Thomas Davy Spry (c1752-1828)
Promoted at an early age through the influence of his uncle, Spry’s short spell of active service was unique in that it was mainly spent on the Jamaican station. After inheriting his uncle’s surname and estate he retired ashore in his 29th year to enjoy a very long retirement.
He was the elder of two sons of Thomas Davy and of his wife Mary Spry, the sister of Rear-Admiral Sir Richard Spry.
As a 17-year-old benefiting from his uncle’s considerable influence, Davy (often spelled Davey) was commissioned lieutenant on 16 May 1769 and just three years later in July 1772 he was promoted commander. Appointed to the sloop Diligence 10, his vessel sailed from Portsmouth for the Jamaican station in October, remaining there for the next five years.
With the imminent entry of France to the American Revolutionary War, Davy was posted captain of the Europe 64 on 5 May 1778, sailing for Newfoundland later that month with the flag of Vice-Admiral John Montagu. On 15 October he exchanged ships with Captain Richard King of the Pallas on that station. In early December his frigate reached Gibraltar after a passage of 25 days, and a month later she arrived at Portsmouth.
In March 1779 the Pallas was sent from Plymouth to cruise between Tynemouth and Flamborough Head, and she was later present under the orders of Captain Sir James Wallace at the Battle of Cancale Bay on 13 May. Four days later she returned to Plymouth from the French coast with the captured frigate Danae 34, which had been taken by Wallace’s Experiment 50 off St. Malo.
In the meantime, on 13 April 1779, a royal licence had granted Davy permission to assume the name of Spry as heir to his uncle, Rear-Admiral Sir Richard Spry of Place House, St. Anthony-in-Roseland, Cornwall, that officer having died on 1 December 1775.
In mid-June 1779 the Pallas under Captain Spry sailed from Portsmouth with the Jamaica convoy, and remaining on that station, she captured the Spanish Cartagena-bound storeship Diana 22 on 11 November. Spry went on to take a number of prizes in West Indian waters over the following years – for example, in October 1780 (along with the Lowestoffe 32, Captain Christopher Parker), the Pallas took five prizes on a cruise in the Gulf of Mexico. Whilst cruising in 1781 she also made a reconnaissance of enemy bases at Curaçao and Cap François.
Spry transferred to the Ulysses 44 on the Jamaican station in March 1782 and continued to take prizes. On 4 October the Ulysses (in company with the Licorne 32, Captain William Henry Douglas) captured a French schooner packet carrying a cargo valued at 62,000 dollars. Two more Spanish vessels homeward bound from Mexico laden with cochineal, cocoa and 80,000 dollars were taken that winter. With the American Revolutionary War having come to an end, the Ulysses brought home a West Indies convoy (arriving at Plymouth on 11 July 1783), and she was paid off in September.
Spry was not employed thereafter but instead retired to Place House in St Antony-in-Roseland, and served as a county magistrate and deputy Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall. In due course he was promoted rear-admiral (in June 1795), vice-admiral (in February 1799) and admiral (in November 1805). At his death, he had been on half-pay for 45 years, drawing a flag-officer’s half-pay of from £320 to £560 a year for most of that time.
On 9 February 1796 he married the heiress Anna Maria Thomas of Tregolls, Cornwall. Their elder son, Sir Samuel Thomas Spry, would sit in the House of Commons as the M.P. for Bodmin in both the Whig and then the Tory interest, and the couple had another son and two daughters. Sadly in 1817 his wife was examined by a commission to determine if she was ‘a lunatic’. She seems to have been committed, with her husband overseeing her care, and she continued to live in the family home, Place House. Spry made careful provision for her to stay there after his death.
Aside from regular visits to Bath, Admiral Spry remained largely out of the public eye. He died at Tregolls near Truro in Cornwall on 27 November 1828 and was buried at St. Anthony-in-Roseland Church, where a plaque commemorates both him and his wife. His eighteen-page will attests to his considerable wealth at death.