the French in Bantry Bay on the 10th of May he failed to baffle Château-Renault, who had a stronger force. Being discontented with the amount of force provided at sea, he resigned his place at the admiralty, but retained his command at sea. In May 1689 he was created earl of Torrington. In 1690 he was in the Channel with a fleet of English and Dutch vessels, which did not rise above 56 in all, and found himself in front of the much more powerful French fleet. In his report to the council of regency he indicated his intention of retiring to the Thames, and losing sight of the enemy, saying that they would not do any harm to the coast while they knew his fleet to be “in being.” The council, which knew that the Jacobites were preparing for a rising, and only waited for the support of a body of French troops, ordered him not to lose sight of the enemy, but rather than do that to give battle “upon any advantage of the wind.” On the 10th of July Torrington, after consulting with his Dutch colleagues, made a half-hearted attack on the French off Beachy Head in which his own ship was kept out of fire, and severe loss fell on his allies. Then he retired to the Thames. The French pursuit was fortunately feeble (see Tourville, Comte de) and the loss of the allies was comparatively slight. The indignation of the country was at first great, and Torrington was brought to a court martial in December. He was acquitted, but never again employed. Although twice married, he was childless when he died on the 14th of April 1716, his earldom becoming extinct. The unfavourable account of his moral character given by Dartmouth to Pepys is confirmed by Bishop Burnet, who had seen much of him during his exile in Holland. An attempt has been made in recent years to rehabilitate the character of Torrington, and his phrase “a fleet in being” has been widely used (see Naval Warfare, by Vice-Admiral P. H. Colomb).
See Charnock’s Biog. Nav., i. 258. The best account of the battle of Beachy Head is to be found in “The Account given by Sir John Ashby Vice-Admiral and Rear-Admiral Rooke, to the Lords Commissioners” (1691).
TORRINGTON, GEORGE BYNG, Viscount (1663–1733),
English admiral, was born at Wrotham, Kent. His father,
John Byng, was compelled by pecuniary losses to sell his property
and his son entered the navy as a king’s letter boy (see Navy)
in 1678. He served in a ship stationed at Tangier, and for a
time left the navy to enter one of the regiments of the garrison,
but in 1683 he returned to the navy as lieutenant, and went to
the East Indies in the following year. During the year 1688,
he had an active share in bringing the fleet over to the prince
of Orange, and by the success of the revolution his fortune was
made. In 1702 he was appointed to the command of the
“Nassau”, and was at the taking and burning of the French
fleet at Vigo, and the next year he was made rear-admiral of
the red. In 1704 he served in the Mediterranean under Sir
Cloudesley Shovel, and reduced Gibraltar. He was in the battle
of Malaga, and for his gallantry received the honour of knighthood.
In 1708 as admiral of the blue he commanded the
squadron which baffled the attempt of the Old Pretender to land
in Scotland. In 1718 he commanded the fleet which defeated the
Spaniards off Cape Passaro and compelled them to withdraw from
their invasion of Sicily. This commission he executed so well
that the king made him a handsome present and sent him full
powers to negotiate with the princes and states of Italy. Byng
procured for the emperor’s troops free access into the fortresses
which still held out in Sicily, sailed afterwards to Malta, and
brought out the Sicilian galleys and a ship belonging to the
Turkey Company. By his advice and assistance the Germans
retook the city of Messina in 1719, and destroyed the ships which
lay in the basin—an achievement which completed the ruin
of the naval power of Spain. To his conduct it was entirely
owing that Sicily was subdued and the king of Spain forced to
accept the terms prescribed him by the quadruple alliance.
On his return to England in 1721 he was made rear-admiral
of Great Britain, a member of the privy council, Baron Byng
of Southill, in the county of Bedford and Viscount Torrington
in Devonshire. He was also made one of the Knights Companions
of the Bath upon the revival of that order in 1725.
In 1727 George II. on his accession made him first lord of the
admiralty, and his administration was distinguished by the
establishment of the Royal Naval College at Portsmouth. He
died on the 17th of January 1733, and was buried at Southill,
in Bedfordshire. Two of his eleven sons, Pattee (1699–1747)
and George (1701–1750), became respectively the 2nd and 3rd
viscounts. The title is still held by the descendants of the
latter.
See Memoirs relating to Lord Torrington, Camden Soc, new series 46, and A True Account of the Expedition of the British Fleet to Sicily 1718–1720, published anonymously, but known to be by Thomas Corbett of the admiralty in 1739. Forbin’s Memoirs contain the French side of the expedition to Scotland in 1708.
TORRINGTON, a borough of Litchfield county, Connecticut,
U.S.A., in the township of Torrington, on the Naugatuck river,
about 25 m. W. of Hartford. Pop. (1900), 8360, of whom 2565
were foreign-born; (1910) 15,483; of the township, including the
borough (1900) 12,453; (1910) 16,840. It is served by the New
York, New Haven & Hartford railway and by an electric line connecting
with Winsted. It has a public library (1865) with 15,000
volumes in 1909. There is a state armoury in the borough.
Torrington is a prosperous manufacturing centre. In 1905 the
value of the factory product was $9,674,124. The township
of Torrington, originally a part of the township of Windsor,
was first settled in 1734, and was separately incorporated in
1740. The site was covered by pine trees, which were much
used for ship-building, and for this reason it was known as
Mast Swamp. In 1751 a mill was erected, but there were few,
if any, residences until 1800. In 1806 the settlement was known
as New Orleans village. In 1813 members of the Wolcott family
of Litchfield, impressed with the water-power, bought land and
built a woollen mill, and the village that soon developed was
called Wolcottville. Its growth was slow until 1864. In 1881
its name was changed to Torrington, and in 1887 the borough
was incorporated.
See S. Orcutt’s History of Torrington (Albany, 1878), and an article, “The Growth of Torrington,” in the Connecticut Magazine, vol. ix., No. 1.
TORRINGTON (Great Torrington), a market town and
municipal borough in the South Molton parliamentary division
of Devonshire, England, on the Torridge, 225 m. W. by S. of
London by the London & South- Western railway. Pop.
(1901), 3241. It stands on a hill overlooking the richly wooded
valley of the Torridge, here crossed by three bridges. Glove
manufactures on a large scale, with flour and butter making
and leather dressing, are the staple industries. The town is
governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. Area,
3592 acres.
Torrington (Toritone) was the site of very early settlement, and possessed a market in Saxon times. The manor was held by Brictric in the reign of Edward the Confessor, and in 1086 formed part of the Domesday fief of Odo Fitz Gamelin, which later constituted an honour with Torrington as its caput. In 1221 it appears as a mesne borough under William de Toritone, a descendant of Odo and the supposed founder of the castle, which in 1228 was ordered to be razed to the ground, but is said to have been rebuilt in 1340 by Richard de Merton. The borough had a fair in 1221, and returned two members to parliament from 1295 until exempted from representation at its own request in 1368. The government was vested in bailiffs and a commonalty, and no charter of incorporation was granted till that of Queen Mary in 1554, which instituted a governing body of a mayor, 7 aldermen and 18 chief burgesses, with authority to hold a court of record every three weeks on Monday; law-days and view of frankpledge at Michaelmas and Easter; a weekly market on Saturday, and fairs at the feasts of St Michael and St George. This charter was confirmed by Elizabeth in 1568 and by James I. in 1617. A charter from James II. in 1686 changed the style of the corporation to a mayor, 8 aldermen and 12 chief burgesses. In the 16th century Torrington was an important centre of the clothing trade, and in 1605 the town is described as very prosperous, with three
