Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Martin, Thomas Byam
MARTIN, Sir THOMAS BYAM (1773–1854), admiral of the fleet, born 25 July 1773, was third son of Sir Henry Martin, bart. (d. 1794), for Portsmouth, and afterwards comptroller of the navy, His father's half-brother, Samuel Martin (d. 1789), was treasurer to the Princess Dowager of Wales. By the influence of the elder Martin, and in accordance with the irregular custom of the day, the fore he was eight, was borne on the books of the Canada, Captain William Cornwallis, in 1780–1; in 1782, of the Foudroyant, Captain Sir John Jervis; and in 1783, of the Orpheus, Captain George Campbell, Martin's personal connection with the navy began in August 1785, when he was entered at the Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth, He first went afloat in April 1786, as 'captain's servant' on board the Pegasus, with Prince William Henry (afterwards William IV), whom in March 1788 he followed to the Andromeda. He was afterwards for a few months in the Colossus and the Southampton; and on 22 Nov. 1790 was promoted to be lieutenant of the Canada. For the next two years he served in the Inconstant and the Juno; and in May 1793 was promoted to command the Tisiphone, fitting out for the Mediterranean, where, on 5 Nov. 1793, he was posted to the Modeste frigate, which had been seized at Genoa by Admiral Gell [q. v.] only the month before.
In 'La Vie et les Compagnes du Vice-Admiral Comte Martin' (p. 46). M. Pouget relates, in much circumstantial, but erroneous, detail, how the French fleet, in its sally from Toulon in June 1794, captured the English corvette Expedition, commanded by Captain Martin. The vessel captured was the 14-gun brig Speedy, commanded by Captain (afterwards Sir) George Eyre; and in June 1794 the Modeste was moored in Mortella Bay in Corsica.
In 1795 Martin was appointed to the Santa Margarita, employed on the coast of Ireland, where he captured many of the enemy;s privateers, and on 8 June 1796 took Tamise, a prize from the English two years before. She had now the heavier armament and more numerous crew; but against superior discipline, seamanship, and gun-training she was powerless, and could only kill two and wound three on board the Santa Margarita, while she lost thirty-two killed and nineteen wounded, several mortally (James, i. 365; Troude, iii. 36).
In 1797 Martin commanded the Tamar in the West Indies, and in the space of five months captured nine privateers with aggregate of 68 guns and 619 men. In 1798 he returned to England in command of the Dictator; he was then appointed to the Fisgard, a powerful frigate captured from the French only the year before. On 20 Oct., off Brest, he fell in with, and after a sharp action captured, the Immortality, flying homeward from the destruction of M. Bompard's squadron on the coast of Ireland [see Warren, Sir John Borlase]. In addition to her complement, the Immortality had on board 250 soldiers, and her loss was consequently very great. Otherwise the two frigates were nearly equal in force, and the Fisgard's victory has always been considered one of the most brilliant frigate actions of the war (James, ii. 160; Troude, iii. 84). For the next two years the Fisgard was employed actively on the coast of France under the orders of Sir John Warren, and, in company with different ships of the squadron, captured or destroyed several ships of war, privateers, coasting craft, and batteries.
From 1803 to 1805 Martin commanded the Impétueux; in 1807 the Prince of Wales, both in the Channel; and in 1808 the Implacable in the Baltic. On 26 Aug., while attached to the Swedish fleet under the immediate orders of Sir Samuel Hood [q. v.] in the Centaur, he brought to action and had a large share in the capture of the Russian ship Sewolod. In his official letter Hood assigned much of the credit to Martin, and the king of Sweden conferred on him the cross of the order of the Sword. He was again in the Baltic in 1809. On 1 Aug. 1811 he was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral, and in 812, with his flag in the Aboukir, took part in the defence of Riga against the French army under Davoust. He was afterwards second in command at Plymouth till 1814. On 2 Jan. 1815 he was nominated a K.C.B., and a few days later was appointed deputy-comptroller of the navy. In 1816 he became comptroller, which office he held till the reorganisation of the navy board in 1831. From 1818 to 1831 he sat in parliament as member for Plymouth. On 12 Aug. 1819 he was made a vice-admiral, a G.C.B. 3 March 1830, admiral 22 July 1830, vice-admiral of the United Kingdom in 1847, and admiral of the fleet 13 Oct. 1849. He died at Portsmouth on 21 Oct. 1854. Sir William Hotham [q. v.] recorded that 'his capacities for business and thorough knowledge of the state of the navy marked him as a fit man to be at the head of its civil department. He added to a strong understanding and quick perception great personal application and activity, and transacted arduous business without any trouble to himself and satisfactorily to others; exceedingly amiable in his family and much beloved by those who knew him well' (Hotham MS.) He married Catherine, daughter of Captain Robert Fanshawe, for many years naval commissioner at Plymouth, and had issue three daughters and three sons, the eldest of whom, Sir William Fanshawe Mart in, bart., G.C.B., rear-admiral of the United Kingdom, was commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean 1860-2, and is now (1893) senior admiral on the retired list; the second, Sir Henry Byam Martin, K.C.B., died an admiral in 1865; and the third, Lieutenant-colonel Robert Fanshawe Martin, died in 1846. There is a portrait of Sir Thomas in the United Service Club.
[O'Byrne's Nav. Biog. Dict.; Marshall's Roy. Nav. Biog. ii. (vol. i. pt. ii.) 491; Rolfe's Naval Biog. iii. 47; Annual Register, 1854, p. 347; James's Naval History, ed. 1860; Troude's Batailles Navales de la France; information from the family.]