Sir Edward Rodney of Stoke Rodney in Somerset, after serving through the wars of William III as captain in Colonel Leigh's regiment of dragoons, was in 1702 lieutenant-colonel of Holt's regiment of marines, and was killed in a duel at Barcelona in 1705. Anthony's brother George served during the reign of William III as a captain of marines, and died in 1700. Henry Rodney (1681–1737), son of Anthony, served with his father as a cornet in Leigh's dragoons, and afterwards as a captain in Holt's marines. The regiment was disbanded in 1713, and Henry settled down at Walton-on-Thames and married Mary, elder daughter and coheiress of Sir Henry Newton (1651–1715) [q. v.] (Mundy; information kindly supplied by Colonel Edye). The story that he was captain of the king's yacht is unsupported by evidence, and is in itself improbable. That the king was godfather to young Rodney is possible, but George was already a family name; Brydges, his second christian name, commemorated the relationship of his family with that of James Brydges (afterwards duke of Chandos) [q. v.], to whom the Stoke Rodney estates had descended by the marriage of Sir Edward Rodney's daughter and heiress.
George Brydges Rodney is said (Collins, Peerage, ed. Brydges, vii. 561) to have been brought up as a child by George Brydges of Avington and Keynsham. He was also for a short time at Harrow, and entered the navy in July 1732 as a volunteer per order, or king's letter-boy, on board the Sunderland of 60 guns, with Captain Robert Man. In May 1733 he joined the Dreadnought with Captain Alexander Geddes, who, in December 1734, was superseded by Captain Henry Medley [q. v.] In July 1739 he joined the Somerset of 80 guns, flagship of Rear-admiral Nicholas Haddock [q. v.], by whom, on 29 Oct., he was promoted to be lieutenant of the Dolphin frigate, with his uncle, Lord Aubrey Beauclerk [q. v.] In 1741 he was lieutenant of the Essex, one of the fleet in the Channel, under Sir John Norris (1660–1749) [q. v.], and in 1742 went out to the Mediterranean with Admiral Mathews, by whom, on 9 Nov., he was promoted to be captain of the Plymouth of 60 guns, then under orders for England. On his arrival his commission as captain was confirmed without his passing through the intermediate grade of commander.
In September 1743 Rodney was appointed to the Sheerness, a 24-gun frigate, from which, in October 1744, he was moved to the Ludlow Castle, employed during the following year in the North Sea under the orders of Admiral Edward Vernon [q. v.] In December 1745 he was appointed to the new 60-gun ship Eagle. During 1746 he was for the most part employed in cruising off the south coast of Ireland for the protection of trade; in 1747 he was with Commodore Fox in a successful and lucrative cruise to the westward, and had a brilliant share in the defeat of the French fleet under L'Etenduère on 14 Oct. [see Hawke, Edward, Lord]. He afterwards complained that at a critical period in the action he had not been properly supported by Fox, who, on his representations, was tried for misconduct and dismissed from his command. After the peace in 1748 Rodney was appointed to the 40-gun ship Rainbow as governor of Newfoundland, and with secret orders to support the colonists against the encroachments of the French in Nova Scotia. The Rainbow was paid off in the autumn of 1752, and during the following years Rodney successively commanded the Kent, Fougueux, Prince George, and Monarque, as guardships at Portsmouth. In December 1756 he was in London on leave, and although he was ordered to return to sit on the court-martial on Admiral John Byng [q. v.], his attendance was excused on the score of ‘a violent bilious colic.’ With equal good fortune he was moved to the Dublin in February 1757, a very few weeks before Byng was shot. In the autumn of 1757 the Dublin was one of the fleet with Hawke in the abortive expedition to the Basque Roads, and in 1758 was with Boscawen on the coast of North America, but, being very sickly, she was left at Halifax when the fleet sailed for the reduction of Louisbourg.
On 19 May 1759 Rodney was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral, and at once appointed, with his flag in the Achilles, to the command of a squadron including several bomb-ketches, with which, on 4, 5, and 6 July, he bombarded Havre, destroying the stores and flat-bottomed boats prepared for the contemplated invasion of England. He continued off Havre during the rest of the year, and again during 1760; and in 1761 went out to the West Indies as commander-in-chief on the Leeward Islands station, when, in concert with a large land force, he reduced Martinique in February 1762, and took possession of St. Lucia, Grenada, and St. Vincent. On 21 Oct. 1762 he was advanced to the rank of vice-admiral. In August 1763 he returned to England, and on 21 Jan. 1764 was created a baronet. In November 1765 he was appointed governor of Greenwich Hospital, and during the five years that he held this appointment is said to have suggested and insisted on several measures
