Gaspee Virtual Archives |
| Admiral
John
Montagu (1719-1795) The Gaspee Days Committee at www.gaspee.COM is a civic-minded nonprofit organization that operates many community events in and around Pawtuxet Village, including the famous Gaspee Days Parade each June. These events are all designed to commemorate the 1772 burning of the hated British revenue schooner, HMS Gaspee, by Rhode Island patriots as America's 'First Blow for Freedom' TM. Our historical research center, the Gaspee Virtual Archives at www.gaspee.ORG , has presented these research notes as an attempt to gather further information on one who has been suspected of being associated with the the burning of the Gaspee. Please e-mail your comments or further questions to webmaster@gaspee.org. |
| Selected excerpts without commentary: |
| From:
Centre for Newfoundland
Studies Archives, Memorial University Library, April
1997 http://www.library.mun.ca/qeii/cns/archives/montagu.php?print=1
Montagu returned to active duty in 1757 as captain of the Monarque, and one of his first responsibilities was to carry out the sentence of the court martial of Admiral John Byng (Governor of Newfoundland 1742) who had been found guilty of negligence for his decision to retreat from the French forces at Minorca the previous year. Byng was shot by firing squad on the quarter-deck of the Monarque on March 14.
While in charge of the Newfoundland station, Montagu was mainly concerned with protecting the coast and the fishing fleet from American privateers. He succeeded in this by outfitting "a number of the best fast sailing vessels in the trade ... as armed cruisers, putting young lieutenants, masters, mates, midshipmen, and petty officers in charge of them. With the men-of-war under his command and these improvised sloops and cutters, he most effectively protected our coasts from the American privateers." (D.W. Prowse: 1895, pp. 340-1) With the outbreak of renewed hostilities with France in 1778, he ordered the capture of St. Pierre and Miquelon, had the town burned, and the 1392 residents sent back to France. His tour of duty in Newfoundland ended in 1778 and he returned to England. From 1783 to 1786 he served as Commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth and rose through the admiralty ranks, being made Admiral of the White Squadron on September 24, 1787. He retired to Fareham in Hampshire, where he died on September 7, 1795. |
|
From:
Berryhill &
Sturgeon Historical Documents <http://berryhillsturgeon.com/> Montagu
commanded the North American Squadron from
August 1771 to July 1774, a
very trying period. He was embroiled in the
Gaspee affair, the Gaspee
Commission, the Boston Tea Party, and, as a
final gesture, it was
Montagu who initiated the naval blockade of
Boston under the terms of
the Boston Port Act. He was the most disliked of
all the men who held
the North American naval command. The Boston Tea
Party was a protest by
the American colonists against Great Britain in
which they destroyed
many crates of tea on ships in Boston Harbor.
The incident, which took
place on Thursday, December 16, 1773, has been
seen as helping to spark
the American Revolution. England reacted
with the Boston Port
Act. The Boston Port Act, passed by the British
Parliament and becoming
law on March 31, 1774, is one of the measures
(variously called the
Intolerable Acts, the Punitive Acts or the
Coercive Acts) that were
designed to secure the United Kingdom's
jurisdictions over her American
dominions. A response to the Boston Tea Party,
it outlawed the use of
the Port of Boston for "landing and discharging,
lading or shipping, of
goods, wares, and merchandise" until such time
as restitution was made
to the King's treasury (for customs duty lost)
and to the East India
Company for damages suffered. In other words, it
closed Boston Port to
all ships, no matter what business the ship had.
Service
history: 1733
trained at Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth,
1740 promoted lieutenant and served on the Buckingham, 1744 present at the Battle of Toulon, 1757 present at the execution of Admiral John Byng, 1770 promoted to Rear-Admiral of the Blue, 1771 — 1774 commander-in-chief of the North American station, 1776 promoted Vice-Admiral, 1776 commander-in-chief and governor of Newfoundland, 1782 promoted Full Admiral of the Blue, 1783 — 1786 commander-in-chief of Portsmouth 1787 promoted Full Admiral of the White, |
| From: Montague
Millennium http://www.montaguemillennium.com/familyresearch/h_1795_john.htm John Montagu,
1719-1795 Entered Royal Academy, Portsmouth, 1733; served on the Dreadnought, Shoreham, Dragon, and Dauphin; lieutenant, 1740; the Buckingham, 1741; Battle at Toulon (but the Buckingham remained in reserve), 1743; witness at court-martial (1743?), accused of being a mouth-piece for his captain:
To flagship Namur, given command of Hinchinbroke, 1744; command of Ambuscade (40 guns), 1747; in Anson's fleet at Battle of Cape Finisterre, 1747; various commands; as commander of Monarque in charge of the execution of Admiral Byng by firing-squad on the quarter-deck, 1757; and at destruction of De la Clue's squadron off Cartagena, 1758; a number of commands; with Hawke at Bay of Biscay, 1760; Rear-admiral, 1770; commander-in-chief, on the North America station, 1771-1774; (the DNB: "defined as `from the River St. Lawrence to Cape Florida and the Bahama Islands'"); vice-admiral, 1776; commander-in-chief at Newfoundland, primarily fighting American privateers, also seized islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, 1776-1779; admiral of the blue, 1782; commander-in-chief, Portsmouth, 1783-1786. Until 1749 wrote his name as Mountagu. |
| From: John Adams diary
19, 16 December
1772 - 18 December 1773 [electronic edition]. Adams
Family Papers: An
Electronic Archive. Boston, Mass. : Massachusetts
Historical Society,
2002. http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/ Page 4 1772
DECR. 29
[i.e. 28?].
Spent the last Sunday Evening with Dr. Cooper at his House with Justice Quincy and Mr. Wm. Cooper. We were very social and we chatted at large upon Cæsar, Cromwell &c. Yesterday Parson Howard and his Lady, lately Mrs. Mayhew, drank Tea with Mrs. Adams. Heard many Anecdotes from a young Gentleman in my Office of Admirall Montagu's Manners. A Coachman, a Jack Tar before the Mast, would be ashamed -- nay a Porter, a Shew Black or Chimney Sweeper would be ashamed of the coarse, low, vulgar, Dialect of this Admiral Sea Officer, tho an a rear Admiral of the Blue, and tho a Second Son of a genteel if not a noble Family in England. An American Freeholder, living in a log House 20 feet Square, without a Chimney in it, is a well bred Gentleman Man, a polite accomplished Person, a fine Gentleman, in Comparison of this Beast of Prey. Page 5 This is
not
the Language of Prejudice, for I
have
none against him, but of Truth. His brutal,
hoggish Manners are a
Disgrace to the Royal Navy, and to the Kings
Service.
His Lady is very much disliked they say in general. She is very full of her Remarks at the Assembly and Concert. Can this Lady afford the Jewells and Dress she wears? -- Oh that ever my son should come to dance with a Mantua Maker. As to the Admiral his continual Language is cursing and damning and God damning, "my wifes d--d A--se is so broad that she and I can't sit in a Chariot together" -- this is the Nature of the Beast and the common Language of the Man. Admiral Montagu's Conversation by all I can learn of it, is exactly like Otis's when he is both mad and drunk. |
| From: Trevelyan, Sir George
Otto. The
American Revolution, Vol 1, New York:
Longmans, Green,
& Co. 1898, page 132. For ten years past
ever
since George Grenville's influence began to be felt in
the distant
parts of the Empire the claims of the Revenue had been
enforced with
unwonted rigour which in the summer of 1771 assumed an
aggressive and
exasperating character. Sandwich, who had
succeeded Hawke at the
Admiralty, had appointed an officer with his own
surname and, as it is
superfluous to state of his own party, to command the
powerful squadron
now stationed in American waters. Admiral
Montagu who came fresh
from hearing the inner mind of the Bedfords as
expressed in the
confidence of the punch bowl was always ready to make
known his opinion
of New England and its inhabitants in epithets which
on a well ordered
man of war were seldom heard abaft the mast.
The Admiral's appearance was milder than his language. Philip Freneau [the famous poet of the American Revolution] in a satirical Litany prayed to be delivered, From groups at St
James's
who slight our petitions
And fools that are waiting for further submissions From a nation whose manners are rough and abrupt From scoundrels and rascals whom gold can corrupt From pirates sent out by command of the King To murder and plunder but never to swing From hot headed Montagu mighty to swear The little fat man with his pretty white hair It was believed in America that Sandwich and the Admiral were brothers. The story in that shape has got into history. |
| From: Lovejoy, David
S. Rhode Island
Politics and the American
Revolution,
1760- 1776. Brown University Press, Providence, 1969, p160. After attending the
ceremonious
departure of the Boston contingent for Newport, an
English naval
officer described the scene to a friend. It was well
worth the trip
across the Atlantic, he said, just to see "so
respectable a squadron"
as Admiral Montague with his flag and "old mother"
Oliver, the Deputy
Governor, who trembled "under his rusty sword, rigged
out athwartship
like the mizzen yard of a northcountry cat." These,
with Auchmuty, and
his large white wig "(in size equal to Ld.
Mansfield's)" set out
overland for Rhode Island in order to "send to England
for trial and
execution" the people who burned the Gaspee.
Source: Newport Mercury, April 26, 1773. Owing to winter conditions Admiral Montague traveled overland to Swansea on the Taunton River where he boarded a vessel for the remaining part of the trip to Newport. He sailed into the harbor, his Admiral's flag flying, and was promptly saluted by His Majesty's vessels at anchor there. The cannons at Fort George were conspicuously silent, an incident which so infuriated Montague that he refused to call upon Governor Wanton and wrote home to the Lords of the Admiralty bitterly complaining about the insult he had received. Source: Newport Mercury, Jan. 25, 1773 |
| The above story continues
in:
Stout, Neil R. The
Royal Navy in
America, 1760-1775: A Study of Enforcement of British
Colonial Policy
in the Era of the American Revolution. Naval
Institute Press,
Annapolis, MD, 1973, p159: Montagu's complaint
was
laid
before the king, who, according to Lord Dartmouth, the
new Colonial
Secretary, was "justly incensed" and ordered that "his
Majesty's ships
of war, coming into any of the ports within the colony
of Rhode Island,
and having an admiral's flag or broad pennant hoisted,
be saluted in
such manner as is usual in all other parts of his
Majesty's dominions
in America."
p155Montagu commanded
the
North
American Squadron from August 1771 to July 1774, a
very trying period.
He was embroiled in the Gaspee affair, the Gaspee
Commission, the
Boston Tea Party, and, as a final gesture, it was
Montagu who initiated
the naval blockade of Boston under the terms of the
Boston Port Act. He
was the most disliked of all the men who held the
North American naval
command.
P199: COMMANDERS
OF THE NORTH AMERICAN SQUADRON OF THE ROYAL NAVY,
1759-1776
|
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John
Montagu was born in
1719 in
Lackham, Wiltshire, the son of
James Montague and a great-great-grandson of the first
Earl of
Manchester. Montagu entered the Royal Academy at
Portsmouth on August
14, 1733 and served on board a number of vessels
during the next seven
years. He was promoted to lieutenant on December 22,
1740 and assigned
to the Buckingham the following February. He
attained the
rank of commander in March 1744/5, and was made
captain in January
1745/6 on board the 40-gun ship Ambuscade,
seeing action at
Cape Finistre the following May. He saw limited
command in the eight
years between 1748 and 1756, during which time he
served as Member of
Parliament for Huntington.
Montagu
saw action in
various
European engagements during the Seven
Years' War (1756-1763). In 1770 he was made Rear
Admiral of the Blue
Squadron and the following year made
Commander-in-Chief of the North
American station, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence south
to Florida and
the Bahamas, a position he held until 1776 when he was
made
Commander-in-Chief and Governor of Newfoundland. In
February of that
year he was raised to Vice Admiral of the Blue.