Benjamin William Page (1765-1845)
Almost unique in undertaking four tours of duty in the East Indies, Page was unlucky with prize money in the early part of his career, but he was later rewarded handsomely by the India merchants for his protection of their shipping in the East Indies, allowing him a comfortable retirement.
He was born at Ipswich on 7 February 1765, the eldest of five children of tailor and shipowner, Benjamin Page, and his wife, Ann Aldrich.
Page joined the navy on 20 November 1778 at the age of 13 under the patronage of a family friend, Rear-Admiral Sir Edward Hughes, who had himself lived at Ipswich. Serving in the East Indies aboard the flagship Superb 74 during the early stages of the American Revolutionary War, he was present at Hughes’ four 1782 battles with Commodore de Suffren’s French fleet: Sadras on 17 February, Providien on 12 April, Negapatam on 6 July, and Trincomale on 3 September, Page was badly wounded to the leg in one action, and burned in another. On 27 December 1782 at Bombay, he transferred as an acting-lieutenant to the Exeter 64, Captain John Samuel Smith, and he was on this ship for the fifth and final battle against the French on 20 June 1783 off Cuddalore. In August he moved to the Worcester 64, Captain Charles Hughes, and in February of the following year to the sloop Lizard 18, Captain Donald Campbell. During September he joined the Eurydice 24, Captain George Courtenay, and he returned to England in July 1785, by which time the country had been at peace for two years. Upon arriving home, he learned that his lieutenancy had been confirmed by the Admiralty, effective from 20 November 1784.
In October 1786 he was appointed to the frigate Astrea 32, Captain Peter Rainier, seeing service on the Jamaican station. In June 1790, just weeks after returning to England, he moved with Rainier, and the frigate’s officers and crew to the Monarch 74. (At this time the navy was recommissioning ships for the Spanish Armament.) Six months later (having transferred again) he went out to the East Indies once more aboard the frigate Minerva 38, Captain Robert Manners Sutton. In August 1791 he moved with that officer into the Crown 64, flying the broad pennant of Commodore Hon. William Cornwallis. He returned to England aboard the latter vessel in July 1792.
After rejoining Captain Rainier aboard the Suffolk 74 in January 1793, Page served in the Channel Fleet during the early stages of the French Revolutionary War; he was the first lieutenant of the ship when Rainier (now flying a commodore’s broad pennant) went out to the East Indies as commander-in-chief in the spring of 1794.
Page was present on 26 August 1795 at the capture of Dutch possessions on Ceylon, and shortly afterwards (now 30 years old), he was promoted to the command of the recently captured French sloop Revanche, renamed the Hobart 18. (His new rank of commander would be confirmed by the Admiralty on 12 April 1796). On 1 October 1795 he occupied the island of Muletivu with a detachment of the army, and in January 1796 he led Rainier’s ships through the Moluccan Straits prior to their attacking Amboyna. Unfortunately, having been ordered to carry captured Dutch despatches to India, he was not with Rainier’s force when it completed its conquest of the Moluccan Islands in early March, and thus he did not share in the significant prize money. During early July the Hobart arrived in the Hooghly River from Prince of Wales Island, after a two-week voyage.
On 2 August 1796 in Calcutta, Page married Elizabeth Herbert, who was the daughter of John Herbert (originally from Totnes in Devon), a governor in the East India Company on Prince of Wales Island. At the time his new wife was reported to be in a poor state of health, but she evidently recovered. The Hobart left Prince of Wales Island on 18 December to arrive at Bombay on 13 January 1797 with six ships comprising the China trade , and he received the customary 500 guinea bonus from the local merchants for protecting their precious cargoes.
On 27 February 1797 he was appointed the acting-captain of the frigate Orpheus 32 in place of the late Captain Henry Newcome; ironically, he had already been promoted to be post-captain two months earlier on 22 December 1796 by the first lord of the Admiralty, but word had not yet reached India. In late April his vessel arrived at Tellicherry to deliver money to the authorities; five days later she was at Trincomalee and then she returned to the fleet’s base at Madras. A further visit to Trincomalee saw the Orpheus strike a rock, which required her to be careened to make repairs to her hull. By now Page was in such a poor state of health that he was obliged to return to England. Nevertheless, by July 1798 he was writing to the Admiralty to request further service in the East Indies, where he said he had family (probably his wife’s relations).
There followed a period out of employment until on 21 January 1800, he assumed command of the specially converted transport Inflexible 64, commissioning at Chatham. After carrying troops out to Minorca, this ship joined the blockade of Genoa but left the day before the city fell on 4 June, with the result that Page missed out on prize money once more. The Inflexible returned home with a convoy from Minorca, Gibraltar and Lisbon, and in January 1801 she sailed from the Downs to Cork to collect troops, then on to Malta. She subsequently participated in the Egyptian landings on 8 March. Next sent to Rhodes with dispatches, she returned to Alexandria and collected a convoy carrying 13,000 captured French troops, which under the terms of the surrender she escorted to Marseilles. Sailing from Malta on 1 November the Inflexible arrived at Portsmouth a month later with over five hundred British troops, no longer needed in Egypt. The ship was paid off at Chatham in March 1802, making her captain temporarily unemployed. For his services in the Egyptian campaign, Page was one of the officers who received an award from the Ottoman Empire.
In November 1802 he was appointed to recommission the frigate Caroline 36, which three months later sailed to Hull, where she remained for three weeks completing her complement. After briefly serving on the Irish station, she was sent from Cork at short notice to join Admiral Rainier in the East Indies once more with news of the renewal of war. On 7 May some two hundred miles north-west of Cape Ortegal she captured a homeward-bound French merchant ship from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. After the prize departed from the frigate, the prize crew of eight men (led by two midshipmen) had to fight off their French prisoners trying to retake the ship, but they overcame the enemy and managed to get the vessel to an Irish port.
Reaching Madeira on 10 June, the Caroline took the Dutch brig Haasje 6 off St. Helena on 2 August; members of the frigate’s crew rescued her important dispatches, despite them having been thrown overboard. Two Dutch East Indiamen bound from Batavia to Amsterdam, unaware of the outbreak of hostilities, were also captured off the Cape. The Caroline eventually made landfall in India just 103 days after leaving Cork.
Once in the East Indian waters Page knew so well, the Caroline took the French privateers Frères Unis 16 on 5 January 1804 in the Bay of Bengal, and Général de Caen 22 a month later in the Preparis South Channel between the Coco and Andaman Islands. After arriving at Kedgeree on 14 February the merchants of Bombay and Madras rewarded Page for both captures. In June his wife arrived at Bombay from England, but they evidently did not have long together, for Page was soon placed in command of a small squadron consisting of the Grampus 50, Captain Thomas Gordon Caulfield, Dédaigneuse 38, Captain Peter Heywood, and Dasher 18, Captain John Delafons, which in early September left Prince of Wales Island with the eighteen vessels of a valuable China convoy bound for Canton. His squadron saw their charges safely back to the island in January 1805, despite concerns of possible interception by Rear-Admiral Charles Alexandre Durand Linois’ Marengo 74 and the several French frigates which were raiding the commerce on those seas.
On 26 February 1805 Page was appointed flag captain to Vice-Admiral Rainier aboard the Trident 64, returning home with that officer. The flagship escorted a convoy of forty-four vessels, some carrying senior Army officers; the Trident herself hosted Major-General Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington. Back in England the Trident was paid off in October 1805. The Court of Directors of the East India company displayed their gratitude for his services in protecting their ships, presenting him with a gift of 500 guineas to add to the 1,500 guineas he had already received from the mercantile community in India.
Page appears to have remained on the beach for the best part of four years until appointed in May 1809 to command the Harwich Sea Fencibles, where he remained until they were disbanded a year later. In August 1812 he was appointed to the guardship Puissant 74 at Spithead, serving as the flagship of Admiral Sir Richard Bickerton until August 1813, and continuing to command her as a private ship until September 1815. During this period, he sat on 167 court martials, arranged the transfer of invalided seamen to Haslar Hospital, examined candidates for lieutenant’s commissions, and superintended the prison hulks.
With the country finally at peace, Page did not see any further service, though in due course in 1819, at the age of 54, he was promoted rear-admiral. Shortly afterwards, in recognition of his promotion he was invited to attend the Prince Regent’s levee. He lived the rest of his life in his hometown of Ipswich as an active member of Suffolk society, frequently attending balls and often travelling to London to attend at Court. He also dabbled in naval affairs, as in October 1821 when he directed experiments at Harwich to assess a method of signals for ships in distress. When in August 1822 he was away at Portsmouth, thieves broke into his mansion at Ipswich to steal his valuable silver plate; fortunately, it had already been removed to a safe storage, and little was taken apart from some silver spoons. Page was promoted a vice-admiral in July 1830 and full admiral in November 1841.
Admiral Benjamin Page died at his Ipswich mansion on 3 October 1845 in his 80th year. His coffin was borne by six naval officers, and he was interred in the family vault in St. Mary at the Tower Churchyard alongside his wife who had died eleven years earlier. Being childless, on his death he left a considerable sum totalling some £15,000 to his various nephews and nieces, as well as ‘an extensive library of books and prints and other collections and curiosities’. He had previously given the Corporation of Ipswich a number of valuable marine paintings which had originally been commissioned by Admiral Hughes.