William Brereton 1728-c1800

Brereton was evidently something of a contradiction: a proficient seaman who was well regarded by some of the greatest officers of the age, but also a controversial officer repeatedly accused of failure in battle.

William Brereton, from a family long settled in Winchester, Hampshire, joined the navy as a eighteen-year-old in 1746 aboard the Eagle 60, Captain George Brydges Rodney. He was still serving in the ship during Rear-Admiral Edward Hawke’s victory over the French on 14 October 1747 at the Second Battle of Cape Finisterre. During the early years of the peace following the War of Austrian Succession, he followed Rodney into the Rainbow 44 on the Newfoundland station.

From 1754 he was employed in the East Indies, first aboard the Kent 64, (Captain Henry Speke) flagship of Vice-Admiral Charles Watson. On 4 July 1755 he was commissioned lieutenant of the Salisbury 50, Captain William Martin. After returning to the flagship at the onset of the Seven Years War, he was posted as captain of the Queenborough 24 on 25 March 1758 in his thirtieth year. A few days later he was ordered to take temporary command of the Cumberland 56, since her captain, William Martin, was absent.

At the Battle of Cuddalore on 29 April 1758, the Cumberland (known to be a dull sailer) was so slow getting into action that the French were able to concentrate their entire fire upon four of her consorts. Then she almost collided with the Yarmouth 64, bearing the flag of Vice-Admiral George Pocock, causing a chain reaction that forced three British vessels to back their topsails at the height of the battle. She did eventually manage to engage a French 50-gun ship, and although the overall action was considered inconclusive, the British seem to have had the better of it. A few weeks later, Pocock instigated proceedings against Brereton and two other captains from the rear of his fleet, who he claimed had performed poorly during the battle. At the conclusion of his court-martial at Madras, Brereton was convicted and received a sentence of the loss of one year’s seniority as captain, the least severe punishment of the three officers.

The Battle of Ushant in 1778. For a second time in combat, Brereton’s character would be called into question.

A month later Brereton was appointed to the Salisbury 50, which was present when Admiral Pocock once more brought the French to action off Negapatam on 3 August 1758. Again, the British had the better of the action, although Brereton did not greatly distinguish himself. In March 1759, he moved to the Tiger 60, and on 10 September commanded this ship in Pocock’s ferocious action with the enemy off Pondicherry, which saw the French defeated and put to flight. The Tiger’s casualties of one hundred and sixty-eight were a third of those sustained by the whole squadron during the battle — Brereton suffered a minor head wound, and his ship was so badly damaged that she had to be taken in tow.

Transferred to the Falmouth 50 in September 1760, over the following months Brereton was present at the siege of Pondicherry, during which his ship was dismasted in a storm. The town eventually surrendered on 15 January 1761. Continuing on the East Indies station, he participated in Rear-Admiral Samuel Cornish’s expedition against the Spanish stronghold of Manila during September-October 1762. In the initial stages of the assault the Falmouth was unable to work close enough inshore to bombard the defences effectively, although her gunfire must have caused the defending forces some discomfort. Later Brereton was one of three captains who supervised the landing of the troops who eventually captured the city. Whilst the Falmouth was broken up at Batavia due to damage she had incurred whilst grounding during the bombardment of the Manila forts, he remained in the Philippines as the military governor of Cavite, the port of Manila, for the next three years, during which time he lost his clerk and his assistant who were both killed by the natives. In 1765 following the end of the Seven Years War Brereton returned home aboard a Dutch East Indiaman. When the ship was hit by a storm as it was entering the English Channel, his practical advice helped the crew prevent the vessel from foundering.

In 1766 Brereton petitioned the King to have the proceedings of his court martial at Madras in 1758 reviewed by the Board of Admiralty. They concluded that he should have been found guilty only of an error of judgement, and in view of his subsequent excellent service recommended the restoration of his seniority, which was done.

On 9 January 1770 Brereton was appointed to the guardship Rippon 60 at Plymouth, which received orders in early October to take on four months provisions and join a small squadron that was to sail for Cork and embark troops for Gibraltar and Minorca. A heavy gale off Start Point saw her sustain damage which obliged her to return to Portsmouth to be docked, and she eventually reached Cork on 26 November to annul genuine fears for her safety. The squadron sailed for the Mediterranean in February 1771, and after returning home the Rippon was paid off on 27 May. A further peacetime command was the Portsmouth guardship Centaur 74, which Brereton joined at the end of October 1773. After two and a half years of uneventful service, an inspection in March 1776 suggested that she should be condemned, however, a further survey declared that she could be repaired and made fit for service. She went out of the harbour at the end of July for Spithead, prior to Brereton leaving her in October to return to unemployment.

In May 1778, with France having joined the Americans against Britain in the War of Independence, the fifty-year-old Brereton arrived at Plymouth to commission the newly launched Duke 90. However, some kind of falling out with the port admiral, Lord Shuldham, led to great difficulty in manning his command and putting to sea. Eventually leaving the harbour in late June, his ship joined Admiral Hon. Augustus Keppel’s Grand Fleet in early July and was present at the Battle of Ushant on 27 July. Once more Brereton’s conduct in battle brought his character into question. He hardly engaged with the enemy, allegedly fired (presumably accidentally) at a consort, the Bienfaisant 64, Captain John MacBride, and although the British fleet sustained over a thousand men killed and wounded, the Duke suffered not a single casualty.

While the Duke remained at sea watching Brest, rumours about her captain’s behaviour at the battle began circulating at Plymouth, soon reaching Admiral Keppel’s ear. The commander-in-chief declared that any inaction by Brereton would have had no effect on the outcome of the battle, but (against his inclination) he agreed to the captain’s request for a court-martial to clear his name. When it sat at Falmouth at the end of August under Vice-Admiral Sir Robert Harland, Brereton found himself facing accusations of drunkenness from his marine captain and several lieutenants. The most damning claim was that his first lieutenant had taken the extreme step of ordering the officers of the watch to monitor their captain’s sobriety. The court concluded that Brereton had been drunk on the day before and the day after the Battle of Ushant but had not been found wanting in respect of his duty on the actual day of the battle. Even so, he was somewhat surprisingly removed from his post, having also been found guilty of neglect and disobedience of orders. Brereton’s supporters were to claim that the whole case was a conspiracy instigated by Lord Shuldham, and there were many inconsistencies in the contradictory evidence of the accusing officers and questions about the actual legality of the enquiry.

Brereton did not achieve flag rank, having been put on the retired list in 1786, and apart from repeated and failed representations for the settlement of expenses incurred whilst he was the governor of Manila he then disappeared into obscurity. An interesting sidelight to his life is that in 1761 Brereton had taken prisoner Caesario Rodorigo, an enslaved man from Madagascar, whom he brought with him when he returned to England. Rodorigo remained in Brereton’s service for forty years (under the name of ‘John Elton’) until his master’s death in the early 1800’s, probably at Wykeham, Hampshire.

Despite his fall from grace, Brereton was highly regarded by his senior officers, with the exacting Admiral Lord Rodney writing to him that ‘I know no man I would rather wish to have a command under me than yourself, as I am very sure you would exert your endeavours, with honour to yourself and service to your country’. Referring to a perceived conspiracy against Brereton, Rodney added ‘I will certainly explain myself to Lord Sandwich [the First Lord] and hope he will give you an opportunity of refuting any slander your personal enemies may have propagated to your disadvantage’.