and while there are some reasons * which strongly militate against fuch an idea, there are many which appear to favour it. Captain Saunderfon was appointed to the Peregrine yacht; and having, after the demife of queen Anne, had the honour of attending king George the First to England, on his firft arrival from Hanover after his acceffion to the crown, was knighted by that monarch, at Gravefend, under the royal ftandard, before he landed. This is the only occafion on which he appears in the character of a naval officer; for quitting that line of fervice immediately after receiving the above honour, he was appointed gentleman-ufher of the black rod; and, on the 19th of July 1720, was created a baronet.

He married, first, Drury, one of the daughters and coheirs of fir William Wray, of Afhby, in the county of Lincoln, baronet, by whom he had feveral children; Ralph + and Edward, who were both fea officers, and died before him without iffue; fir William, who afterwards fucceeded him; and a daughter, named Tufton. He married, to his fecond wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel Howe, efq. judge of the high court of admiralty, which Elizabeth was the relict of Simon Dagge, of Derby, efq. great-grandfon of fir Simon Dagge, knight, one of the judges of the king's bench. By this lady fir William

*He (the first of these gentlemen) is ftiled fir William Sanderfon in the year 1688; and the perfon of whom we are now fpeaking cer tainly had no right to that title till the year 1714. On the other hand we may be induced to fuppofe this a miftake or anachronism, in fome of the transcribers of the MS. from which this information is derived, occafioned by his having, at a fubfequent time, received that honour. We are fupported in this belief by the circumftance of his fon, Ralph, having attained to the rank of poft captain several years before him. If they are in reality one and the fame perfon, fir William must have lived in total retirement from the service during a period of twenty years; that is to fay, from the year 1693 to 1713, a circumftance very extraordinary, and not a little improbable. There are many reasons of inferior confequence which might be urged on both fides of the queftion; but as the real ftate of the fact could not even then be fettled, we fhall avoid entering into a long and unneceffary detail.

+ Whom we have already noticed, page 16.

had no iffue. He died at Greenwich on the 17th of May 1727*.

SHORTER, John, -was appointed to the Gibralter We find no other mention made of him except that of his death, which happened, in England, on the 2d of May. 1723.

WHORWOOD, or WARWOOD, Thomas,-was appointed to the Queenborough frigate. We hear nothing more, of him, notwithstanding we are perfuaded he held many intermediate commiffions, till the month of April 1723, when he was made commander of the Captain, a third rate of feventy guns; in which fhip he continued three or four years, being employed at homet, till the year 1726, when he accompanied fir Charles Wager to the Baltic. His next confequential command was that of the Cambridge, of eighty guns, to which fhip he was ap pointed, in 1739, on the expectation of a rupture with Spain; and in the following year ferved in the fleet, collected for Channel fervice, under the command of fir John Norris. On his return into port he was promoted to the Neptune of ninety guns, in which fhip he remained two years. Not long after he quitted this command, he was, on the 26th of May 1744, appointed commiffioner of the

In the English baronetage are the following particulars relative to the family, which, as fpecially relating to captain Ralph Sanderson, the immediate father of fir William, we have thought it may not be improper to infert.

"James, the third fon of Alexander De Bedic, being called Alexander fon, whence came the family name of Sanderson, married the daughter of fir Walter Witton, and lies buried in Washington church, the 10th of Richard II. 1387. After ten defcents more, was William Sanderfon, (whofe father being killed in the unnatural rebellion, temp Car. 1.) he was, after the refloration, an officer in the Dutch wars, in 1664-5, in which engagement, his foot flipping, he fell down, and by which fall he died; but such was the great esteem that prince had for him, that he buried him at Queenborough, under the altar, at his own expence; and made his fon Ralph, the next day after the engagement, lieutenant to fir John Harman. This William married Elizabeth, daughter of Smith, of old Buckenham, in Norfolk; by whom he had iffue Ralph Sanderfon, efq. who was made a captain in the Weft Indies, by fir J. Harman; and was captain of feveral fhips of war in the laft Dutch wars. He married Ephraim, daughter I of Garrett, of Norfolk, efq. and had one fon and two daughters -William, Martha, and Elizabeth. He died 1699. his is a mistake, it should be the Mediterranean.

↑ As captain of a guard ship.

navy refident at Deptford, in which station he died on the 13th of February 1745.

WOOD, John,was appointed to the Sun Prize, and is no otherwise noticed than as having died in England on the 8th of November 1725.

WRIGHT, Ezekiel,-is as little known as the preceding gentleman. He was appointed to the Nightingale, and died, in England, fometime in the year 1736*,

1714.

DELGARNO, Arthur,-was, on December 18, 1714, promoted to be captain of the Hind, of twenty guns. In the course of the following year his fhip was ordered out, as a cruiser, for the protection of commerce; and, early in the year 1716, was fent to Lisbon, and the Mediterranean; where he was joined, in the month of June, by vice-admiral Baker, and a small squadron equipped for the purpose of restraining the depredations and infolence of the Salletines, and other piratical states on the coaft of Barbary. Captain Delgarno had fcarcely reached his ftation when he had the good fortune, in the

* So confiderable a number of gentlemen having been appointed captains on the fame day, we have added a lift of the order in which they flood in point of feniority,

Sir William Sanderson,

Thomas Hughes,

Thomas Tomkins.

N.B. The

name of this gentleman is in-
ferted as a captain in the navy,
but no mention is made even
of the ship he was appointed to
command.

Thomas Dennis, or Dennet,
John Parr,

John Wood,

William Græme, or Graham,

Matthew Campbell,

Richard Davis,

Charles Poole,

Ezekiel Wright,

George Fairley,
Arthur Jones,
Thomas Howard,
John St. Loe,
James Campbell,
Sir Edward Blacket,
Robert Harwood,
Thomas Whorwood,
William Haddock,

Tyrwhit Cayley,

Thomas Davers,

William Owen,

John Shorter,

Edward Nurse,

Mungo Herdman,
Thomas Marwood,

Sir Hugh Middleton,
Hercules Baker,
Charles Arundell.

D 3

month

month of May, to capture one of the Salletine corfairs, which, although of a force apparently contemptible, mounting only eight guns, had done confiderable mischief, In the month of October, while cruifing off Cape Cantine, he had the farther happiness of falling in with one of their principal veffels, carrying twenty-four guns, and manned with a very numerous and chofen crew. After a very defperate contest, which continued without intermiffion for two hours and an half, the pirate ftruck; but had previously received fo much injury in her hull, that fhe had scarcely furrendered half an hour when she funk; the sea at the fame time running fo high that her whole crew perished with her, except thirty-eight men.

When the rupture took place with Spain, in the year 1718, captain Delgarno was appointed to the Sheerness; and being ordered out as a cruifer off the coaft of Spain during the enfuing season, had the good fortune to capture a Spanish packet-boat, or floop of war, mounting eighteen carriage guns and fix pattararoes, bound from St. Domingo to Cadiz, having on board a very valuable cargo of cocoa, logwood, and other commodities, befides feveral chefts of dollars. No other notice is taken of him, except to inform us that he died, in Scotland, on the 18th of May 1731

GEDDES, Alexander, the defcendant of a respectable and ancient family in Scotland, was, on the 15th of November 1714, appointed captain of the Blandford, or, as others fay, though we believe with lefs truth, of the Feverfham. After he quitted the Blandford, a command we believe him to have retained for a few months only, he is not known to have received any other commiffion till the 3d of November 1726, when he was made captain of the Portland. A variety of conjectures have been formed as to the cause of this inactivity, for, from feveral coinciding circumstances, Mr. Geddes was, at that particular period, a man more talked of than generally happens in the case of fo young a commander, and what may, comparatively fpeaking, be called fo private a perfon.

Mr. Geddes was fufpected of being a strong favourer of the houfe of Stuart; and has actually been reprefented, by many, as having seriously engaged in a confpiracy, with many perfons of high rank, to introduce the pretended prince of

Wales

Wales intoEngland, where an infurrection whichwas to have taken place in many parts at the fame inftant in his favour, is faid to have been projected as the most feasible means of enfuring fuccefs to the undertaking. Nothing, however, beyond mere furmife and conjecture; that too, perhaps, very ill-founded, and unwarrantably propagated, appears to have attached to captain Geddes. In times, however, like those of which we are now fpeaking, the slightest sufpicion is taken, and actually punished, on many occafions, as rigidly as the moft apparent and pofitive guilt would deferve and it is not improbable the cause above stated might be the reason why he continued fo long fecluded from the fervice.

This treatment appears, however, to have been at last confidered fo harsh and unmerited, that, as already stated, he was, in the year 1726, not only appointed to a fhip of fifty guns, but ordered to take rank from the date of his firft commiffion; so it plainly appears, that, previous to his latter command, he was for fome time confidered as totally out of the fervice. In April 1729, he was advanced to the Dreadnought, a fourth rate of fixty guns. in which ship he continued till after the year 1735; and, in common with all other his cotemporaries, who held a command in the fame armament, paffed a life of perfect inactivity till the year 1731, when he accompanied fir Charles Wager to the Mediterranean. In the year 1734 his fhip was one of the fleet affembled in the Downs, in the month of June, under the command of fir John Norris, and which afterwards lay at Spithead during the remainder of the fummer. In the following year we believe him to have accompanied the fame admiral on his voyage to Lifbon; but find no other mention made of him till after the rupture with Spain in 1739. In confequence of that event he was, towards the latter end of the year 1740, appointed to the Marlborough, a fecond rate of ninety guns: in which fhip he ferved, during the enfuing year, under fir John Norris, who had the command in the Channel; but where no tranfaction, in any degree interefting took place, as the scene of war in Europe was alinoft totally confined to and centered in the Mediterranean.

D4

That