Correspondence of the Family of Haddock, 1657-1719

Correspondence of the Family of Haddock, 1657-1719 - The Camden Miscellany: Volume the Eighth

Settled from remote times in the little town of Leigh, in Essex, at the mouth of the Thames, the family of Haddock, we may be sure, took early to the sea, as was befitting their name. There are traces of Haddocks of Leigh to be found as far back as Edward the Thirds days; but we need not search for earlier generations than those which sprang from Richard Haddock, a captain in the Parliamentary Navy. That the family had followed the sea from father to son in bygone times, and had so established a tradition to be observed by their descendants, might be argued from the regularity with which the Haddocks of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries served in the Navy for upwards of a hundred years. This regularity is only to be equalled by that with which they named their children Richard, to the perpetual confusion of their biographers. Captain Richard Haddock, to whom reference has been made above, served under the Commonwealth. In 1642 we find him in command of the ship Victory, and in 1652 he received a reward of 40 for good service. He died in 1660 at the age of 79. His[iv] eldest son William, also a Parliamentary captain, commanded the ship America in 1650, and the Hannibal in 1653. He survived his father only seven years, dying in 1667, aged 60. Captain Richard Haddock had another son, Richard, who was probably a good deal younger than his brother. He served with distinction in the Dutch war in 1673;[1] and was in all probability the father of William Haddock whom the family papers show to have been a lieutenant in the Cornwall in 1696-1697, and who commanded a ship in the action off Cape Passaro in 1718 (p. 54) and died in 1726. William Haddock, the Parliamentary captain, had at least four sons: Richard, Andrew, Joseph, and William. Richard will be noticed presently. Andrew is mentioned in the first letter of this Correspondence. William was at sea with his brother Richard in 1657 and 1658. Joseph was a lieutenant in the Lion in 1672, and in the Royal Charles in 1673, and served in the Dutch war in those years; and afterwards held a command in the East Indies, whence he wrote an interesting letter here printed (p. 37). Richard Haddock was born about the year 1629, and must have entered the service at an early age; for in 1657, when the present Correspondence begins, he was already a captain in command of the Dragon frigate, which formed part of the squadron cruising off Dunkirk. In 1666 he was captain of the Portland; but from 1667 to 1671[v] he appears to have temporarily left the Navy and engaged in trading to the Mediterranean. On the breaking out of the Dutch war, however, he was made captain of the Royal James, the ship on which the ill-starred Earl of Sandwich hoisted his flag in the battle of Southwold Bay. He was one of the few officers of that vessel who survived the day, though he did not escape unwounded. He next commanded the Lion; but early in 1673 he was appointed to the Royal Charles, Prince Ruperts ship, and within a few weeks followed the Prince into the Royal Sovereign, when the bad qualities of the former ship in action became evident. In July of the same year he was made Commissioner of the Navy; and on the 3rd of July, 1675, he was knighted. In 1682 he was appointed to the command of the Duke and to the chief command of ships of war in the Thames and narrow seas; and in the next year became First Commissioner of the Victualling Office. After the Revolution he was named Comptroller of the Navy, which office he continued to hold till his death, and received a pension of 500 a year. He was one of the joint commanders-in-chief of the fleet in the expedition to Ireland in 1690. He died on the 26th of January, 1715, in his eighty-sixth year, and was buried in his native town of Leigh. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 53144
Author: Thompson, Edward Maunde
Release Date: Sep 25, 2016
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Editor: Thompson, Edward Maunde, Sir, 1840-1929