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 https://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Berryhill & Sturgeon Historical Documents <https://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. https://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.