A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Prescott, Thomas Lennox
PRESCOTT. (Retired Commander, 1839.)
Thomas Lennox Prescott is son of Thos Prescott, Esq. (son of Sir G. Prescott, Kt.), by Augusta, daughter of Sir Chas. Frederick, K.B., Surveyor-General of the Ordnance, whose wife, Lucy, was the eldest daughter of Hugh, first Viscount Falmouth, and sister of the Hon. Admiral Boscawen. He is related, thus, to the ducal houses of Marlborough, Sutherland, and Beaufort; and is a nephew of the late Rear-Admiral Thos. Lennox Frederick.
This officer entered the Navy, in 1791, as Midshipman, on board the Romulus 36, commanded in the Channel by his uncle, Capt. T. L. Frederick; removed, in the course of the same year, to the Hector 74, Capt. Geo. Montagu, lying at Portsmouth; and, from 1792 until 1796, was employed in the West Indies in the Blanche of 38 guns, Capts. Christ. Parker, Jonathan Faulknor, and Chas. Sawyer. In the early part of 1794 he assisted at the reduction of the French West India islands; and on 30 Dec. in the same year he was wounded in the boats under the late Sir David Milne, at the cutting out of an armed schooner of 8 guns from beneath a destructive fire from a fort and a body of troops, not 50 yards distant, in the island of Deseada. Previously to the latter affair he had escorted H.R.H. the Duke of Kent to Halifax. He was subsequently, 5 Jan. 1795, present at the capture of the French frigate La Pique of 38 guns and about 279 men, after a deadly action of nearly four hours and a half, attended with a loss to the enemy of 76 killed and 110 wounded, and to the British, out of 198 men, of 8, including Capt. Faulknor, killed and 21 wounded. During the unfortunate attack made by General Stewart and Capt. Sawyer upon the island of Ste. Lucie, Mr. Prescott landed and was intrusted with the command of a fort. He was made Lieutenant, 12 July, 1797, into the Chapman 24, Capt. Keene, on the Channel station; and next appointed – 13 Nov. in the same year and 27 Aug. 1798, to the Blenheim and Princess Royal 98’s, flag-ships of Rear-Admiral T. L. Frederick off Lisbon and Cadiz – and, about 1800, to the command, for a few months, of a 10-gun brig off Boulogne. In command of the boats of the Princess Royal he boarded and carried a Swedish armed ship under the guns of Cadiz, and had several men wounded. During the whole of the late war he was detained a prisoner in France. He was admitted to the out-pension of Greenwich Hospital 13 June, 1820; and awarded his present rank 27 April, 1839. He is married and has had issue.