Sir Robert Brice Kingsmill (1730-1805)
Kingsmill enjoyed a largely undistinguished naval career before he was appointed to command the Irish station in 1793 at the start of the French Revolutionary War. Viewed as a safe pair of hands, he made a fortune in prize money over his seven-year tenure, which (added to the wealth gained by his marriage thirty years previously), saw him become one of the most affluent officers in the Navy.
He was born in Belfast, the second son of Charles Brice, an army captain from Castle Chichester near Kilroot in County Antrim, and of his wife Jane Robinson of Newtonards, County Down.
On 29 January 1746 during the War of Austrian Succession, Brice entered the navy as a 15-year-old able seaman aboard the sloop Speedwell, Commander James Gambier. Three months later he transferred to the Flamborough 20, Captain Jervis Henry Porter, which vessel was employed in the North Sea. He again saw service under Gambier when that officer joined the Flamborough at the end of 1746, being succeeded by Captain John Evans in April 1748. With the Austrian War of Succession drawing to a close, the Flamborough was paid off in August, and Brice remained ashore for eight months until joining the Assurance 44, Captain Edward Pratten , in April 1749. Rated midshipman, Brice transferred to the Blandford 20 with Captain Pratten in July 1749, visiting Cape Verde in 1750 and serving off the Irish coast in 1751. He remained with her until she was paid off in June 1754; weeks later, he passed his lieutenant’s examination.
Admiral Kingsmill
On 29 April 1756, in his 26th year, he was commissioned lieutenant, and with the Seven Years War imminent, he joined the newly commissioned Aldborough 20, Captain John Donkley, remaining with her until November and seeing service in the Downs. Removing with Donkley to the Enterprise 44 as his first lieutenant, he transferred three months later in February 1757 to the newly commissioned Coventry 28, Captain Carr Scrope, in which he was present at the Channel Fleet’s unsuccessful raid on St. Malo in June 1758. In company with the Thames 32, Captain Stephen Colby, the Coventry fell in with the homeward-bound French sail of the line Palmier 74 on 12 March 1759. In an engagement over two days, the frigates harassed the enemy vessel, which was battered by waves that prevented her from using her lower deck guns. Finally her consort, a frigate, enabled her escape into Brest. Eight months later the Coventry was present at the dramatic Battle of Quiberon Bay (on 20 November). In March 1760 Brice transferred to the victorious Admiral Sir Edward Hawke’s flagship Royal George 100, Captain William Bennett, as her fourth lieutenant. Six months later he had risen to first lieutenant.
On 3 February 1761 Lieutenant Brice assumed temporary command of the sloop Swallow, acting for Commander James Cranston. Two weeks later he took a homeward bound French letter of marque from Martinique off Oléron, following this up in early March with the capture of the Bayonne privateer Sultan 10 after a chase of 26 hours. He was officially promoted commander on 3 July 1761 in his 31st year, and almost immediately he commanded the yacht Mary, which was part of the squadron that was sent to bring Princess Charlotte to England from the Continent in August for her marriage to King George III.
On 19 October 1761 he was appointed to the recently refitted bomb Basilisk 8, which was attached to Rear-Admiral George Brydges Rodney’s fleet when it sailed from St. Helens for the Leeward Islands on 18 October 1761. During the reductions of Martinique and St. Lucia in early 1762 Brice was wounded and several of his men killed when an explosive shell accidentally blew up. He was succeeded aboard the Basilisk by Commander William Lowfield, and he briefly commanded the sloop Guadeloupe before replacing Captain Thomas Collingwood aboard the frigate Crescent 32 in late May. Returning to England, that vessel was paid off at Sheerness in November 1762.
For the next sixteen years of peace Brice remained unemployed. He married an heiress about twenty years his senior, Elizabeth Corry, on 8 February 1763 at St. James, Westminster. In 1766, he assumed the name of Kingsmill when his wife inherited the large estate of Sydmonton, Berkshire (now in Hampshire and owned by Andrew Lloyd-Webber) from her uncle, William Kingsmill. His brother, Edward Brice, also assumed the surname Kingsmill at about the same time.
In March 1778, with the American Revolutionary War escalating to such an extent that the entry of France was inevitable, Kingsmill commissioned the new ship of the line Vigilant 64. He sought volunteer seamen for his new ship from Cumberland, being described as ‘well-known’ in that county. The ship was still being fitted for service at Portsmouth in June, and she sailed to join the Grand Fleet just days before the Battle of Ushant on 27 July. During that inconclusive battle, she served in the Centre Division under Admiral Keppel, sustaining casualties of 2 killed and 3 wounded. She subsequently saw further service with that force through the autumn.
Kingsmill was superseded aboard the Vigilant in December 1778, and after appearing as a witness at the controversial court-martial of Admiral Hon. Augustus Keppel, which examined that officer’s conduct at the Battle of Ushant, he did not take any further employment due to his disapproval of the actions of the government. Elected M.P for Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight on 15 December 1779, he sat in the House of Commons as an anti-administration member before leaving Parliament a year later, and he did not apply for employment in the navy until after the fall of Lord North’s government in 1782.
Upon returning to service in October 1782, Kingsmill was appointed to the Elizabeth 74. Three months later 1783 he left England in command of a squadron consisting of the Grafton 74, Captain Sir John Hamilton, Europe 64, Captain Arthur Phillip, and Iphigenia 32, Captain William Parker. This force had secret orders to attack Spanish possessions in South America, and to then sail around Cape Horn to join the East Indies squadron in an attack on Manila. Unfortunately, a storm in the Bay of Biscay dispersed the squadron, and early in February the Elizabeth was forced to returned to Portsmouth, having lost all her masts. Peace had just been declared, and Kingsmill was ordered to pay off the Elizabeth, but he recommissioned her in March and continued to command her as a guardship at Portsmouth for the next three years until April 1786, when he paid her off for the second time.
Meanwhile, in December 1783, Kingsmill had become a widower on the death of his wife, Elizabeth, a lady described as ‘advanced in years’ (she was 73). On 5 April 1784 he was elected the MP for Tregony in Cornwall as a government supporter, holding the seat for the next six years and never speaking, although he did occasionally vote against the prime minister, William Pitt. In May 1788 he broke his arm in two places when leaping from his carriage to assist the postilion who had fallen with his foot caught in the stirrup. Between 12 and 18 September 1790, he sat on the court-martial into the mutiny which had occurred on the Bounty on 28 May 1789. voting for the execution of three of the ten defendants. During the Spanish Armament of 1790, in April he was appointed to the command of the Duke 90, although she did not leave Portsmouth Harbour until October. Barely seven weeks later she went back into the harbour to be paid off, but he rejoined her for a brief time in 1791 during the Russian Armament. He then remained unemployed for the next two years.
Kingsmill was promoted rear-admiral on 1 February 1793 at the commencement of the French Revolutionary War, and on 21 October he raised his flag at Portsmouth aboard the Swiftsure 74, Captain Charles Boyles. In December he left London to assume the command of the Irish station, flying his flag on various vessels though largely residing in Cork. He commanded this station for seven years, showing considerable administrative ability as he organised the flow of convoys through the Irish Sea, and positioned his small ships to protect against enemy cruisers. In July 1796 the Committee of Merchants in London awarded him a 100-guinea sword for his vigilance in protecting their trade. In December 1796 he was a key link in the Admiralty’s efforts to thwart a French attempt to invade Ireland, sending his flag lieutenant to investigate the enemy forces in Bantry Bay, and dispatching the latest information to London. In fact, adverse weather rather than British naval activity dispersed the French threat.
Occasionally he would put to sea, as in July 1794 when he went aboard the Alexander 74, Captain Richard Rodney Bligh, to collect the East India fleet then lying at Galway to avoid the French fleets active at the entrance to the Channel. On 25 August with a strong squadron under his command, (and now aboard the Ganges 74, Captain William Truscott) he delivered the valuable ships safely to Plymouth. During his years serving in Ireland, frigates under his command captured a dozen French frigates and many other enemy vessels, earning him a great deal of prize money.
In October 1797 Kingsmill travelled to London (where he maintained a residence at 7 Woodstock Street in Mayfair) and reported to the Admiralty before taking some well-earned leave. He travelled to his estate in Berkshire, where he bestowed a year’s free rent on every tenant and awarded each labourer a guinea (equivalent to over £100 in today’s money). After a visit to Bath, he was back in Ireland by November, and although in September 1798 it was reported that he was to quit the station for the benefit of his health, he remained at Cork. He had been promoted vice-admiral in July 1794 and became a full admiral in February 1799, making him one of the lucky few officers who progressed three steps from captain to admiral in only six years. Created a baronet on 24 November 1800 he finally left his post at the end of December, throwing an elaborate entertainment for his friends in the merchant community at Cork. He then travelled to Bristol aboard the Kangaroo 16, Commander George Christopher Pulling.
He did not see any further service, and after purchasing more land in Hampshire with his abundant prize money, he died at his seat of Sydmonton Place, Newbury, Berkshire on 23 November 1805. When news of his demise reached Cork, the shops closed for the day as a mark of respect. Since Kingsmill and his wife Elizabeth were childless, his estate passed to the Reverend John Stephens of Chewton Mendip, Somerset.
Apparently, Stephens was a natural son of the admiral, who also had a daughter, Charlotte, presumably by the same unknown woman. When her husband (Captain John Pulling who had served under Kingsmill in Ireland) drowned at Plymouth on 11 January 1798, his wife was described as ‘the daughter of Admiral Kingsmill’. John lived only until 1819, but Charlotte remarried (to a senior British army officer) and lived until 1847.
Lord Sandwich described Kingsmill as a ‘good officer but discontented and complaining’, but then they were political opponents. He was apparently of a gentle, pleasant and generous disposition, and a good friend of Captain William Locker and through him of his protégé, Horatio Nelson.