SIR CHARLES MORICE POLE, Bart.
Admiral of the Red; M.P. for Plymouth; a Groom of the Bed-chamber to H.R.H. the Duke of Clarence; Knight Grand Cross of the most honourable Military Order of the Bath; a Vice-President of the Naval Charitable Society; and Fellow of the Royal Society.
Three families of the name of Pole have obtained the honour of Baronetage; viz. the Poles of Shute, in Devonshire; the Poles of Walthamstow, in Essex; and the subject of the following memoir, who is a junior branch of the first-mentioned Poles, and derives his descent from Sir John Pole, the third Baronet of that line, who married Anne, youngest daughter of Sir William Morice, of Werington, co. Devon, Knt., one of the Secretaries of State to King Charles II. by whom he had four sons; the youngest of whom, Carolus, Rector of St. Breock, in Cornwall, married Sarah, eldest daughter of Jonathan Rashleigh, of Menabilly, in the same county, Esq., and left issue two sons and one daughter.
Reginald Pole, of Stoke Damarell, co. Devon, Esq., the eldest son, married Anne, second daughter of John Francis Buller, of Morvall, in Cornwall, Esq. by whom he had three sons and two daughters: viz. 1. Reginald[1]; 2. Charles Morice, born at Stoke Damarell, co. Devon, Jan. 18, 1757; and 3. Edward, who is married, and has issue. The daughters were; Anne, who married Charles, the first Lord Somers; and Sarah, who married Henry Hippisley Coxe, of Stone Easton, in Somersetshire, Esq. and died without issue.
Charles Morice Pole, the second son, being intended for the sea service, and having received a suitable education at that excellent institution the Royal Naval College, at Portsmouth, embarked as a Midshipman, with Captain Locker, the late Lieutenant-Governor of Greenwich Hospital[2], in the Thames frigate, in 1772 he afterwards served in the Salisbury, of 50 guns, with Sir Edward Hughes, whom he accompanied to the East Indies; where he received his promotion to a Lieutenancy in the Seahorse frigate, from which ship he was removed into the Rippon, bearing the broad pendant of Commodore Vernon, and was engaged in the indecisive actions fought between that officer and Mons. Tranjolly[3]. He was also employed in the command of a body of seamen and marines, at the siege of Pondicherry, the capital of the French settlements on the continent of Asia; on the surrender of which important place, Oct. 17, 1778, being advanced to the rank of Commander, in the Cormorant sloop, he returned home with Sir Edward Vernon’s despatches; and, on the 22d Mar. 1779, ten days after his arrival, obtaining a post commission, was appointed Captain to the late Admiral Darby, in the Channel Fleet. In 1780, he was nominated to the command of the Hussar, of 28 guns; but this ship, in entering the passage of what is termed Hell-Gates, in North America, was thrown on the Pot-rock, by the unskilfulness of her pilot, and totally lost, the officers and people, except one, being all saved. As no blame whatever could be imputed to Captain Pole, in this accident, he was immediately charged with Vice-Admiral Arbuthnot’s despatches to the Admiralty; and, soon after his arrival in England, received an appointment to the Success, of 32 guns, and 220 men, in which frigate, Mar. 16, 1782, being in company with a store-ship then under his convoy, he fell in with, engaged, and took, after a severe action of two hours and twenty minutes, the Santa Catalina, of 34 guns and 316 men, 38 of whom were killed and wounded. In this affair, much bravery and seamanship were displayed; and what rendered the victory still more satisfactory, it was achieved with the loss of only one man slain and four wounded, on the part of the British.
From the disabled state of the prize, she having only her foremast standing, but small hopes were entertained of being able to conduct her to port; notwithstanding which Captain Pole was making every exertion to get her in a fit state to proceed, as well as to repair the damages sustained by the Success in her masts, yards, and sails, when, at day-light on the 18th, six strangers appeared in sight, part of whom approached to reconnoitre; whereupon, seeing that it was impossible to prevent the Santa Catalina falling into the hands of the supposed enemy, he withdrew his officers and men, and set her on fire, by which means she was totally destroyed. The strange vessels afterwards proved to be the Apollo and Cerberus, British frigates, with four transports under their convoy[4] During the peace which commenced in 1783, Captain Pole commanded the Crown, guard-ship; and, upon occasion of the Spanish armament, in 1790, was appointed to the Melampus, a 36-gun frigate, employed in watching the progress of any equipments which might take place in the port of Brest, with a view of seconding the efforts of the Court of Madrid. In the succeeding year, we find him in the Illustrious, of 74 guns; and about the same period he was nominated a Groom of the Bed-chamber to H.R.H. the Duke of Clarence[5].
On the commencement of the war with the French republic, in 1793, Captain Pole’s services were too valuable to be passed unnoticed; and he was, accordingly, appointed to the command of the Colossus, another third rate, and accompanied Vice-Admiral Hotham to the Mediterranean, from which station he returned to England after the evacuation of Toulon by the allied forces. He was advanced to the rank of Rear-Admiral, June 1, 1795.
Our officer, after serving for some time in the Channel Fleet, sailed for the West Indies, with his flag in the Colossus, as second in command to the late Sir Hugh C. Christian, and took an able part in the various important services on which the squadron under that officer’s orders was employed[6]. Immediately on his return to Europe he was nominated to the distinguished station of First Captain in the Grand Fleet, where he continued to serve during the whole of the period that Lord Bridport held the chief command; hoisting his flag at times during his Lordship’s absence; and the arrangements made by him for the discipline, health, and support of the fleet, did him the greatest credit, and gave general satisfaction. On the 27th June, 1799, Lord Bridport struck his flag, and Rear-Admiral Pole put to sea in the Royal George, accompanied by a fire-ship, three bombs, and several smaller vessels. On the 1st July, he joined Rear-Admiral Berkeley’s squadron off the Isle of Rhé, and the next day proceeded to attack five Spanish line-of-battle ships, which had taken shelter under the protection of the batteries on that island, and a floating mortar battery moored in the passage between a shoal and the Isle of Oleron. The squadron having anchored in Basque Road, the bombs took their stations under cover of the frigates commanded by Captain, now Sir Richard G. Keats, and opened their fire upon the enemy’s ships, which was continued with great briskness for three hours, but with no effect, the Spaniards being at too great a distance. The batteries from the Isle of Aix, during this time, kept up an incessant cannonade. The wind dying away, and the enemy having brought forward several gun-boats, Rear-Admiral Pole called off the ships engaged, got under weigh, and stood to sea, fully convinced that fire-ships alone could have been brought forward with any reasonable prospect of success.
On the Rear-Admiral’s return from the above service, the approbation of his conduct by the Board of Admiralty was marked by his appointment to be Commander-in-Chief and Governor of Newfoundland, to which station he proceeded in the Agincourt, of 64 guns; but on the indisposition, and urgent desire of Lord Nelson to be recalled from the Baltic, he was appointed to relieve his early friend in that important command, during the summer of 1801. On the first day of that year he had been advanced to the rank of Vice-Admiral.
To succeed such an officer as the heroic Nelson, and at so critical a moment, was a duty which they who know how his Lordship was regarded can best appreciate; and no one in the Navy knew him better, or loved him with greater sincerity, than his successor; whose good fortune it was, by prudence and sagacity, to disperse every remnant of the northern confederacy, which had taken place under the auspices of Paul I., and to complete the work which his Lordship had so ably commenced[7]. In returning from that station, the Vice-Admiral detached a part of his fleet, under the command of Sir T. Graves, through the Sound; whilst he himself determined to make the experiment of passing the Great Belt, with nine sail of the line, which he accomplished in the most satisfactory manner, his flag-ship, the St. George, of 98 guns, leading; and as the wind was adverse, his ships were under the necessity of working through, by which means that Channel, which had never before been passed by line-of-battle ships, was effectually explored, thereby fully establishing, for the first time, the importance and practicability of this navigation, which has since been of advantage to our operations in those seas.
Vice-Admiral Pole was next appointed to the command of the squadron off Cadiz; whither he immediately repaired in the St. George, and remained watching that port until the suspension of hostilities at the latter end of the year enabled him to return to England. During his absence he was raised to the dignity of a Baronet of Great Britain, by patent, dated Sept. 12, 1801.
At the general election, in the following year, Sir Charles M. Pole was chosen representative in Parliament for the borough of Newark-upon-Trent; and soon after nominated Chairman of the Board appointed to inquire into the abuses in the civil department of the Navy, and other branches of public expenditure, the duties of which office he continued to perform until the month of February 1806, when he was called to a seat at the Admiralty; from which he retired in October following, in consequence of the change in the administration which took place at that period.
The limits of this work will not admit of our entering at length into the parliamentary services of officers[8]. We must therefore content ourselves with observing, that during the whole of his senatorial life, Sir Charles M. Pole has never omitted to embrace every opportunity of rendering service to the naval profession, whether as it related to the seamen and marines, or the officers generally; and that the conduct of himself and his colleagues in the commission of Naval Inquiry, was approved by a vote of the House of Commons, which was communicated to them by the Speaker in a most handsome manner.
In consequence of the decisive victory obtained off Cape Trafalgar, Oct. 21, 1805, a general promotion took place on the 9th of the following month, and our officer on that occasion became a full Admiral. He was nominated a G.C.B. Feb. 20, 1818. He has been M.P. for Plymouth ever since the general election in 1807.
Sir Charles married, June 8, 1792, Henrietta, third daughter of John Goddard, formerly of Rotterdam, and late of Woodford-Hall, co. Essex, Esq., and niece of Henry Hope, Esq. the great Amsterdam merchant. His daughter married, Aug. 9, 1822, William Stuart, Esq. M.P., son of the Lord Primate of Ireland[9].
Country seat.– Aldenham Abbey, near Watford, co. Herts.
Town residence.– 18, Upper Harley Street.
Addenda
SIR C. M. POLE, (p. 89.) Commanded the Scipio previous to his joining the Crown.
- ↑ Some years since, this gentleman added the name of Carew to that of his own, pursuant to the will of Sir Coventry Carew, of Anthony, in Cornwall; and he also represented the boroughs of Fowey and Lostwithiel, in several successive parliaments, until he was appointed one of the auditors of public accompts; which office he relinquished, at the general election in 1802, when he was again returned for Fowey. In the following year, he was appointed Under Secretary of State for the home department, which he resigned on the termination of Mr. Addington’s administration, in 1804; and, in 1805, he was sworn a privy counsellor. He married, in 1784, Jemima, only daughter and heiress of the Hon. John Yorke, fourth son of Philip, first Earl of Hardwicke, then Lord-High-Chancellor of Great Britain, by Elizabeth, only daughter of Reginald Lygon, of Madresfield, in the county of Worcester, Esq. father of the present Lord Beauchamp.
- ↑ Lieutenant-Governor Locker died Dec. 26, 1800. This gentleman was the nautical tutor of the late Lord Nelson, who loved him with the sincere affection of a friend, revered him as a foster parent, and seized with avidity every possible opportunity of publicly declaring he was indebted for the honours he had been fortunate in acquiring, to the instructions and knowledge he had received from this good and gallant man.
- ↑ See p. 57.
- ↑ The Santa Catalina was the largest frigate at that time in the Spanish service. The following were her dimensions; length of the keel, 138 feet 11 inches; of the deck, 151 feet 10 inches; extreme breadth, 39 feet 4 inches; height of the middle port, when victualled for four months, 8 feet.
Captain Pole’s friend, the gallant Nelson, on perusing the unassuming manner in which the Commander of the Success spoke of this action in his official letter, observed (when writing to their former patron, Captain Locker), “I am exceedingly happy at Charles Pole’s success. In his seamanship he shewed himself as superior to the Don as in his gallantry, and no man in the world was ever so modest in his account of it.” And afterwards, in another letter to the same gentleman, Captain Nelson added,– Never was there a young man who bore his own merits with so much modesty; I esteem him as a brother.
- ↑ In which capacity Sir Charles attended the funeral of his late Majesty.
- ↑ On the 16th Nov. 1795, Rear-Admirals Christian and Pole sailed from St. Helen’s, with a squadron of men of war, and upwards of 200 sail of West Indiamen and transports, on board of which were embarked 16,000 troops, destined to act against the French and Dutch colonies. The late period of the season to which this expedition had been protracted occasioned the most disastrous result. On the second night after they sailed, the wind shifted to the westward, and blew a violent gale, which dispersed the fleet; many of the ships put into Torbay, others into Portland, and some returned to Portsmouth. Several of the merchantmen and transports foundered, and many lives were lost.
Early in the following month, another attempt was made to get clear of the Channel; but the fleet was again separated in a dreadful storm, which continued with unabated fury for several weeks. Some of the vessels taking shelter in the Cove of Cork, were enabled to sail from thence on the 25th Feb. 1796, under the protection of Captain, now Admiral, George Bowen, of the Canada 74; but Sir Hugh Christian did not sail with the ships he had collected at Spithead until the 20th of the following month. Rear-Admiral Pole, who had been obliged, in consequence of the damage sustained by the Colossus, to remove his flag into the Carnatic, another ship of the same force, sailed for his original destination on the 12th April, and arrived at the Leeward Islands in the course of the ensuing month. He returned to England with Sir Hugh C. Christian (who had been superseded by Rear-Admiral Harvey) in the Beaulieu frigate, towards the latter end of the same year.
- ↑ For the particulars of the attack made upon the Danish line of defence before Copenhagen, April 2, 1801, see Sir Thomas Foley, Vice-Admiral of the Red.
- ↑ For information on this head respecting Sir Charles M. Pole, the reader is referred to a Work entitled “Public Characters,” v.8, p.567, et seq.; also to the “Naval Chronicle,” v.21, p.271, et seq. In July, 1803, Sir Charles brought in a Bill for transferring to the Directors of Greenwich Hospital, the administration of the Chest of Chatham. In the course of some explanations, he animadverted on the hardship of the case of a poor disabled sailor who had lost his limbs in the service of his county, and yet was obliged to repair 200 or 300 miles to receive his miserable pittance! By the provisions of this Bill the Pensioners of the Chest were enabled to receive their pay at their own homes, as had been recommended by the Commissioners of Naval Inquiry; and the pay of this suffering and meritorious class of men was augmented from seven to eighteen pounds per annum. On the second reading of the Prize Agents’ Bill, our officer stated that his friend Sir Charles Danvers, out of 163,000l. received for thirty-one captures, had paid 51,000l. expences in the Prize Courts, besides a charge of 50,000l. to agents.
- ↑ The office called the Chest at Chatham, since removed to Greenwich, (alluded to in the preceding Note) was established by Queen Elizabeth, about the year 1588, when many seamen being hurt and maimed in the service against the Spaniards, petitioned her Majesty for relief, who directed the Lord High Admiral to take their petition into consideration; in consequence of which, with the advice of the four principal officers of the navy, and by the consent of the inferior officers and seamen, it was agreed that a deduction of sixpence per month should be made out of their pay for this charitable institution; upon which basis it has stood ever since, without any considerable variation. When any of the pensioners recover from their hurts, or are admitted into Greenwich Hospital, their pensions cease. The revenues of the chest arising from the rents and interest of stock, are very considerable.