A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Rodney, John
RODNEY. (Captain on Retired Half-pay, 1780.)
The Honourable John Rodney was born 10 May, 1765, and died 9 April, 1847, at Boulogne-sur-Mer. He was the eldest son of the famous Admiral Lord Rodney, K.B., the hero of 12 April, 1782, whose brilliant services won for him a peerage, by his second wife, Henrietta, daughter of John Clies, Esq. His half-brother, Geo. Rodney, was lost at sea in command of the Ferret sloop-of-war in Aug. 1776; his own brother, Capt. Hon. Edw. Rodney, R.N. (1806), died 12 Nov. 1828. He was half-brother of the second, and uncle of the third, fourth, and fifth peers of his name; uncle also of Capt. Hon. Robt. Rodney, R.N., who died in command of the Dryad frigate 20 July, 1826, and of Capt. Geo. Rodney Mundy, R.N.; and grand-uncle of Lieut. Mortimer Harley Rodney, R.N.
This officer was a Midshipman, Lieutenant, Commander, and Captain – all within the short space of five weeks. His first commission was dated 10 Sept. 1780; his two others on the same day, 14 Oct. 1780. He was afterwards tried by court-martial and broken. Although reinstated, he never obtained his flag.
Capt. Rodney filled for many years the appointment of Chief Secretary to the Government of Ceylon. He married, first, 4 July, 1784, Catherine, only daughter of Thomas, sixth Earl of Westmeath. That lady dying 26 Feb. 1794, he married, a second time, 19 Oct. 1799, Louisa Martha, eldest daughter of John, third Earl of Aldborough. Being again left a widower, he married a third time, in 1815, Antoinette, only daughter of Anthony Pierre Reyne, Esq. By his first wife he had issue three daughters (one married to Lord Blantyre); by his second, two sons (the youngest, Thos. Maitland, a Commander R.N.) and six daughters (the eldest married to Lord John Geo. Lennox); and by his third, a son, Geo. Brydges, First-Lieutenant R.M., and four daughters.