Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Prescott, Henry
PRESCOTT, Sir HENRY (1783–1874), admiral, son of Admiral Isaac Prescott (1737–1830) who commanded the Queen as flag-captain to Sir Robert Harland in the action off Ushant on 27 July 1778, and grandson, on the mother's side, of the Rev. Richard Walter [q. v.], author of ‘Anson's Voyage round the World,’ was born at Kew on 4 May 1783. He entered the navy in February 1796 on board the Formidable, with Captain George Cranfield Berkeley [q. v.] In 1798 he was moved into the Queen Charlotte, in 1799 to the Penelope, with Captain (afterwards Sir) Henry Blackwood [q. v.], and in her was present at the capture of the Guillaume Tell on 30 March 1800. In 1801, in the Foudroyant, he was present at the operations on the coast of Egypt, and on 17 Feb. 1802 he was appointed by Lord Keith acting lieutenant of the Vincejo brig. His rank was confirmed by commission dated 28 April 1802. In April 1803 he was appointed to the Unicorn, in the North Sea, and in December 1804 to the Æolus, one of the squadron, under Sir Richard John Strachan [q. v.], which, on 4 Nov. 1805, captured the four French ships of the line that had escaped from Trafalgar. In 1806 he was moved into the Ajax, from which he was transferred to the Ocean, flagship of Lord Collingwood in the Mediterranean. On 4 Feb. 1808 he was promoted to be commander of the Weasel brig, and in her, for the next three years, was actively engaged on the west coast of Italy, and especially on 25 July 1810, at Amantea, where, in company with the Thames frigate [see Waldegrave, Granville George] and Pilot, he commanded the boats of the squadron in the capture or destruction of thirty-two store-ships and seven gunboats (James, Naval History, v. 125). For his gallantry on this occasion Prescott was promoted to post rank, his commission being dated back to the day of the action, though it did not reach him till the following February. From August 1811 to June 1813 he commanded the Fylla, of 20 guns, on the Jersey station; and from 1813 to 1815 the Eridanus, in the Bay of Biscay. On 4 June 1815 he was nominated a C.B. From 1821 to 1825, in command of the Aurora frigate, he was senior officer at Rio Janeiro, or on the west coast of South America, and in October 1822 was voted a testimonial of the value of 1,500 dollars by the British merchants at Lima, in acknowledgment of the protection he had afforded to British interests. From 1834 to 1841 he was governor of Newfoundland; the period ‘was troubled with political squabbles and sectarian animosities,’ to allay which he found himself powerless; though he had, at the desire of the government, remained beyond the usual limit, he resigned at the end of seven years (Prowse, Hist. of Newfoundland, p. 448). On 24 April 1847 he was promoted rear-admiral, and in June was appointed one of the lords of the admiralty, an office which he resigned in December to become admiral-superintendent of Portsmouth Dockyard, where he remained till 1852. He was promoted to be vice-admiral on 15 April 1854, was nominated a K.C.B. on 4 Feb. 1856, became admiral on 2 May 1860, and on 9 June following was retired with a pension. On 2 June 1869 he was made a G.C.B. He died in London, at his residence in Leinster Gardens, on 18 Nov. 1874.
Prescott married, in 1815, Mary Anne Charlotte, eldest daughter of Vice-admiral Philip d'Auvergne, prince de Bouillon, and left issue. A portrait, from a photograph, is printed in Prowse's ‘Newfoundland’ (p. 448).
[O'Byrne's Naval Biogr. Dict.; Marshall's Roy. Nav. Biogr. vi. (Suppl. pt. ii.) 107; Navy Lists; Times, 20 Nov. 1874.]Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.226
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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| 304 | i | 32 | Prescott, Sir Henry: after p. 448). insert At the desire of the government he remained beyond the usual limit, but resigned at the end of seven years. |