mag. 1853, i. 197; James's Naval Hist. iv. 162–4.]

J. K. L.