Sir Joshua Rowley (1734-90)

Rowley’s naval connections saw him advanced through the ranks at a very young age, reaching the rank of post captain at just 18. He proved to be a brave and capable officer, who although he fought in numerous major battles never really had an opportunity to show his skills in an important command. But for his early death, he would probably have led one of the major fleets in the French Revolutionary War.

He was born in Dublin on 1 May 1734, a son of Sir William Rowley who became the, Admiral of the Fleet in December 1762, and of his wife, Arabella Dawson. He was the father of Admiral Bartholomew Rowley and Admiral Sir Charles Rowley, and the uncle of Admiral Sir Josias Rowley and Admiral of the Fleet Sir George Martin.

Rowley’s initial service was with his father in the Mediterranean, and he was present at the Battle of Toulon in February 1744 where Rear-Admiral Rowley flew his flag aboard the Barfleur 90, Captain Merrick de l’Angle. Benefiting greatly from nepotism, Joshua was commissioned lieutenant on 2 July 1747, at the ridiculously young age of 13.

As a result of his father’s influence, he was able to enjoy employment in the years of peace following the War of the Austrian Succession. In 1752 he was serving aboard the Penzance 44, Commodore Charles Saunders, on the Newfoundland Station. Promoted commander on 23 January 1753, aged just 18, he recommissioned the hoy Raven 10 at Woolwich for service as an unrated 14-gun sloop, seeing duty in the Downs. On 4 December 1753 he was posted captain of the sixth-rate Rye 20, serving in the Irish Sea. His duties, typical of those of small vessels in peacetime, included pressing men for the navy in Dublin, and detaining two vessels suspected of smuggling.

Admiral Sir Joshua Rowley

In March 1755 Rowley was appointed to the French-built frigate Ambuscade 40 which was commissioning at Portsmouth. After some months at anchor at Spithead, she sailed with Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Hawke’s Western Squadron in July. At this time war with France had not yet been formally declared, but hostilities were underway between the two countries in North America. To put pressure on the French, Hawke’s fleet was active in detaining the prospective enemy’s merchant vessels, and the Ambuscade sent in the occasional prize. During August she returned to Plymouth where she remained for some weeks. A newspaper report from this period also provides the interesting snippet, not authenticated elsewhere, that during November the Ambuscade detained a Quebec ship off La Rochelle, aboard which was a French priest by the name of Abbe du Pre who had lived with Indians for fifteen years, and who had led a number of brutal attacks on white settlers. The cleric was apparently put ashore on Jersey and imprisoned.

In January 1756 Rowley recommissioned the Harwich 50 at Deptford after a four-year-long major refit. Assigned to the Western Squadron, he arrived at Portsmouth with an outgoing East Indiaman convoy in mid-April. With Britain and France now officially at war, on 4 May his command captured the Canada-bound letter-of-marque Fortune, which was carrying troops and supplies for the French colony . Further captures followed: the privateers Saint-Jacques on 22 August, and the Rubis 22 on 4 April 1757, the latter while in company with the Lowestoffe 28 Captain Robert Haldane.

On 21 September 1757 he was appointed to the newly launched Montagu 60 (reputed to be the finest fourth-rate in the service), which was fitting out at Sheerness. In early 1758 she sailed to Gibraltar with a convoy, and then joined the Mediterranean Fleet under Admiral Henry Osborn. At the Battle of Cartagena on 28 February 1758, Osborn’s fleet captured two French sail of the line, and the Montagu and the 74-gun Monarch (confusingly under Captain Montagu) drove ashore another enemy ship, the Oriflamme 50.

Returning to Spithead in early July 1758 in a squadron under Rear-Admiral Charles Saunders, the Montagu was ordered to join Captain Richard Howe’s squadron operating on the French Atlantic coast. Her captain’s luck ran out when his ship participated in the unfortunate combined attack on Cherbourg in August 1758. The soldiers were landed successfully, but finding it impossible to take the port, retreated to nearby St. Cast, where boats from the fleet attempted to rescue them from the approaching enemy. Despite the efforts of the sailors, seven hundred men were captured by the French, including Joshua Rowley. He was one of four captains supervising the re-embarkation onshore who were wounded, left on the beach and taken prisoner. Rowley’s’ exchange was delayed as his wounds were slow to heal, and it was not until February 1759 that he arrived at his father’s residence in Bond Street. Though only on shore for three months, he found time to get married in March before his return to active service.

The Battle of Quiberon Bay

By May 1759 Rowley was back commanding the Montagu with the fleet under Admiral Sir Edward Hawke; on 20 November his ship fought at the decisive Battle of Quiberon Bay. As Hawke’s fleet pursued the French ships in a gale, the poor visibility caused the Montagu (sixth in line) to collide with two other British vessels. Rowley quickly dropped anchor in twelve fathoms, allowing the three ships to disentangle themselves. Despite having sustained considerable damage in the collision, the Montagu was still able to contribute to the great victory over the French — five enemy ships wrecked or burnt, and one taken.

In January 1760 the Montagu arrived at Spithead, from where she took several chests of money around to Plymouth at the end of March for payment of the dockyard workers Sailing from the Devonshire port in April to rejoin the Channel Fleet (now under Admiral Hon. Edward Boscawen), the Montagu was promptly dispatched by that officer with two other sail of the line to the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean. There Rowley served under Commodore Sir James Douglas in the blockade of Martinique, and his ship assisted in the capture of several French privateers.

Towards the end of 1760 Rowley returned home, leaving the Montagu in the Leeward Islands. He was not long on the beach, being appointed to commission the newly-built Superb 74; after taking in her guns and stores at Long Reach in January 1761 the ship escorted a convoy from the Downs to Spithead. At the end of March his new command shepherded an East India convoy west, out to a latitude safe from French cruisers. Upon returning she was attached to Commodore Hon. Augustus Keppel’s squadron, joining the expedition which landed and supported the force that captured Belleisle in June. She continued to serve under Keppel and Commodore Sir Thomas Stanhope in Basque Roads through to the early part of 1762, prior to arriving home towards the end of April with three ships in convoy from that station.

On 6 May 1762 the Superb sailed from Portsmouth with an East India convoy in company with the Danae 38, Captain Henry Martin, and the Gosport 44, Captain John Jervis. Six days later they fell in with a French squadron consisting of two sail of the line and two frigates commanded by Commodore Charles-Henri-Louis d’Arsac de Ternay. The enemy seemed disinclined to accept an action, no doubt intending instead to cut some prizes out of the convoy. Though he pursued the French ships into the evening, Rowley was unable to close with them and returned to the convoy. Nevertheless, he had driven off the enemy, and a year later he would be rewarded with pieces of plate by both the East India Company and the City of London for his preservation of this valuable convoy. After returning to Portsmouth towards the end of June, the Superb departed for North America on 7 August 1762 with a small squadron. Rowley had little time at New York, since he returned two months in a squadron commanded by the late commander-in-chief North America, Commodore Lord Colville. He then enjoyed a brief leave in London before the Superb sailed to join the fleet off Brest. In January 1763 his command arrived at Cork after a cruise in the Bay of Biscay, and at the beginning of February she sailed for Plymouth. With the Seven Years War drawing to a close, Rowley paid off his ship at Portsmouth in March 1763.

Rowley remained unemployed for the next thirteen and a half years, during which time he and his wife raised a large family. In October 1776 at the beginning of the American Revolutionary War, he was appointed to the Monarch 74, a ship that had been launched in 1765 but had never been commissioned. Throughout 1777 she was based at Spithead as a guardship, with occasional cruises in the Channel. On one such cruise she captured a small American privateer, while on another she stopped and examined a French ship, earning Rowley a rebuke from the (ostensibly neutral) French authorities.

On 30 July 1777 the Monarch was departing Spithead for Newfoundland in a thick haze and strong winds, when she ran onto a sandbank. In driving through the sand and shingle to get into nearby Langstone Harbour the ship suffered a great deal of damage. Adding to the misfortune, a lieutenant and ten men from Captain Charles Middleton’s Prince George 90 drowned when their boat sunk as they were attempting to aid the grounded ship. She was taking in so much water that fifty men were kept pumping her out day and night until she was taken into dock for repairs. The resulting repair and refit cost almost £10,000, and it was not until the first week of October that the Monarch was able to return to service. Meanwhile, Rowley was warmly praised for his actions in saving one of His Majesty’s valuable ships of the line.

In January 1778 in a sign of Admiralty favour he was appointed a colonel of marines, a prestigious sinecure for senior captains. In February the Monarch took a transport convoy out to Gibraltar. Upon putting into neutral Cadiz to collect a homeward-bound convoy, the Spanish authorities treated Rowley with considerable hostility. They anchored a 70-gun ship on either side of the Monarch, and frigates at her bow and stern, effectively boxing her in. This contrasted with their clear support for the Americans, demonstrated when they allowed a privateer captain ashore but denied that privilege to Rowley. Despite this harassment, the Monarch collected her convoy and arrived back at Portsmouth in April. At the inconclusive Battle of Ushant on 27 July Rowley and the Monarch led the line, firing the opening broadside and suffering minimal casualties — two men killed and nine wounded. Rowley seems to have managed to keep out of the divisive feud between Admirals Keppel and Palliser that followed the battle.

Battle of Martinique 1780

The West Indies

In December 1778 Rowley transferred to the Suffolk 74 and was ordered to hoist a commodore’s broad pennant, making him temporarily equivalent to a rear-admiral. He was ordered to take seven sail of the line to reinforce Vice-Admiral Hon. John Byron in the Leeward Islands. The Monarch (now commanded by Captain Hugh Christian) departed on Boxing Day; the reinforcements reached St Lucia in mid-February 1779, except for the Russell 74, Captain Francis Samuel Drake, which had been obliged to turn back after a collision with an East Indiaman. On 19 March 1779 Rowley was promoted to rear-admiral, news which would have reached him a few weeks later.

While Rowley’s squadron was patrolling off Martinique in late June, the Admiral the Comte de Grasse was able to avoid him and enter port with four sail of the line. On 6 July, he fought at the Battle of Grenada where, despite the overall British failure, he was praised for his initiative in attacking the enemy van. The action saw the Suffolk suffer casualties of seven men killed and twenty-five wounded, along with significant damage. Later, while serving as second-in-command of the Leeward Islands fleet in the aftermath of the brief action with Rear-Admiral La Motte-Picquet on 18 December, Rowley’s division of four sail of the line took the French frigates Fortunée 32, Blanche 32, and Elise 28.

In March 1780, upon Admiral Sir George Rodney’s arrival to take command of the Leeward Islands station, Rowley transferred his flag to the Conqueror 74, Captain Thomas Watson. At the Battle of Martinique on 17 April Rowley commanded the rear division of Rodney’s fleet and led his ships out of the line of battle to attack the French rear. After the battle when he tried to explain to Rodney his reasons for taking this action, he received the cutting reply that his job was to obey, since ‘the painful task of thinking belongs to me.’ Rowley was one of several officers castigated by Rodney for inadequately supporting him against the Comte de Guichen although some of the failure was due to a misunderstanding of orders. Rowley’s swift copper-bottomed squadron led the van in further skirmishes with de Guichen in May, when his flagship rescued the Albion 74, Captain George Bowyer. During this action the Conqueror was badly damaged and Captain Watson was killed, suggesting that for Rowley at least, the action was more than a skirmish. Rodney sent the Conqueror to repair at St. Lucia, where Captain Archibald Dickson assumed command. Meanwhile, Rowley’s relationship with Rodney remained poor, since he bitterly resented the commander-in-chief’s earlier criticism

Rowley briefly raised his flag aboard the Terrible 74 before transferring in July 1780 to the Princess Royal 90, both commanded by Captain John Thomas Duckworth. Late in that month Rodney dispatched the rear-admiral along with Commodore Hon. Robert Boyle Walsingham and ten sail of the line to reinforce Vice-Admiral Sir Peter Parker at Jamaica. Transferring his flag yet again, this time to the Grafton 74, Captain William Affleck, Rowley was ordered to escort a homeward-bound convoy through the Gulf of Mexico and out into the Atlantic. During early October his squadron (now seven sail of the line, a 50 and several smaller vessels) was caught off San Domingo by one of the Great Hurricanes of 1780. The Stirling Castle 64 was wrecked with the loss of almost all her crew, while Walsingham’s flagship Thunderer and three smaller ships were lost without a trace. All of the surviving ships (including the Grafton) suffered substantial damage, and most had to limp back to Jamaica, arriving on 26 October. Notwithstanding the loss of so many men in the hurricane, on a personal level Rowley grieved the death of his servant, who lost his footing while assisting the admiral and was thrown down so violently that he later died of his injuries.

Continuing on the Jamaican station, Rowley cruised off Cap François, in what is now Haiti in the spring of 1781, with his flag aboard the Princess Royal 90, Captain Charles Hotchkys. In May his squadron escorted the trade through the Windward Passage before resuming the patrol off Cap François. Despite rumours that he would succeed Vice-Admiral Parker as C-in-C Jamaica, both officers remained at their respective posts. This must have caused great disappointment to Rear-Admiral Thomas Graves when he arrived in November expecting to assume the chief command but found himself junior to both Parker and Rowley.

On 3 February 1782 when a fire broke out in Kingston, Jamaica, Rowley and his men helped preserve many buildings, though eighty houses and some of the dockyard facilities were destroyed. When Parker departed for home in May Rear-Admiral Rowley finally took command of the station, and during the summer he cruised with his flag aboard the London 90, Captain James Kempthorne, and two other ships in the Windward Passage. By the autumn he had seven sail of the line to protect Jamaica amid fears that the Spanish in the Caribbean under Admiral José Solano y Bote still posed a threat to the island. In reality, the British victory at the Battle of the Saintes on 12 April and the disease rampaging through the Franco-Spanish troops had rendered an invasion a most unlikely proposition.

Following the end of the American Revolutionary War, Rowley arranged the exchange of prisoners with the Spanish at Havana. By October 1783 he was flying his flag in the Preston 50, Captain George Martin, in which vessel he departed Jamaica in January 1784, four days after being succeeded by Vice-Admiral James Gambier.

Once back in England, Rowley suffered a personal tragedy. In January 1785 one of his younger sons, Edward, was bitten by a rabid dog in Jermyn Street, London, and died of hydrophobia (rabies) at Boxford in Suffolk a few days later. That dreadful incident apart, Rowley led a quiet life ashore with his most taxing employment being that of serving as a steward at Ipswich Races. On 10 June 1786 he was created a baronet for his services in the war, and on 24 September 1787 he was promoted vice-admiral in line with seniority.

Aged just 55, Vice-Admiral Sir Joshua Rowley died at his seat, Tendring Hall, Stoke-by-Nayland, Suffolk, on 26 February 1790. He was commemorated in World War II by the naming of a Captain-class frigate after him, a vessel built in the United States but commissioned into the Royal Navy.

Rowley married Sarah Burton, the daughter of the deputy governor of the Bank of England, on 18 March 1759, and the couple lived for some time in the 1760’s in Argyll Street, London. They had seven sons and three daughters; in addition to Admirals Bartholomew Rowley and Sir Charles Rowley, a daughter, Philadelphia, married Admiral Sir Charles Cotton. His eldest son William became an M.P.

In the eyes of many Rowley was a brave and competent officer, although Admiral Lord Hood thought him to have poor judgement, probably as a result of a foolish argument about cannon salutes between the two men. His nephew, the future Admiral of the Fleet Sir George Martin, entered the service with him as a cabin boy in 1776, and he was also a patron of Captain Philip Beaver. Notoriously, whilst Rowley was second-in-command on the Jamaican station, he ensured his son Bartholomew was posted captain when he was just 16 years and 7 months old. Fortunately, the boy grew up to become a competent officer.