Charles Inglis (1)

c1731-91. He was the fourth and youngest son of Sir John Inglis of Cramond, the postmaster general of Scotland. His mother was Anne Cockburn, the daughter of an eminent Scottish politician, Lord Ormiston.

Inglis entered the navy in 1745 aboard the newly commissioned Ludlow Castle 44, commanded by Captain George Brydges Rodney, and he transferred at the end of the year with this officer to the Eagle 60. On 14 October 1747 he was present at Rear-Admiral Sir Edward Hawke’s action with M. de l Etendu re off Cape Finisterre, but having been paid off at the end of the War of Austrian Succession in 1748 he remained on the beach for a couple of years.

Admiral Charles Inglis

In 1750 he was appointed to the Tavistock 50, Captain Francis Holburne, serving in the Leeward Islands prior to this vessel being paid off in 1752.

On 6 February 1755 he was promoted lieutenant of the Monarch 74, Captain Abraham North, which vessel was the flagship of Rear-Admiral Savage Mostyn going out to North America. He then joined Mostyn in transferring to the Magnanime 64, Captain Wittewronge Taylor, removed with the latter officer to whilst he held the temporary command of the Marlborough 80 from June, and in June 1757 he followed Taylor to the newly commissioned Royal William 84.

Within two weeks of joining the Royal William Inglis was promoted to command the sloop Escorte 14, a recently captured French privateer, in the unsuccessful Rochefort expedition led by Admiral Sir Edward Hawke, his seniority being from 17 June 1757. In May 1758 he took this vessel out to the Mediterranean. In June 1759 he commissioned the new bomb-ketch Carcass, serving in Rear-Admiral George Rodney’s bombardment of Le H vre on 3 July, and capturing the Mercury 10 off La Rochelle in the following year. She then went out to the Mediterranean before returning home, and in May 1761 she returned to Portsmouth from a cruise to undergo a refit

On 15 December 1761 he was posted to the Newark 80, bearing the broad pennant of Commodore Sir Piercy Brett in the Mediterranean after sailing there in January1762, and being present at the re-occupation of Minorca that year. She was paid off in August 1763.

In October 1770 he recommissioned the frigate Lizard 28 during the Spanish dispute, going out to North America in September 1771 and being paid off in January 1774 having served at Boston and Charleston.

In August 1778 he recommissioned the Salisbury 50, sailing for service on the Jamaican station early in the following year, and on 12 December 1779 took the Spanish privateer San Carlos 50 in the Bay of Honduras after a daylong chase and two hour action, losing four men killed and fourteen wounded, five of those mortally, as well as being heavily damaged aloft. He returned to England with a convoy in the summer of the following year, being escorted through the Gulf of Florida by Captain Hon. William Cornwallis squadron and being paid off in August.

In November 1780 he was appointed to the St Albans 64, part of Vice-Admiral George Darby’s Channel fleet, and on 12 April 1781 he took part in the relief of Gibraltar before later going out to the Leeward Islands. On 25/26 January 1782 he fought at the Battle of St. Kitts action, and he was present at the Battle of the Saintes on 12 April where he suffered just six casualties, before sailing to North America with Admiral Hugh Pigot in August. Returning with the fleet to the Leeward Islands in November, he was detached on a cruise as senior officer of a squadron of four men of war. On 15 February 1783 he led the Prudent 64, Captain Andrew Barkley and Magnificent 74, Captain Robert Linzee, in the duel with the French frigates Concorde 36 and Amphion 36 that saw the former taken by the Magnificent.

He returned to England at the peace and was paid off in July 1783.

He became a rear-admiral on 21 September 1790, and died on 10 October in the following year at his brother s residence of Sunnyside, near Edinburgh.

He was the father, probably out of wedlock, of Captain Charles Inglis.