Shuldham Peard (1761-1832)
A proud Cornishman from a naval family, in establishing a reputation as a highly respected sea-officer Peard overcame a number of disappointments, both professional and personal.
He was born at Penryn, Cornwall, and baptised on 29 October 1761, the third son of Captain George Peard of the Navy, and of his wife, Charity Frood.
Before going to sea, Peard was entered onto the books of the sloops Fly and the Racehorse as an able seaman. His actual service began in 1776 as a 15-year-old in the early stages of the American Revolutionary War aboard the Worcester 64, Captain Mark Robinson, in home waters. Then he was employed on the sloop Martin, Captain William Parker, followed by the Thetis 32, Captain John Gell, both on the Newfoundland station. By 1779 he was back in Europe, but after being placed as a prize-master aboard a captured vessel, he had the misfortune to be taken prisoner by the Spanish and incarcerated at Cadiz and then Cordoba. Following his exchange, he passed his lieutenant’s examination (on 6 April 1780) and was commissioned twenty days later, still short of his 20th birthday. From June 1780 until February 1782, he was aboard the Edgar 74, Captain John Elliott, serving in the Channel; his ship formed part of the fleet at the second relief of Gibraltar on 12 April 1781.
After a short period on half pay, Peard held a succession of posts during the years of peace. Between 1785 and 1790 he served on the Plymouth guardship Carnatic 74, Captains Anthony Molloy, Hon. Peregrine Bertie, and John Ford. He joined the Princess Royal 90, Captain John Holloway, (flagship of Rear-Admiral William Hotham at Portsmouth) in 1790-91, and the Carnatic with Captain Ford again in the following year. On 24 December 1791 at St. Mary, Alverstoke, Hampshire, he married Elizabeth, the third daughter of Captain Richard Rodney Bligh. The couple would have a son, George Peard, who would eventually reach the rank of commander in the navy, but after seven years the marriage came to a scandalous end.
In January 1793, just before the start of the French Revolutionary War, Peard joined the Britannia 100, Captain John Holloway, flying the flag of Vice-Admiral Hotham in the Mediterranean, and at the age of 24, and after 13 years as a lieutenant, he was promoted commander on 30 January 1795, although his appointment to the French-built sloop Flèche 18 appears to have been for purposes of rank only, as does that to the prize ship Censeur 74 on 5 May. He then returned to the Britannia as the flag-captain in July with Holloway becoming captain of the fleet, being present at the indecisive Battle of the Hyeres Islands on 13 July, but following Admiral Hotham’s recall, and after being posted captain on 30 November 1795, Peard exchanged with Captain Thomas Foley into the St George 98 in the following January.
Remaining with the Mediterranean fleet, on 18 January 1797 the St. George had the misfortune to be dismasted when she collided with a Portuguese frigate and then ran aground on the Cachopo Shoal off the Tagus. As a result, she was unable to return to service in time to participate in Admiral Sir John Jervis’ defeat of the Spanish at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent on 14 February. Joining the blockade of the vanquished Spanish fleet in Cadiz, her captain redeemed himself in the eyes of his admiral when a mutiny broke out aboard the St George. Two men convicted of sodomy had been scheduled to hang aboard the St George (despite petitions asking for clemency), but a group of sailors decided to take over the ship and release the prisoners. Peard and his first lieutenant, John Hatley, rushed into the group of mutinous men and physically seized two ringleaders, who were speedily court-martialled on 7 July and hanged the next day aboard the St George.
Towards the end of September 1797, the St. George was sent home with a convoy that included the four Spanish prizes taken at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent, and in early October she went around to the Downs from Portsmouth. On 4 December at Sheerness Peard sat on the court martial of Captain John Williamson of the Agincourt 64 that found him guilty of not obeying signals and failing to get into action at the Battle of Camperdown. After spending some months in the Thames, the St. George was eventually paid off at Chatham in April 1798.
Upon Peard’s return to England in the autumn of 1797, he had celebrated a joyful reunion with his wife at Gosport, and for the next five months they enjoyed a happy matrimonial relationship until she was suddenly taken ill. Fearing that she might be pregnant and miscarry, Peard sought medical advice, only for his wife to give birth to a full-term baby girl. Clearly, she had been unfaithful during his absence abroad, and in July 1798 Peard brought an action in the Hampshire Assizes at Winchester against William Henry Lys, a surgeon in the 29th Light Dragoons, for ‘criminal conversation’ (adultery with his wife). Peard was awarded 400 guineas in damages (which would equate to nearly £50,000 in today’s money). Rather than just seeking a legal separation, he went to the trouble and expense of getting a divorce. This required a Parliamentary bill, which was passed on 1 May 1799.
During January 1799 Peard commanded the Atlas 90 in the Channel for the sickly Captain Matthew Squire, and for a few days in February and March he had the Defiance 74 whilst she was awaiting her new captain, Thomas Shivers. In March he commissioned the Success 32 with orders to join the Mediterranean Fleet, but his vessel was west of Oporto on 1 May when he encountered the Brest fleet, which had left its home port a week earlier on 25 April. Reaching Lagos Bay on 7 May, he sent an overland message to the British minister at Lisbon, and he was then able to get ahead of the French and inform Vice-Admiral Lord Keith off Cadiz on 3 May of their imminent arrival.
Having arrived in the Mediterranean, on 4 June the Success’ boats under the command of Lieutenant Philip Facey cut out the richly laden Spanish polacca Bella Aurore 10 from La Seva, near Cape Creux. The 43 Successes faced long odds — 113 Spaniards manned the polacca, which was supported by a shore battery, The attackers lost three men killed and ten wounded but earned the approbation of Admiral the Earl of St. Vincent, who wrote that the exploit ‘appears to me equal to any enterprise recorded in the Naval History of Great Britain’. Facey was soon promoted commander.
The frigate saw further service at the blockade of Malta, where she played an important role in the capture of the French sail of the line Généreux 74 on 18 February 1800 by laying across her opponent’s hawse, and unleashing several raking broadsides to prevent her escape, thereby allowing her larger consorts to come up. During this incident, a shot from the Success killed Rear-Admiral Jean-Baptiste Perreé on the Généreux. Remaining off Malta, the Success took a number of prizes and was the primary factor in the blockading squadron’s capture of the French frigate Diane 40 on 24 August.
On 9 February 1801 Peard’s command was the only British vessel present when another French fleet, this time led by Rear-Admiral Honoré Ganteaume, passed eastwards through the Straits of Gibraltar. In attempting to outrun the enemy, the Success soon found herself becalmed – after a three-day chase she was captured off Cape Gata on 13 February by Ganteaume’s force. Taken prisoner, Peard enterprisingly persuaded Ganteaume of the likelihood of his being brought to battle if he tried to attack Egypt, with the result that the French admiral put into Toulon instead. Held on parole near Toulon, Peard and his men were treated well and eventually sent in a cartel to Port Mahon, Minorca.
Following his return to England, Peard was appointed to the Audacious 74, receiving orders to proceed to the Mediterranean. In this ship he played a secondary role in both of Rear-Admiral Sir James Saumarez’ actions against the French and Spanish during 6 and 12 July, in what would become known as the Battles of Algeciras. The Audacious suffered casualties of eight men killed and thirty-two wounded in what, after an initial setback, eventually proved to be a British victory.
Returning to Portsmouth from the Mediterranean on 1 October 1801, the Audacious was refitted and victualled for a five-month voyage. After a short spell of service in the Channel, the Audacious sailed from Torbay for the West Indies in February 1802 to serve with Rear-Admiral Sir John Duckworth’s fleet. She was at Martinique when the island was returned to the French at the end of March before proceeding to Jamaica, where she cruised out of Port Royal, the French Revolutionary War now being over. On 21 September she arrived at Plymouth with other men of war from the West Indies – 170 of her men were admitted to the Royal Naval Hospital, the vast majority suffering from scurvy. She was then paid off in the Devonshire port at the beginning of October.
On the resumption of hostilities with France in 1803, Peard assumed command of the Cornwall Sea Fencibles, a position he held for a number of years. On 11 May 1810 (aged 48), he married for the second time at Plympton, Devon to Matilda Fortescue of Penwarne in Cornwall, who was twenty-five years his junior. Their one child, John Whitehead Peard, was born at Fowey and would earn fame by fighting alongside the famous Italian patriot Giuseppe Garibaldi in the struggle for the unification of that country. Peard was raised to flag rank on 5 July 1814 as a retired (superannuated) rear-admiral, and by the 1820’s he appears to have been living at Lostwithiel. He was restored to the active list in 1827 although he did not serve afloat again, and he was further promoted vice-admiral on 22 July 1830, attending a royal levee shortly afterwards.
Vice-Admiral Shuldham Peard died at his residence, Barton Place near Exeter, on 27 December 1832 aged 71. He was buried in Exeter Cathedral, where a memorial to him was erected to him by his wife, who lived another fifteen years.
Peard was described by one contemporary as being ‘an honour to the Navy’, and he was the hero of a 1983 novel by nautical author Showell Styles, entitled ‘The Malta Frigate’. Admiral Sir John Jervis included him on a list of the best 22 post captains in 1796.