intermediate appointments must have been of very little confequence, as none of them are particularly mentioned.. Captain Ockman did not long retain his command, for in the month of June following we find captain Man, his fucceffor in the Orford, No other particulars concerning him have come to our knowledge, except that hẹ died fome time in the courfe of the year 1740.

PASTON, Robert,-was, on the 8th of June 1709, appointed captain of the Feverfham, a frigate of thirtyfix guns. He was, not long afterwards, fent on the North American station; and very much diftinguished himfelf in the following year, under commodore Martin, in the attack of Port Royal in Acadia, now called Nova Scotia. He was ordered to join fir Hovenden Walker, who, in the year 1711, commanded the unfortunate expedition against Quebec. The frigate, having been previoufly fent to Virginia for fome provifions which had been collected and stored in that colony, and being moreover miserably deficient as to her compliment of men, was not able to reach Cape Breton, his appointed rendezvous, till after misfortune had compelled the remains of that once formidable armament to return to England. This unavoidable delay did not, however, preferve captain Pafton from being involved in a more miferable and untimely fate; haftening to carry his inAtructions into execution, and join fir Hovenden, his fhip foundered in a gale of wind off Cape Breton, near the entrance of the river St. Lawrence, on the 7th of October 1711, the greater part of the crew perifhing with himself and the fhip.

PURVIS, George, was in the year 1707, made commander of the Dunkirk's Prize, a frigate of twenty-four guns, but which was only rated as a floop of war, and confequently did not entitle Mr. Purvis to the rank of captain in the Navy. He was immediately ordered to the Weft Indies, where he ferved with very diftinguished reputation, under commodore, afterwards fir Charles Wager. In the following year the commander-in-chief received inftructions to fend captain Purvis to England with the fquadron and convoy returning home under commodore John Edwards. The fhip, however, was in fo bad a condition that Mr. Wager did not think it prudent to trust it on so dangerous a paffage at fo critical à feason

a

of

of the year; and accordingly changing its deftination, ordered captain Purvis out on a fhort cruife, in company with the Monmouth. In this little expedition, if it may be fo termed, they had the good fortune to capture two valuable prizes, bound from Rochelle to Petit Guavas. Captain Purvis being ordered out foon afterward to cruise on the north fide of Hifpaniola, unfortunately, through the ignorance of the Pilot, ran on a ledge of rocks, being at that time in chace of a French fhip which juft before, in hopes of faving herself, ran afhore near Cape Francois. The Medway's Prize being in very bad condition, and extremely weak, very foon bulged. This accident, unfortunate as it was to the fervice in general, proved the foundation of the highest honour and fame to captain Purvis, for having got, with fome of his men, on a small key, or low uninhabited island, within gun-fhot of the French fhip, he prepared to attack the enemy with his boats, and a canoe which he had got poffeffion of, fupported by a platform he had haftily conftructed, and on which he had mounted two or three of the fhip's guns. The French seeing these cautious, and at the same determined preparations, were too timid to refift any longer; they demanded quarter and furrendered the fhip on the fingle condition of being fet on fhore. The spirit of Mr. Purvis on the foregoing occafion was the more deserving of praife, as upwards of twenty of his people refused to affift him and join in the attempt, which they timidly fuppofed it was impoffible to fucceed in. Thefe captain Purvis left, very properly, to pursue their own inclinations; and having embarked all his gallant followers and fupporters on board the prize, which they got off from the fhore without much difficulty, arrived fafe with them at Jamaica. Commodore Wager having transmitted the account of the foregoing very gallant tranfaction to the commiffioners of the admiralty, they very properly promoted Mr. Purvis to the rank of captain in the navy, appointing him, on the 22d of May 1709, to command the Coventry frigate. He did not long remain in this veffel, being advanced, on the 24th of September following, to the more confequential command of the Portland, a fourth rate of fifty guns. In 1710 he was employed in this fhip, under the orders of captain Aldred, on the Newfoundland ftation, and very much distinguished him

felf

felf in the attack of the French fettlements on that coaft, of which fufficient mention has been already made in the lives of captains Aldred and Pudner.

We do not, extraordinary and fingular as it may appear, find any mention made of captain Purvis after this time, till the year 1721, when he commanded the Durfley galley, a fmall frigate fitted out to accompany the fquadron under the admirals Wager and Hofier, but which the timely and prudent conceffion of the Portuguese prevented from ever putting to fea. He continued captain of the fame veffel, without interruption, for several years, occafionally employed on fuch fervices as the neceffities of government require in time of peace. In 1726 he accompanied fir Charles Wager to Gibraltar; on which ftation he continued to ferve during the fiege, but without meeting with any remarkable occurrence. After his return from thence, in 1728, he was appointed captain of the Monmouth, of feventy guns, as fucceffor to Mr. Balchen; but the fleet never appears to have put to sea during the time Mr. Purvis retained the above appointment, and we have no proof, that we can depend on, of his having held any naval command after this time. In 1734-5 he was appointed comptroller of the treasurer of the navy's accounts, an office he held till the year 1740-1, and in which fome inform us he died; but the date of his decease, as given us in rear-admiral Hardy's lift, is 1748.

REYNOLDS, Thomas,-was, on the 21ft of September 1709, appointed captain of the Coventry; and, in 1715, we find him captain of the Royal Anne galley, a frigate of thirty-four guns, one of the fleet in the North Sea under fir Geo. Byng. No other mention being made of him we have reafon to believe he never obtained the command of a fhip of the line. He died on the 10th of March 1719.

SAPSFORD, John, -is known only as having been appointed captain of the Suffolk Hag boat on the 18th of March 1709. Even the time of his death is unnoticed.

SAUNDERSON, Ralph,-was the eldest son of fir W. Saunderfon, of Combe near Greenwich, in the county of Kent, knight banneret, of whom we shall have hereafter to give fome account, and Drury, one of the daughters and coheirs of fir William Wray, of Afhby in the county of Lincoln, baronet. Mr. Saunderfon having

entere !

entered into the fea-fervice, and regularly paffed through the feveral fubordinate ftations, was, on October 17, 1709, promoted to the command of the Mary galley, Hệ continued captain of the fame veffel, we believe till the end of the war, principally employed, during that period, as a cruifer in the Channel, a fervice he executed with advantage to his country and emolument to himfelf, We do not find any other mention made of him after the acceffion of king George the Firft, except that he died in England on the 30th of April 1718.

SMITH, Nicholas, was, on the 8th of March 1709, appointed captain of the Enterprife frigate. He continued commander of this fhip till the conclufion of the war, employed nearly during the whole time as a cruiser, a fervice in which he had very fingular fuccefs, particularly in the year 1712, having, in the month of February alone, captured two valuable merchant-fhips, and a frigate, be longing to Rochfort, mounting 36 guns, called the Loire.

After the acceffion of king George the First he was promoted to the Centurion, of fifty guns, and fent to the Baltic with the fleet under fir John Norris; as he was again in 1717, with fir George Byng, being then captain of the Jerfey. After this time we are ignorant of any particulars concerning him, except that he died in England on the 7th of July 1721.

STOREY, Edward,-was, on the 17th of June 1709, made captain of the Charles galley. It is not improbable he was the fon of captain James Storey, whom we have formerly had occafion to give fome account of*; but of this we have no proof to be implicitly relied on. This gentleman is taken no farther notice of till the year 1717, when he commanded the Chatham, a fourth rate of fifty guns, one of the fhips ordered, under fir John Norris, to the Baltic, from whence he returned in the beginning of November, a few days before the body of the fleet, having, in conjunction with the Gloucester and Hampshire, the homeward-bound trade under convoy. Captain E. Storey, as well as the former gentleman of the fame name, is faid to have been a man poffeffed of an uncom mon fund of natural humour, aided by the ftrongeft, though at the fame time most innocent excentricity of * Vol. I. p. 298. B

VOL, IV.

ming.

mind. A number of anecdotes, which it is foreign to our purpose to relate, all exemplifying the above character, are ftill traditionally preferved among feamen. The remembrance of his innocent gaiety and lively fpirit caufed universal lamentation at his death, which happened on the 14th of June 1727, and excited a degree of public grief, which the most popular character might have beheld with envy.

STEWART, James, was, on the 14th of January 1709, appointed captain of the Greyhound: he was afterwards promoted to the Dartmouth, of fifty guns, and sent to the Mediterreanean, where he continued during the remainder of the war, but without meeting with any memorable opportunity of diftinguithing himself beyond others his brave cotemporaries. In 1716 he was captain of the Aldborough frigate, and employed in cruifing among the Hebrides, or iflands off the weftern coaft of Scotland, to prevent the introduction of any fupplies into that country for the ufe of the rebel army. In 1717 he was captain of the Royal Anne galley, a frigate attached to the fquadron under admiral Aylmer, which convoyed the king to Holland. Few men who have lived to attain the very high rank in the fervice which this gentleman afterwards very defervedly reached, ever paffed that part of their time, during which they were private commanders in fuch complete obfcurity, no mention being ever made of him, nor can we find his name inferted in any of the lines of battle made out, during the above period, as commander of any fhip of two decks till the year 1741, at which time he commanded the Cumberland, of eighty guns. We are perfuaded notwithstanding, that he was very frequently employed, moft probably in the command of guardships, or ftationed frigates, which pass totally unnoticed in time of peace, unless fome very extraordinary occurrence should bring them forward to public view. The extreme difficulty, not to fay impoffibility of developing the employments,

He commanded this fhip during the whole year, it was one of thofe compofing the fleet under fir J. Norris; and in fome of the lines of battle we have feen, is faid to have accompanied fir C. Ogle, in the fame station, on his expedition to the West Indies.

and