Sir Chaloner Ogle

1726-1816. The elder son of Nathaniel Ogle of Kirkley Hall, Northumberland, and of his wife Elizabeth Newton, he was the nephew of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Chaloner Ogle.

Ogle began his career in April 1740 as an able seaman aboard his uncle’s flagship in the West Indies, the Cumberland 80, Captain James Stewart, transferring on the same station as a midshipman in October 1741 to the Defiance 60, Captain Daniel Hore. Remaining in the West Indies, on 13 November 1743 he joined the Kent 70, Captains Cornelius Mitchell and John Simcoe, and in July 1744 he moved to the Falmouth 50 with the latter officer. He was commissioned lieutenant of the Falmouth on 19 November 1745, which ship came home to be paid off in October 1746.

Sir Chaloner Ogle

From June 1747 until May 1752, he was a lieutenant aboard the Ruby 50, Captain Joseph Knight, and after a short period out of employment he joined the Prince Frederick 70, Captain Jervis Henry Porter, on 12 April 1755. In the same month he recommissioned the sloop Swan 10, being promoted commander of that vessel on 17 June. In September the Swan sent into Portsmouth a Swedish vessel that had been bound for France but was expected to be released following examination of her cargo. She later sailed from the Hampshire port for Plymouth on 14 October with Vice-Admiral Hon. John Byng’s Channel Fleet, but on 8 November she was overtaken by a hurricane off Ushant that lasted the best part of twelve hours, and which left her with water up to her hatchway, despite the crew cutting away her mizzen and casting six cannons overboard. Expecting to founder at any minute, the Swan miraculously survived with only one man being lost, and she made Portsmouth four days later. Continuing to serve in the Channel, on 14 April 1756, just days after being chased by five French men-of-war, the Swan arrived at Portsmouth with dispatches from Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Hawke off Brest which Ogle immediately took up to London.

He was posted captain on 30 June 1756 and was appointed to the Yarmouth 64, in which he served with Vice-Admiral Hon. Edward Boscawen’s fleet off Brest. During September he took passage out to the Mediterranean aboard the Ambuscade 40, Captain Richard Gwynn, to assume the command of the Chesterfield 44, whose captain, William Lloyd, was required to give evidence at Vice-Admiral Byng’s court-martial which resulted in that officer’s death sentence. The Chesterfield returned to England in May 1757 from Gibraltar, and in early August she escorted three East Indiamen from Edinburgh to London. Ogle retained her until the 17th of that month when she was taken into harbour at Portsmouth.

After nine months unemployment, he was appointed to the newly launched frigate Aquilon 28 on 22 May 1758, taking her down the Thames to embark her ordnance at Long Reach at the end of June. During September he brought the Baltic convoy into the Humber, and in December his command sailed from Plymouth for Gibraltar with stores, whilst also giving passage to an officer engineer. Throughout 1759 the Aquilon served on the Downs station, in the course of which duty she captured an 8-gun Dunkirk privateer in April, and in the early part of 1760 she was employed under Admiral Sir Edward Hawke off the coast of France, arriving at Spithead from Havre in March. In October she convoyed three victuallers from Cork to Quiberon Bay before being docked at Portsmouth on the 16th of that month, and after being released on 5 November she saw further service off France.

Whilst cruising in the eastern Atlantic in the early part of 1761, the Aquilon captured a host of privateers to include in January the St. Malo-based Maria Theresa 10, which was sent into Cork, and days later another St. Malo privateer, the Royal Cantabre 8. Her largest capture was the Bayonne-based Count de Grammont 20 following a long chase on 31 January, which she took into Lisbon. On 4 March she captured the Bayonne-based Zephire 12 to the west of Ushant, which she carried into Spithead, and another prize was a French East India Company frigate, the Subtile 16, which she took to the west of Cape Finisterre on 7 August and carried into Plymouth. Shortly afterwards, she took the La Rochelle privateer Aurora 10 off Cape Machicaco on the Spanish Basque coast.

The Moonlight Battle 1780

At the end of 1761, when Ogle was due to cede command of the Aquilon to Captain Joseph Peyton, she sailed for the Leeward Islands at the orders of Captain Richard Spry of the Mars 74 to warn Rear-Admiral George Brydges Rodney that the Brest fleet had been despatched to those waters, and she arrived at Martinique shortly before the enemy. Remaining in the Caribbean, in March 1762 Ogle transferred to the Dover 44, in which he was present at the capture of Havana, and on 29 June he was appointed on that station to the Temple 68. A further move occurred when he exchanged with Captain Thomas Collingwood into the Nottingham 60 on 10 September. During November this vessel arrived with Commodore Hon. Augustus Keppel’s squadron at Kingston, Jamaica, and she remained on that station until she came home to be paid off in July 1763 following the end of the Seven Years War.

In 1768 Ogle served the year as the high sheriff of Hampshire, and in November he was honoured with a knighthood. His next employment in the Navy was not until 20 October 1770 during the Falkland Islands dispute when he was appointed to the new Elizabeth 74, retaining the command but for a brief period until 29 May 1771. From July 1775 he commanded the guardship Resolution 74 at Portsmouth in succession to the late Captain John Hollwall, and in the latter months of 1777 and in the spring of 1778, as the American Revolutionary War escalated, he saw duty cruising off Portugal and in the Channel with Commodore Hon. Robert Digby’s squadron.

The Resolution was in dock at the time of the Battle of Ushant on 27 July 1778, but on 23 August she sailed out of Portsmouth Harbour with orders to join the Grand Fleet. During September Ogle looked into Brest to check that the French fleet was still at anchor there, and he later flew a broad pennant aboard the Resolution in Vice-Admiral Lord Shuldham’s squadron which escorted several large convoys out of Portsmouth that winter. In the spring of 1778, the Resolution assisted in escorting the East Indies convoy out to a safe latitude, returning to Portsmouth on 10 April, and later that month Ogle sat on Vice-Admiral Sir Hugh Palliser’s court martial subsequent to the Battle of Ushant. In July his command left Portsmouth Harbour after being docked, and she formed part of the Grand Fleet during the August retreat up the Channel.

Newly copper-bottomed, the Resolution joined the fleet despatched under Admiral Sir George Rodney to relieve Gibraltar at the end of 1779, and she accepted the surrender of the Princesa 70 during the Moonlight Battle off Cape St. Vincent on 16 January 1780. During the voyage back to England, and with Lord Robert Manners serving as the ship’s captain under Ogle’s broad pennant, the Resolution captured the French sail of the line Protée 64 following a half hour action, and without the loss of a single man.

In May 1780 the Resolution went out to North America with Rear-Admiral Thomas Graves’ squadron, and after arriving in July, one of Ogle’s first tasks was to preside over the court-martial of Captain Nathaniel Bateman of the Yarmouth 64, which saw that officer controversially dismissed the navy. The Resolution having transferred to the Leeward Islands in November with Admiral Sir George Rodney’s fleet, Ogle returned to Portsmouth on 11 April 1781 aboard the Greyhound 28, Captain William Fooks, after a passage of five weeks from St. Eustatius, as he had been advanced to the rank of rear-admiral on 26 September 1780 in the promotion that had been extended to included Captain Richard Kempenfelt. A few days later he was at Court in London to kiss the hands of the King and Queen.

He did not see any further service but became a leading member of society in Hampshire. He was promoted vice-admiral on 24 September 1787 and admiral on 12 April 1794.

Sir Chaloner Ogle died at Kings Worthy, Hampshire, on 27 August 1816, having been created a baronet in January of that year. At the time of his death, he was the senior admiral in the fleet.

On 7 September 1761 he married Hester Thomas, the youngest daughter of the Bishop of Winchester, and they had issue three sons and three daughters, including Admiral of the Fleet Sir Charles Ogle, and Major Thomas Ogle, who lost his life in the Egyptian landings of 1801 whilst serving with the 58th Regiment. An elder son had previously died aged nineteen in 1791, and Lady Ogle died on 1 November 1796. His nephew was Rear-Admiral Mauritius Adolphus De Starck. The manor of Kings Worthy in Hampshire was purchased by him in 1773.

Ogle avidly read classical works and was fluent in several languages.