BY GABRIEL WIRGMAN, LONDON, 1780, RETAILED BY GABRIEL LECKEY

ADMIRAL THE LORD RODNEY

Admiral George Brydges Rodney was born to a prominent yet humble family. He was fourth of five children of Harry Rodney (d.1737), an army officer, and Mary (d.1737), the daughter of Sir Henry Newton, a distinguished diplomat and judge of the high court of Admiralty. After completing his education at Harrow School as a King’s Letter boy, he began his naval career at the age of fourteen. A distinguished victory at Ventimiglia during the War of Austrian Succession in 1742 led to his promotion to Captain of H.M.S. Plymouth, making him one of the youngest to hold this post. He continued to climb the ranks, after crucial successes during the Seven Year’s War, he was awarded the title of Baronet.

During the American Revolutionary War, he was appointed as commander-in-chief of the Leeward Islands Station (Barbados), where he played an integral role in the Battles of Saint Vincent and Martinique. He was criticised for his actions at St. Eustatius, where he rounded up and looted from the Jewish merchant community he suspected of aiding revolutionaries and for seeking prizes instead of cutting off the French aid to the Chesapeake Bay, where the Americans would gain a crucial victory at the Battle of Yorktown. After a short break in England, Rodney returned to the fray and cinched a critical win over the French at the Battle of the Saintes. After the battle, Rodney was credited with the invention of the naval strategy of ‘breaking the line’, where a ship takes advantage of the position of the enemy and breaks through the line of battle, enabling it to fire off both sides.

Whilst in England in 1782 he received the Freedom of the City of London together with the gold box of the value of one hundred guineas, offered here, which had been voted to him by the Lord Mayor and Council in 1780, the details of which are discussed below. It was at this time that he sat for the portrait painter Thomas Gainsborough, who inscribed the portrait with the date of his sitter's victory over the French at Saintes, on 12 April 1782.

He retired to his house in Alresford, Hampshire, however, his later years were marred by financial complications resulting from the lack of attention to monetary matters and his gambling. This may have led the breakdown of his second marriage in 1784. He died in London in 1792.

THE PRESENTATION

The deliberations of the Mayor, Aldermen and Council are recorded in detail in London's Roll of Fame published in 1884. The meeting was led by Brackley Bennett, Lord Mayor of London and John Wilkes, Chamberlain of the Council.

At a Court of Common Council, 6th March, 1780, a motion was made, and question put:-

‘That the Freedom of this City be presented to Sir George Brydges Rodney, Bart., Rear-Admiral of Great Britain, and Commander-in-Chief of His Majesty's Fleets at Gibraltar, in testimony of the grateful sense this Court entertains of the signal and important victory obtained by him on the 16th and 17th January last over the Spanish squadron commanded by Don Juan Langara, wherein the Spanish admiral and the greatest part of his squadron were either taken or destroyed.’

The same was unanimously Resolved in the affirmative, and it was further Resolved-

‘That a copy of the Freedom of this City, with the Resolution of this Court inserted therein, be delivered to Sir George Brydges Rodney Bart, Rear-Admiral, in a Gold Box of the value of One Hundred Guineas.’

It would seem from the records that Lord Rodney was not admitted to the Freedom of the City of London, almost certainly because of his prolonged absences abroad on Naval duty. A further Resolution can be found in the Journal dated 31 October, 1782. It reads with the following terms:-

‘That the thanks of this Court be given to the Right Honorable LORD RODNEY as a testimony of the grateful sense they have of the advantages that have arisen to the Kingdom in general, and particularly the commercial interests of this City, from the signal victory obtained by his Lordship's judicious and prudent conduct over the French Fleet in the West Indies commanded by the Comte de Grasse on the 12th April last.'

On 19th December, 1782, the Committee appointed to wait on Lord Rodney at his house on Hertford Street with the thanks of the Court reported as follows:--

‘Upon your Committee's introduction to Lord Rodney, Sir Watkin Lewes, Knight and Alderman, addressed him in the following words:

‘My Lord, the gentlemen who have the honour to wait on your Lordship have been deputed by the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Commons of the City of London, in Common Council assembled, to present to your Lordship, in the most respectful manner, their unanimous vote of thanks. The Committee, impressed with the most lively sensations of joy and gratitude, are happy in the opportunity of congratulating your Lordship on the eminent services you have done your country, and beg leave to represent the obligation which the Capital of the British Empire feels itself under to your Lordship. The annals of our country do not afford an instance so illustrious as that of your Lordship's having defeated three of the first maritime powers in Europe, and having captured each of their Flags.'

'The victory obtained by your Lordship, on the 12th of April last, over the French Fleet commanded by the Comte de Grasse, was no less splendid and glorious than attended with advantages of the greatest importance to this Kingdom, and security of its valuable possessions and commercial interests, which we sincerely hope will be crowned with an honorable peace, or that your Lordship will again be called upon by your Sovereign to draw your sword in the service of your country.’

Then Sir Watkin Lewes delivered the Resolutions of this Court, to which his Lord Rodney returned the following answer:-

‘Gentlemen, you may be assured that nothing can be more flattering to me than that some events in this war, which the gallantry of the officers and men under my command have crowned with success, should have obtained me the approbation of so great and respectable a body as the Citizens of the most opulent and powerful City in the world. My life has been devoted to, and is now almost worn out in, the service of my King and Country, but the poor remains of it are still at the disposal of my Sovereign, whenever he thinks they can be usefully employed in supporting the honour of the British Flag, and in protecting and extending the trade of the Nation and of its great Metropolis in particular.’