A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Pechell, George Richard
PECHELL, M.P. (Captain, 1822. f-p., 15; h-p., 29.)
George Richard Pechell, born 30 June, 1789, is brother of Rear-Admiral Sir Sam. John Brooke Pechell, Bart., C.B., K.C.H.
This officer entered the Navy, in Sept. 1803, as Sec.-cl. Vol., on board the Nemesis 28, Capt. Philip Somerville, lying at Weymouth; and in March, 1804, removed to the Triumph 74, Capt. Sir Robt. Barlow, part of the force stationed under Lord Nelson at the blockade of Toulon. While attached next, between Sept. in the latter year and July, 1808, to the Medusa 32 and Revenge 74, both commanded by Sir John Gore, he went through much active service. In the former ship he contributed to the capture of three Spanish frigates laden with treasure, and the destruction of a fourth, near Cape St. Mary, 5 Oct. 1804; as also to the detention, in the ensuing Nov., of the Matilda 36, a ship laden with a cargo of quicksilver worth 200,000l. In the early part of 1805 we find the Medusa conveying the Marquis Cornwallis as Governor-General to India, whence she effected her passage home, a distance of 13,831 miles, in the extraordinarily short period of 82 days. During his servitude in the Revenge Mr. Pechell was employed off Brest and L’Orient, and for nine months at the blockade of Rochefort, where he witnessed, 25 Sept. 1806, the capture of four French frigates by a squadron under the orders of Sir Sam. Hood. On the return of the Revenge to England with the Commissioners appointed by the Supreme Council of Seville to treat with the British Cabinet he removed (he had been engaged for the long period of 18 months blockading the port of Cadiz) to the Venus 32, Capt. Jas. Coutts Crawford, under whom, while co-operating with the Spanish patriots, and performing the duties of Lieutenant, he landed, in March, 1809, and took possession of the citadel of Vigo, in which he continued until the besieging enemy was defeated at the bridge of San Payo, and obliged to retreat towards Lugo. In the course of the same year Mr. Pechell was received, on promotion, on board tbe Barfleur 98, flag-ship of Hon. Geo. Cranfield Berkeley in the river Tagus, where he was confirmed a Lieutenant, 25 June, 1810, in the Caesar 80, Capt. Wm. Granger. Being next, 3 July, 1811, appointed to the Macedonian 38, Capt. John Surman Garden, he proceeded in that ship on special service to the United States, and on his return was attached to the blockading force off Rochefort under Rear-Admiral Philip Chas. Durham. While stationed there he assisted in destroying the enemy’s coasting-trade, in face of many startling difficulties; and on one occasion, 7 Aug. 1812, captured a French lugger lying aground within musket-shot of the formidable batteries of La Rochelle, an exploit which was communicated to the squadron by the following telegraphic message:– “None killed; drove on shore by ship last night, and gallantly brought from under batteries by Lieut. Pechell.” On 25 Dec. 1812, five months after he had joined the San Domingo 74, flag-ship of his uncle Sir John Borlase Warren, Mr. Pechell was placed in temporary command of the Colibri brig, in which vessel he cruized until the following Feb. off New York, and aided in making a number of prizes. He then returned to the San Domingo; and in May of the same year (1813) was placed in acting-command of the Recruit, another sloop, carrying 18 guns, with a crew reduced by sickness to only 80 men. Continuing in that vessel until confirmed in the rank of Commander 30 May, 1614, he contrived, notwithstanding, to capture and destroy a great variety of vessels, including the Inca American letter-of-marque of 6 guns and 35 men, which was driven on shore in the neighbourhood of Charleston 2 Nov. 1813. Capt. Pechell’s next appointment was, 26 May, 1818, to the Bellette 18, fitting for the Halifax station, where he was actively employed in enforcing the stipulations of the treaty of Ghent in regard to the fisheries and trade of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, a service which occasioned his obtaining possession of about 20 vessels of different descriptions. In Oct. 1820 he received directions from Rear-Admiral Griffith to assume command of the Tamar 26, which ship had just arrived from Jamaica with scarcely a sufficient number of men on borad to navigate her even in the finest weather; her Captain, Arthur Stow, and 75 of her crew having died since her departure from the West Indies. This appointment gave rise to an official correspondence, which terminated in the Admiralty superseding all the officers whom the Commanders-in-Chief on the Halifax and Jamaica stations, each claiming the patronage, had intended to raise to superior ranks. Capt. Pechell was in consequence under the necessity of returning to the Bellette. During six months, however, that he had had command of the Tamar he had succeeded in obtaining the authority of the Haytian Government for putting a stop to the numerous acts of piracy which had been recently committed between Jamaica and St. Domingo; and had procured an order to the Commandants of the several ports in Hayti to permit the Tamar to search every suspected vessel;[1] in the execution of which service, although with not more that 80 men on board, he had fallen in with and captured, after a long chase in the Mona Passage, a large brigantine pierced for 20 guns, with forged commissions from the different independent states of South America, and a crew of 98 men, desperadoes of every nation. On his passage in the Speedy schooner to rejoin the Bellette at Bermuda, we may here mention that Capt. Pechell encountered off the east end of the island of Cuba a squadron of four large piratical vessels, from under whose broadsides the schooner fortunately escaped with very little damage. The Bellette returned to England and was paid off about Christmas 1821; and on 26 Dec. 1822 Capt. Pechell was advanced to Post-rank. He has since been on half-pay.
In July, 1830, Capt. Pechell was nominated Gentleman Usher of the Privy Chamber, and in April, 1831, Equerry, to Queen Adelaide. In July, 1837, he was gazetted as one of the Grooms-in-Waiting to Her present Majesty; but this appointment his sense of duty to the Queen Dowager induced him to decline. He has acted, since 1827, as a Magistrate for co. Sussex; and has sat in Parliament, since Jan. 1835, as Member for Brighton. In the latter capacity, on subjects connected with the Navy, Capt. Pechell has ever steered a zealous, straightforward, and independent course, and has at all times proved the unbending advocate of those classes and individuals in it whose grievances have appeared to demand his attention. We would gladly, had we space, afford our readers a sketch of his political career; as it is, we must be contented with alluding to his exertions during the sessions of 1838, 1840, and 1842, in obtaining the introduction (into Acts 1 and 2 Vict. cap. 47, 3 and 4 Vict. cap. 67, and 5 and 6 Vict., relating to the abolition of the traffic in slaves) of the several clauses for granting bounty on the tonnage of vessels captured; for the abolition of all Treasury and Exchequer fees on bounties for slaves and for tonnage of vessels; and for providing for the payment of the net proceeds of vessels and cargoes to the Captain, instead of the moiety of the same. In the session of 1836, we may add, he carried a bill through the House for the preservation of the brood of fish and the better regulation of the Channel fisheries; and in the session of 1839 he successfully contended for the restoration of the Good-Service Pension to those officers who had been deprived of it on their appointment to a ship; as he also did for the allowance of half-pay to the Lieut.-Governor of Greenwich Hospital, which had been withheld from him, although enjoyed by the Governor of Greenwich, the officers of Chelsea, and the Lords of the Admiralty. Through his exertions Capt. Pechell proved of material assistance to Lord Palmerston in obtaining from France, by a Special Convention, the recognition of the claims of Great Britain to an exclusive right of fishing within three miles of her own shores – a right which had been in dispute for upwards of a century; and in providing against the recurrence of those collisions between the French and English fishermen which had led to such serious consequences. Capt. Pechell married, 1 Aug. 1826, the Hon. Katherine Annabella Bisshopp, daughter (and co-heiress with her sister, the present Baroness De la Zouche) of the late Lord De la Zouche, by whom he has issue a son and two daughters. Agents – Messrs. Burnett and Holmes.
- ↑ See ‘Narrative of a Visit to the Island of St. Domingo,’ published by Capt. Pechell in 1824.