THE SERVICES OF THE LATE VICE-ADMIRAL

THE RIGHT HON. SIR WILLIAM JOHNSTONE HOPE, G.C.B.

FEW officers of either service have passed through their professional career less marked by the tongue of calumny than the late Sir William Johnstone Hope. This estimable and good man was supposed by many to have been a native of Scotland, which was not the fact, as he drew his first breath at Finchley, in the county of Middlesex, on the 16th August 1766. He is descended from John de Hope, who, it is said, came from France in the retinue of Magdalene, Queen to James V. in 1537. The father of Sir William, was John Hope, a merchant of London, who married Mary, daughter of Eliab Breton, of Enfield, Esq. and was their third son.

At the early age of ten years he entered the Navy, under the patronage of his uncle Capt. Charles Hope, (who was subsequently Commissioner of Chatham Dock-yard, and died September 16th, 1808,) on board the Weazel of 14 guns, and accompanied him into the Hind, Crescent, Iphigenia, and Leocadia, successively employed in the West Indies, coast of Guinea, North Sea, and Newfoundland. From the latter ship, Mr. Hope removed into the Portland of 50 guns, the flagship of Vice-Admiral Campbell, then at Newfoundland. In October 1782, he obtained the rank of Lieutenant, and was appointed to the Dædalus. After the peace in 1783, this frigate was paid off; but being again put into commission, Lieut. Hope was appointed to her, and proceeded to the coast of Scotland; but in the following year the ship was paid off at Chatham. After this, Lieut. Hope received an appointment as Flag-lieutenant to Admiral Milbanke, commanding at Plymouth. In April 1786, he joined the Pegasus, commanded by his present Majesty, (then His Royal Highness Prince William Henry,) and proceeded to Newfoundland, Halifax, and the West Indies, at which place he exchanged into the Boreas of 28 guns, commanded by the gallant Horatio Nelson, from which ship he was paid off at Sheerness in November 1787.

The Victory being fitted for the flag of Earl Howe, in consequence of the disturbances in Holland, which were speedily suppressed, Lieut. Hope received an appointment to that ship, but was soon afterwards paid off, and placed upon half-pay.

The Adamant of 50 guns being fitted for Sir Richard Hughes, Lieut. Hope was appointed to that ship, and sailed in June 1789 to Halifax, where the Admiral had been appointed Commander-in-chief.

In the following year, Lieut. Hope was promoted to the rank of Master and Commander, and to the command of the Rattle, sloop-of

war.

In June of the same year, Capt. Knox of the Adamant, was compelled through illness to resign the command of that ship, and the Admiral (Sir Richard Hughes,) gave Capt. Hope an order to act in her. Soon after, Capt. Lindsay retired from the command of the Penelope through ill health, and Capt. Hope took the command, which appointment was not, however, confirmed by the Admiralty, and he returned home in the Adamant, and paid her off at Plymouth in 1792. Capt. Hope's next appointment was to the Incendiary fire-ship, which he commissioned in January 1793, and from which he was on

VICE-ADMIRAL SIR WILLIAM JOHNSTONE HOPE, K.C.B. 219

January 9th, 1794, promoted to the rank of Post Captain, and to the command of the Bellerophon of 74 guns, the flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Pasley, but who then had a broad pendant on board as Commodore, which ship was particularly distinguished in the several engagements with the French fleet on the 28th and 29th of May, and glorious 1st of June 1794. For Capt. Hope's services, he was presented with a gold medal, the same as the other Captains on that memorable occasion, by His Majesty George III.

In March 1795, Capt. Hope having quitted the Bellerophon in the January preceding, was appointed to the Tremendous, belonging to the Channel fleet; and in May following, at the request of Admiral Duncan, he joined the Venerable, the flag-ship of that gallant and heroic officer in the North Sea. In consequence of an accident on the head, Capt. Hope met with on board one of the Russian line-of-battle ships, at that time in company with the British fleet, he was reluctantly obliged to resign the command of the Venerable, and owing to that unfortunate circumstance was prevented sharing the glories of the action with the Dutch fleet, under Admiral De Winter, off Camperdown, the 11th of October, 1797. Capt. Hope's next commission was to the Kent, 74, in February 1798, a new ship, and fitting for the flag of Lord Duncan. In this ship, he assisted in the combined expedition against Holland, by this country and Russia, and was present at the capture of the Helder, and the surrender of the Dutch squadron under the orders of Rear-Admiral Storey. With this important intelligence, Capt. Hope arrived in London, for which he received the usual gratuity of 500l.; and was soon after presented by the Emperor of Russia with the riband and cross of the Knight of Malta.

Admiral Lord Duncan having resigned the command of the North Sea squadron, the Kent was sent to the Mediterranean in June 1800, to join the fleet under the orders of Admiral Lord Keith. In the same year, an attack was meditated upon Cadiz, and Capt. Hope was nominated to command a detachment of seamen to be so employed. A violent epidemic disease was, however, found to be raging in the place, and the enterprise was therefore abandoned, and the ships to have been employed returned to Gibraltar.

The expedition against the French, under Buonaparte in Egypt, having been determined upon, Lieut.-Gen. Sir Ralph Abercrombie, with his staff, embarked on board the Kent, at Gibraltar, and Capt. Hope had the honour of conveying the gallant hero to that country where his military career so nobly terminated. Capt. Hope remained on the Egyptian coast until the surrender of Cairo, when the service requiring that the Kent should be an Admiral's ship, Sir Richard Bickerton hoisted his flag accordingly, and Capt. Hope returned home, after the former had offered him the situation of Captain of the Fleet; and for his services on the coast of Egypt, he received by command of the Sultan, the Turkish order of the Crescent.

Capt. Hope remained unemployed until early in 1804, when he was appointed to the Atlas at Chatham, but was soon after, through ill health, compelled to relinquish the command, and which was the last he held as Captain.

In 1807, when Lord Mulgrave became First Lord of the Admiralty,

220 VICE-ADMIRAL SIR WILLIAM JOHNSTONE HOPE, K.C.B.

Capt. Hope, (who had previously assumed the name of Johnstone, in addition to that of Hope,) was appointed one of the commissioners of that Board, where he remained until 1809, when he resigned, and was succeeded by Capt. Robert Moorsom, then private secretary to Lord Mulgrave.

Capt. Hope was on the 1st of August 1811, appointed one of the Colonels of the Royal Marines; and on the 12th of August, the following year, promoted to the rank of Rear-Admiral of the Blue. In November 1813, he was appointed Commander-in-chief at Leith, and on the extension of the Order of the Bath to three classes in 1815, was nominated a Knight Commander. Rear-Admiral Sir W. J. Hope was a second time appointed to the command at Leith in 1816, and hoisted his flag accordingly.

August 12th, 1819, he was promoted to the rank of Vice-Admiral; and in January 1820, on the appointment of Sir Graham Moore to the Mediterranean command, he again became a Lord of the Admiralty and when his present Majesty, then Duke of Clarence, was appointed Lord High Admiral, was named one of the Council to His Royal Highness.

In March 1828, Sir William J. Hope was appointed by the Lord High Admiral, on the death of Sir Thomas B. Thompson, Treasurer of the Royal Hospital, Greenwich, and resigned his seat at the Admiralty. Great frauds and neglect being discovered and committed by individuals employed in the office belonging to the Treasurer of the Hospital, an Act of Parliament was obtained for the better regulation of that noble establishment, and the whole placed under the direction of the Board of Admiralty. In consequence of this alteration, the office of Treasurer was abolished, and Sir William Johnstone Hope was appointed one of the five Commissioners for managing the affairs of that excellent institution.

On the death of Admiral Lord Radstock in 1825, Sir William Johnstone Hope, was, 4th of October of that year, created a Grand Cross of the Bath, and about five months since, by the command of his present Majesty, was sworn in one of the members of the Privy Council.

In 1800, while upon service, Capt. Hope was elected Member of Parliament for the Dumfries district of Burghs; and in 1804 Member for the County on the death of Gen. Sir Robert Laurie, and which place he continued to represent until 1830, when, at the general election, he declined the honour of again doing so, and was succeeded by his eldest son John James Hope Johnstone, Esq.

Sir William Johnstone Hope married July the 8th, 1792, Lady Anne Johnstone Hope, the eldest daughter of James, third Earl of Hopetoun, who died at Raehill, near Moffatt, August 1818, and had issue four sons and two daughters, one of whom is maid of honour to her present Majesty. The eldest son is claimant for the disputed title of Marquis of Annandale, through his mother, and who with his brothers and sisters, place the name of Johnstone after that of Hope, while Sir William prefixed it before that of Hope the same as his wife. The three youngest sons of this marriage are all captains in the navy, one, William James Hope Johnstone, is now captain of the Britannia, the flag-ship of Sir Pulteney Malcolm in the Mediterranean, and the others both on half-pay.

Sir William Johnstone Hope, married secondly, October the 30th, 1821, Maria, daughter of Sir John Eden, and widow of Frederick William, seventh Earl of Athlone, who survives him.

Sir William Johnstone Hope had been for some months in a declining state of health, and upon the recommendation of the faculty proceeded to Bath for his recovery, at which place he died May the 2nd, 1831, sincerely regretted by all who knew his worth his remains were interred on the 21st of May, in the family vault in Johnstone Church; Dumfries.

THE SERVICES OF THE LATE REAR-ADMIRAL
GEORGE SAYER, C.B.

REAR-ADMIRAL SAYER was a native of Deal, where he was born in 1773. At an early age he commenced his career as a midshipman on board the Phoenix frigate, Capt. G. A. Byron, in which he proceeded to the East Indies with the ships under the orders of Commodore the Hon. William Cornwallis, and was employed with a detachment of seamen and marines at the reduction of Tippoo Saib's forts, &c. on the coast of Malabar. Mr. Sayer returned home in the Phoenix in July 1793, and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, into the Carysfort, Capt. (now Admiral Sir Francis) Laforey, and was present at the capture of the Castor, on the 29th May 1794, formerly an English frigate, but which had been taken by a division of the French fleet on the 10th of the same month, while convoying a fleet of merchant ships to Newfoundland; the Castor being then commanded by Capt. Thomas Troubridge.

The action between the Carysfort and the Castor continued one hour and fifteen minutes, and many were killed and wounded on both sides. The latter ship was commanded by M. L'Huillier.

Lieut. Sayer subsequently served as first lieutenant, with Capt. Laforey, in the Beaulieu frigate, and the Ganges, 74, until his promotion from the latter to the rank of master and commander, in March 1796, by Admiral Sir John Laforey, and to command the Lacedæmonian sloop-of-war on the Leeward island station; and was present at the capture of St. Lucia. He then was appointed to the Albacore sloop, where he remained but a short time. His next command was to the Xenophon, on the North Sea station, and in 1799 he brought from Hamburgh to England in that vessel, Napper Tandy, the Irish rebel, and his companions, as state prisoners. Capt. Sayer was afterwards appointed to the Inspector, of 16 guns, from which he was removed, upon being promoted to the rank of post-captain, February 14th, 1801. Capt. Sayer remained upon half-pay until 1804, when he was appointed to the Proselyte of 28 guns, and sailed in the following year with a convoy under his orders to the West Indies, safely eluding a French squadron of five sail of the line and some frigates, which had sailed from Rochfort, to intercept him.

In July 1805, Capt. Sayer was appointed to command the Galatea frigate, and was present at the surrender of the Danish Islands of St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix, and several merchant vessels, in

December 1807; and the boats of the Galatea boarded and captured the French corvette le Lynx, of 18 guns, off the Coast of Caraccas, after having been twice repulsed in their attempt. The Galatea returned home in 1809, and upon examination was found so defective, and in want of such extensive repairs, as to cause her being put out of commission; and in November following, Capt. Sayer was appointed to the Leda, a new frigate of 42 guns. In the following year, the Leda conveyed some transports, with troops on board, to Cadiz, and returned from thence with Vice-Admiral Purvis, who had been relieved in the command by Admiral Sir Charles Cotton. The Leda subsequently convoyed a fleet of Indiamen to Bengal, and joined ViceAdmiral W. O'Brien Drury, at Madras, in January 1811; from whence he was sent with some ships, having troops on board, to pave the way for the reduction of Java; and the services rendered by Capt. Sayer at this place were of the utmost benefit. After its surrender, Capt. Sayer remained as senior officer of the ships employed there, and in June 1812 the Government of India forwarded to him their " particular acknowledgments" of the very high sense entertained of his services since the capture of the island.

Rear-Admiral Sir Samuel Hood having arrived in India, in January 1813, dispatched Capt. Sayer on an expedition to Borneo, and, in conjunction with some troops under the orders of Colonel James Watson, succeeded in subduing the whole province of Sambas. Sir Samuel Hood dying at Madras, December 24th, 1814, after a short illness, the command of the ships devolved on Capt. Sayer, and he hoisted his broad pendant as such on board the Leda. On the death of Sir Samuel Hood being known in England, Rear-Admiral Sir George Burlton was appointed to the command, and he arrived at Madras in June following, and dispatched the Leda to the straits of Sunda, and the China sea. On Capt. Sayer's return from the latter, he experienced a very severe Ty-foong, in which the Leda received great damage and was nearly lost, by which event he did not enter the Straits of Malacca until the 19th of November 1815, when he received the intelligence of the death of Sir George Burlton at Madras 21st of September, when he again hoisted a broad pendant, and became a second time commodore on that station.

In November 1816, Rear-Admiral Sir Richard King arrived at Madras as Commander-in-Chief, and Capt. Sayer relinquished the command and returned home in the Leda. For his services in India, Capt. Sayer was honoured with a gold medal, and was nominated a Companion of the Bath in 1815. At the promotion of flag-officers which took place 22nd of July 1830, on his present Majesty's accession to the throne, Capt. Sayer was promoted to the rank of RearAdmiral of the Blue.

The extensive and arduous services Admiral Sayer had been employed on in the East and West Indies had made great inroads upon his health, and after an illness of a few weeks, he died in Craven-street, Strand, 29th of April 1831, aged 58 years. He was unmarried, and has left two brothers to lament his loss, as also an extensive circle of friends, to whom he had endeared himself by his amiable disposition.