Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bligh, Richard Rodney
BLIGH, RICHARD RODNEY (1737–1821), admiral, a native of Cornwall, is said to have been a godson of Lord Rodney, a statement which is highly improbable, as in 1737 Mr. Rodney was only nineteen years of age, and was in Newfoundland (Mundy, Life of Rodney, i. 38). He entered the navy about 1751, and was a midshipman of the Ramillies with Admiral Byng in the battle of Minorca, 20 May 1756. He was made lieutenant some time afterwards, and went out to the West Indies with Sir George Rodney, by whom he was promoted to the rank of commander, 22 Oct. 1762. He was posted on 6 Dec. 1777, and in 1782 commanded the Asia under Lord Howe at the relief of Gibraltar. In 1793 he was appointed to the Alexander, which during the early summer of 1794 was one of the squadron in the Bay of Biscay with Rear-admiral Montagu [see Montagu, George]. In the autumn the Alexander, accompanied by the Canada, had convoyed the Lisbon and Mediterranean trade well to the southward, and was returning, when on 6 Nov. the two fell in with a French squadron of five 74-gun ships, three frigates, and a brig. The Canada succeeded in getting away, but the Alexander, after a stout resistance, and in an almost sinking condition, was captured and taken into Brest (James, Naval Hist. (ed. 1860), i. 203).
A very sensational account of the brutal ill-treatment to which the prisoners were subjected is given by Captain Brenton (Nav. Hist. i. 364), and Ralfe has described Bligh as suffering great privations. But Brenton's unsupported statements are not to be fully trusted, and Ralfe's story is distinctly contradicted by Bligh's own letter (23 Nov.), in which he states that he was treated by his captors with great kindness and humanity. He had already been advanced to the rank of rear-admiral, 4 July 1794, but had not received any official intimation of it. At the time of his capture he was thus in the simple capacity of captain, though the French not unnaturally described him as a rear-admiral. On his return to England in May 1795 he was tried by court-martial for the loss of the Alexander, but was honourably acquitted.
From 1796 to 1799 Bligh was at Jamaica as second in command. He became a vice-admiral 14 Feb. 1799, and in 1803 commanded in chief at Leith, an appointment which he quitted on his promotion to the rank of admiral, 23 April 1804. This was his last service afloat. In January 1815, when the order of the Bath was largely extended, and eighty naval officers were made K.C.B., Bligh was passed over. He felt himself aggrieved, and wrote several letters urging his claims, which were principally his sixty-four years' service, and his stout, although unsuccessful, defence of the Alexander. The admiralty could not then be brought to admit that these were sufficient reason for any special reward; but five years later, under a new reign and a modified ministry, he was invested with the G.C.B. He did not long enjoy the dignity, dying on 30 April 1821. He was twice married, and left, besides several daughters, a son, George Miller Bligh, who was a lieutenant of the Victory at Trafalgar, where he was severely wounded, and died a captain in 1835.
[Ralfe's Naval Biog. ii. 517; Gent. Mag. (1821) xci. 468; (1835) iii. N.S. 322.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.29
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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