the half pay of captain of a fourth rate. He enjoyed this fill his death, which happened on the 3d of August 1724.

LEY, Andrew, was, on the 26th of January 1710, appointed to the command of the Bedford galley. On the 23d of December 1712, this gentleman alfo was put on the fuperannuated lift with a penfion equivalent to the half pay of the captain of a fifth rate. The time of his death is unknown.

MASTER, Streynfham, the great-grandfon of fir Edward Mafter, of Eaft Langdon, in the county of Kent, governor of Dover, caftle, was the only fon* of James Mafter, of Gray's Inn, efq. and Joice, only daughter of fir Chriftopher Turnor, of Milton Earnest, in the county of Bedford, knight, one of the barons of the exchequer in the reign of Charles the Second. He was born in the year 1682, and was originally intended for the law; but at the preffing inftance of fir George Byng, who had married his eldest fifter, he entered into the fea fervice. Having regularly paffed through the feveral fubordinate ranks, and acquired a competent and full knowlege of every branch of his duty as an officer, he was appointed by his honourable relative, fir George Byng, to be mafter and commander of the Fame Prize t. This commiffion was dated on the 15th of July 1709; and, on the 22d of March following, 1709-10, he was advanced by fir John Norris, to the rank of poft captain, and appointed to the Ludlow Caftle. Both thefe appointments were progref fively confirmed by the board of admiralty. From the manner in which the war was fuffered to languifh after this time, particularly in the European feas, captain Master had no other opportunity of diftinguishing himself than all men have who are attentive to their duty. He appears to have been almoft conftantly in commiflion, and employed as actively as the temper of the times permitted,

* His uncle, who was alfo named Streynfham, was a director of the Eaft India company. Vide Gazettes, No. 3416 and 3453.

+ During a part of the time Mr. Mafter was captain of this veffel, be was employed under vice-admiral Baker in cruifing off Meffina, and had the good fortune to capture a French fhip of fome force. This event is faid to have happened in the month of May 1710; if fo he could not have taken upon him the command of the Ludlow Caftle till fome confiderable time after the date of his commission.

and

and the fervice of his country required. On the 7th of April 1712, being then on the Lisbon ftation under the orders of vice-admiral Baker, he was appointed by him to command the Ormond, a fourth rate. From that general poverty of naval events which continued for fome years afterwards, we have been able to collect nothing relative to this gentleman till the year 1716, when he removed into the Dragon, of fifty guns, one of the fleet ordered for the Baltic under fir George Byng; but we are doubtful whether he proceeded thither, owing to its having been impoffible to put the fhip in a proper state of equip ment by the time the admiral received orders to fail.

On the 14th of March 1717-18, he was appointed captain of the Superbe, a fixty gun fhip, one of the fleet ordered for the Mediterranean, as that for the Baltic had been in the year before under the command of fir George Byng. On the arrival of the fleet off cape St. Vincent, captain Master was difpatched by the admiral to Cadiz with a letter to the British envoy; and he returned with the first accurate and positive advice of the immense pre parations for war the Spaniards had been making at Barcelona.

His gallantry in the ever memorable action with the Spanish fleet off Cape Paffaro was highly confpicuous, and hiftorians have not neglected to do justice to his merit.

About one o'clock the Superbe, (lays Mr. Corbet in his account of the expedition to Sicily) commanded by captain Master, fupported by the Kent, captain Mathews came up with and engaged the Spanish admiral, of feventyfour guns, who, with two fhips more, fired on them, and made a running fight till about three. The Kent then bearing down under his ftern, gave him her broadfide and fell to leeward. The Superbe, then putting forward to lay the admiral a-board, fell on his weather quarter: and the Spanish admiral then fhifting his helm, the Superbe ranged up under his lee quarter, upon which he struck his flag." The above glorious victory was obtained on the 31st of July 1718. The Spanish navy was nearly annihilated by it; and captain Mafter had not only the honour of having moft eminently contributed to the defeat of the enemy, but, as we believe, was the firft, and indeed only private

captain

captain who ever had the honour of making a comman der-in-chief of fo high a rank his prisoner.

Captain Mafter continued in the Mediterranean till the conclufion of the war; and we have no reason to fuppofe he ever had any appointment after his return to England. In the year 1724 he married Elizabeth *, only daughter and heir of Richard Oxenden, of Brooke, efq. He unhappily died t of a fever on the 22d of June in that year, after having been married only four mouths. He was interred in the Brooke chancel, in the church of Wingham, in Kent, where a monument is erected to his memory. As to his character, fuffice it to fay, that as his public conduct and courage juftly entitled him to the highest rank as a popular man, fo did the noble steadiness of his friendship and true benevolence of heart render his premature death universally and fincerely regretted by all who ever had been happy enough to be acquainted with him.

A fracas, which happened between him and his cousin colonel Turnor, when they were both unhappily heated with wine, may, from the fingularity of the circumstance attending it, deserve relation. Captain Mafter broke an inch and a quarter of the point of his fword in colonel Turnor's forehead, between his eyes. It remained there eighteen years; and what is, perhaps, more extraordinary, the colonel lived two years after it was taken out by Small the furgeon the piece of the fword is preferved as a curiofity by Edm. Turnor, efq. F.R.S.

PEARSON, Robert,-was, on the 25th of December 1710, appointed captain of the Portland. We can meet with no other information concerning this gentleman except that he died in England, and we believe unemployed, on the 30th of August 1723.

VANBRUGH, Philip, brother to captain Charles Vanbrugh, whom we have already noticed, was, on the 27th of November 1710, appointed captain of the Speedwell. His next commiffion, far as we have been able to

This lady died in the year 1759, leaving the manor of Brook to fir Henry Oxenden, baronet, the prefent owner of it. In the forty-third year of his age, leaving no iffue. late in the collection of lord Torrington, is now in the Edm. Turnor, efq. of Panton Houfe, in Lincolnshire.

His portrait, poffeffion of

invefti

investigate, was to the Charles galley, of forty guns, to which he was appointed in the year 1716. He failed immediately afterwards under the orders of vice-admiral Cornwall, who was fent to Gibraltar with a small squadron for the purpose of overawing the Salletines. Nothing remarkable happened till the year 1718, when the rupture took place with Spain: and on the arrival of fir George Byng, with the fleet, off Gibraltar, the viceadmiral joined him with the Argyle, his flag fhip, and the Charles galley.

Captain Vanbrugh was confequently prefent at the well-known engagement with the Spanish fleet, though, from the inferior fize of his fhip, it could not be expected he fhould have it in his power to effect any very confequential fervice in fuch an encounter. After his return from the Mediterranean, where he continued till peace was concluded with Spain, he was, in 1721, appointed to command the Breda, a third rate, under rear-admiral Hofier, who was to have accompanied fir Charles Wager on his expedition to Lisbon, had not the fubmiffion of the Portuguese rendered it unneceffary for the armament to put to fea. We do not find him in any command after this time till the year 1731, when he was captain of the York, of fixty guns, one of fir Charles Wager's fleet fent to the Mediterranean in support of Don Carlos, and his claim under the duke of Parma's will. In 1734 he was captain of the Burford, of feventy guns, one of the fleet put under the command of fir John Norris; and after he quitted that fhip, is not known to have held any naval command. In 1739 he was appointed commiffioner of the navy refident at Plymouth, and died in that office on the 22d of July 1753.

BOYLE,

1711.

BOYLE, Charles, was, on the 27th of January 17tt, appointed captain of the Strombolo. We have no ac count of his ever having commanded a two-decked thip till the year 1720, when he was appointed to the Wor cefter, of fifty guns, one of the fleet ordered for the Baltic under the command of fir John Norris. He died foon after the fleet had reached the place of its destination, on the 28th of June 1720.

COOPER, Francis, was, on the 27th of January, appointed captain of the Folkftone. There is a wonderful fimilitude between the earlier events of this and the preceding gentleman's life, for being both appointed to the rank of captain on the fame day, we are, equally in refpect to both, unacquainted with any events of their lives for the fame period of time. In 1720 captain Cooper commanded the Suffolk, of feventy guns, and was employed on the fame fervice with captain Boyle. The parallel here however ceafes, for captain Cooper furvived the expedition, and returned in the following year to the fame ftation, captain of the fame fhip. We do not find any mention made of him after that time, except that he died on the 27th of January 1733.

DOUGLASS, or DOUGLAS, Andrew. We have already given the beft account we have been able to collect of this gentleman *. His name occurs in the navy lifts as having taken poft in the Arundel on the 25th of January. This circumftance, as well as his former difmiffion, together with the caufe of it, have been already stated in the place alluded to: nor fhould we have again inferted his name were it not to add fome farther particulars concerning him, which have come to our knowledge fince the former account was printed. He continued captain