A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Paynter, John Pender
PAYNTER. (Commander, 1816. f-p., 13; h-p., 30.)
John Pender Paynter, born 1 Nov. 1788, is a cousin of Lieut. Chas. Paynter, R.N. His brother, Edw. Wm. Paynter, a Midshipman R.N., died in 1810 on board the Implacable 74, Capt. Geo. Cockburn.
This officer entered the Navy, 12 Feb. 1804, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the San Josef 110, Capts. John Tremayne Rodd and Tristram Robt. Bicketts, bearing the flag of Sir Chas. Cotton, under whom he attained the rating of Midshipman in Aug. of the same year. In Jan. 1806, up to which period he had been employed in the blockade of Brest, he rejoined Capt. Rodd on board the Indefatigable 44, in which ship, participating, in April, 1809, in Lord Cochrane’s attack upon the French fleet in Aix Roads, he was, on 12 of that month, for upwards of 10 hours under fire of the enemy’s batteries, and for 50 minutes engaged in close action with the Ville de Varsovie 80, which ship had run on shore during the preceding evening. He continued in the Indefatigable with Capt. Henry Edw. Reginald Baker until Feb. 1810; and on 1 Aug. in that year, after having been again employed, under the command of Capt. Rich. Dalling Dunn and the flag of Sir Chas. Cotton, on board the San Josef, was made Lieutenant into the Euryalus 36, Capts. Geo. Heneage Lawrence Dundas, Abel Ferris, Thos. Ussher, Jeremiah Coghlan, and Chas. Napier. Under Capt. Dundas he took part in several battery actions on the coast of Calabria; and, under Capt. Napier, besides contributing to the capture, 16 May, 1813, of La Fortune national xebec, of 10 guns, 4 swivels, and 95 men, together with upwards of 20 sail of merchantmen lying in the harbour of Cavalarie, he assisted in the following winter in simultaneously driving on shore, in Calvi Bay, the Balleine French store-ship of 22 guns and 120 men, and compelling a gaberre of 30 guns and 150 men, laden with stores, and a national schooner of the largest class, to seek refuge under the land batteries. In 1814 Mr. Paynter, having accompanied a fleet of transports to North America, was further present at the capture, up the Patuxeut river, of Fort Washington, and the capitulation of Alexandria. Becoming, 25 March, 1815, Flag-Lieutenaut to Lord Exmouth in the Boyne 98, he beheld, in the course of that year, the surrender of Naples, and afterwards visited the Barbary States for the purpose of endeavouring to procure the release of Christian slaves. At Algiers, being sent on shore to demand the release from custody of the English Consul, Colonel Macdonald, he was himself seized by the Dey, and lodged in the Black Hole. The menacing aspect subsequently assumed by the British fleet procured his enlargement; and on his return to England he was advanced to the rank of Commander 7 Nov. 1816. He has since been on half-pay.