Naples. With three ships of the line, two frigates, and four bomb-vessels he sailed into Naples Bay on the afternoon of 9 Aug., and sending his flag-captain, De Langle, on shore, requested an immediate and categorical answer to his demands. The Neapolitans attempted to make conditions, and De Langle returned to the ship with their deputy. Martin replied that he was sent ‘as an officer to act, not a minister to treat,’ and desired De Langle to go back and insist on an answer in half an hour. Martin's force was small, but immensely superior to any the Neapolitans could oppose to it, and they necessarily yielded to the pressure put on them; but Charles (afterwards Charles III of Spain) neither forgot nor forgave the indignity.
He was subsequently employed in protecting Tuscany from any attempt on the part of the Spaniards, and in February 1742–3 was sent to Genoa to require the destruction of some magazines which the Spaniards had formed on Genoese territory; if any opposition was offered he was to bombard the city. He was afterwards sent to Ajaccio, where he found a Spanish ship entering recruits for the Spanish army. Here, too, resistance was impossible, and on his demand the men were landed and the ship was burnt. Towards the end of the year he returned to England, and on 7 Dec. was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral. In February 1743–4 he commanded in the Channel fleet under Sir John Norris. On 19 June 1744 he was advanced to be vice-admiral, and was second in command in the fleet which went to Lisbon under Sir John Balchen [q. v.] After Balchen's death he was appointed to the chief command, which he held through 1745. In December he was sent into the North Sea under Admiral Vernon, and on Vernon's dismissal succeeded to the command. On 15 July 1747 he was promoted to be admiral of the blue; but piqued, it may be, at Anson, who was his junior, taking on himself the command in the Channel, he obtained leave to retire. He settled down at Twickenham, and died there on 17 Sept. 1756, ‘being then about sixty years old’ (Charnock). According to Charnock ‘he not only possessed a considerable share of classical learning, but spoke the French, Spanish, Italian, and German languages with the greatest ease and fluency. In his person he was remarkably handsome and particularly attentive to his dress, manners, and deportment. When in command he lived in the greatest splendour, maintaining his rank in the highest style.’ It does not appear that he was married. Sir George Martin [q. v.], admiral of the fleet, was his grand-nephew, grandson of his brother Dr. Bennet Martin.
[The Memoir in Charnock's Biog. Nav. iv. 69 is wrong in its account of Martin's early life and service, which is here given from the official documents in the Public Record Office; Beatson's Nav. and Mil. Memoirs; Walpole's Letters (Cunningham), vol. i. freq.; Doran's Mann and Manners at the Court of Florence, vol. i. freq.]
MARTIN, WILLIAM (1767–1810), naturalist, born at Marsfield, Nottinghamshire, in 1767, was the son of a hosier, a native of that town, who neglected his business, went on the stage for a time, and afterwards deserting his family repaired to London, where under the name of Joseph Booth he opened an exhibition of 'Polygraphic Paintings.' He died on 25 Feb. 1797 in Cumberland Gardens, Vauxhall (Gent. Mag. 1797, i. 167). Martin's mother (née Mallatratt) supported herself by acting, and educated her son at the best schools that her itinerant mode of life and straitened circumstances would allow. She quitted the stage after a theatrical career of more than twenty-six years in 1797. Martin when only five years old sang on the stage to the accompaniment of a German flute. When nine years old he delivered a lecture on 'Hearts' to several audiences at Buxton. In his twelfth year Martin began to take drawing lessons from James Bolton at Halifax, and from him he imbibed a taste for natural history. He was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1796. In 1797 he married a widow, Mrs. Adams, an actress who had resided with his mother, and quitting the stage set up as a drawing-master first at Burton-upon-Trent, and shortly after at Buxton, where he bought a fourth share in the theatre. In 1805 he was appointed drawing-master to the grammar school at Macclesfield, where he went to live. He appears also to have given drawing lessons in Manchester. He died at Macclesfield on 31 May 1810, leaving a widow, six children, and aged mother unprovided for. His widow was appointed librarian to the subscription library at Macclesfield. A son, William Charles Linnaeus Martin, is separately noticed.
He was author of : 1 . 'Figures and Descriptions of Petrifications collected in Derbyshire,' Nos. 1-4, 4to, Wigan, 1793, subsequently completed and issued under the title of 'Petrificata Derbiensia,' &c, vol. i. 4to, Wigan, 1809. 2. 'Outlines of an Attempt to establish a Knowledge of extraneous Fossils on Scientific Principles,' 2 pts. 8vo, Macclesfield, 1809. He also wrote an ' Account of some . . . Fossil Anomiæ' for the ' Transactions of the Linnean Society,' 1798, iv. 44-50; while two papers found among his manuscripts were published after his death : ' On the Localities of certain . . . Fossils ... in Derbyshire,' in 'Tilloch's Philosoph. Mag.'
