The work told on his health, which was never very strong. He imagined that change of occupation and scene might re-establish it, and in July 1847 applied for service afloat. The refusal of the admiralty to entertain his application exasperated him, and in his anger he broke a blood-vessel of the lungs. For six months he was seriously ill, and was barely recovering when the news of the death of his eldest son, Frederick, lost in the Avenger on 20 Dec. 1847, gave him a shock which proved fatal. He died at Langham on 9 Aug. 1848.
As a writer Marryat has been variously judged, but his position as a story-teller is assured. He drew the material of his stories from his professional experience and knowledge; the terrible shipwreck, for instance, in 'The King's Own,' is a coloured version of the loss of the Droits de l'homme [see Pellew, Edward, Viscount Exmouth], and Mr. Chucks was still known in the flesh to the generation that succeeded Marryat. As a tale of naval adventure, 'Frank Mildmay was avowedly autobiographical, and there can be little doubt that Marryat's contemporaries could have fitted other names to Captain Kearney, or to Captain To, or to Lieutenant Oxhelly. Marryat has made his sailors live, and has given his incidents a real and absolute existence. It is in this, and in the rollicking sense of fun and humour which pervades the whole, that the secret of his success lay; for, with the exception perhaps of 'The King's Own,' his plots are poor. According to Lockhart, 'in the quiet effectiveness of circumstantial narrative he sometimes approaches old Defoe,' Christopher North was an enthusiastic admirer of his career in the navy, of his writings, and his conviviality; while Hogg placed his character of Peter Simple on a level with that of Parson Adams. Edgar Allan Poe found Marryat's works 'essentially mediocre,' and his ideas 'the common property of the mob.' Besides the works already enumerated, Marryat was the author of 'Suggestions for the Abolition of the present System of Impressment in the Naval Service,' 1822, 8vo, a pamphlet which at the time caused some flutter in naval circles, and is said to have drawn down on him the ill-will of the Duke of Clarence, afterwards William IV; though other stories describe William, when king, as on terms of homely familiarity with both Marryat and his wife. He also published several caricatures, both political and social. One of these—'Puzzled which to Choose, or the King of Timbuctoo offering one of his Daughters in Marriage to Captain ––(anticipated result of the African Expedition),' — obtained considerable popularity, and, according to Mrs. Lean, was not without influence on his election as an F.R.S. 'The Adventures of Master Blockhead' was, on the same authority, one of the most popular of his drawings. Others were less fortunate, and one or more — presumably not published -—'stopped for some months his promotion from lieutenant to commander,' In January 1819 Marryat married Catherine, second daughter of Sir Stephen Shairp of Houston, Linlithgow, and for many years consul-general in Russia. By her he had issue four sons and seven daughters. Three of the sons predeceased him, the youngest, Frank, favourably known as the author of 'Borneo and the Indian Archipelago,' 1848, and 'Mountains and Molehills, or Recollections of a Burnt Journal,' 1865, died of decline in his twenty-ninth year, in 1855. Of the daughters, one, Mrs. Lean, has attained some distinction as a novelist under her maiden name of Florence Marryat. An engraved portrait has been published.
[Florence Marryat's Life and Letters of Captain Marryat, and There is no Death; Marshall's Roy. Nav. Biog. ix. (vol. iii. pt. i.) 261; Hannay's Life of Frederick Marryat (Great Writers Series); Athenæum, 18 May 1889, p. 633; Fraser's Magazine May 1838; Temple Bar, March 1873; Notes and Queries, 7th ser., vii. 294. 486; Dundonald's Autobiography of a Seaman.]
MARRYAT, THOMAS, M.D. (1730–1792), physician, born in London in 1730, was educated for the presbyterian ministry. He possessed great natural talents, a brilliant memory, and a genuine love for literature. 'Latin,' he says, 'was his vernacular language, and he could read any Greek author, even Lycophron, before nine years old,' His wit, though frequently coarse, was irresistible. From 1747 until 1749 he belonged to a poetical club which met at the Robin Hood, Butcher Row, Strand, every Wednesday at five, and seldom parted till five the next morning. Among the members were Dr. Richard Brookes, Moses Browne, Stephen Duck, Martin Madan, and Thomas Madox. Each member brought a piece of poetry, which was corrected, and if approved of thrown into the treasury, from which the wants of the 'Gentleman's Magazine' and other periodicals were supplied. A supper and trials of wit followed: Marryat, whom Dr. Brookes nicknamed 'Sal Volatile,' frequently kept the table in a roar, though he was never known to laugh himself. It was at this club that the plan and title of the 'Monthly Review,' subsequently appropriated by Ralph Griffiths [q. v.], were decided
