years Secretary of the Admiralty, and author of a naval history, published in 1720[1].
By the maternal side, Mrs. Markland was grand-daughter to Sir Thomas D’Aeth, Bart, of Knowlton Court, in Kent; and great-grand-daughter to Admiral Sir John Narbrough, whose widow married Sir Cloudesley Shovel, Rear-Admiral of Great Britain.
Mr. John Duff Markland was born at Leeds, in Yorkshire, Sept. 14, 1780; and he entered the navy May 27, 1795, as a midshipman on board the Hebe frigate. Captain Paul Minchin; which ship he quitted in order to join la Tourterelle of 30 guns, commanded by his uncle-in-law, Captain John Cooke, whose glorious death has been recorded at p. 968 et seq. of Vol. II. Part II. He subsequently served under Captains John Peyton and Robert Dudley Oliver, in the Seahorse 38.
- ↑ It is not a little remarkable, that the above mentioned Sir Charles Hardy, his father. Sir Thomas Hardy, and one of his sons, the second Sir Charles Hardy, were all in the navy; and that each of them had the honor of being knighted for his respective services. The knighthood of Sir Thomas was thus announced in the London Gazette:–
“St. James’s, October 31, 1702.
“Her Majesty has been pleased to confer the honor of knighthood upon Thomas Hardy, Esq. Captain of her Majesty’s ship Pembroke, in consideration of his good service, in gaining and giving to Admiral Rooke the intelligence, which was the occasion of our great success at Vigo.”
Sir Thomas Hardy died a Vice-Admiral, in Aug. 1732. His son attained the same rank in the service, and was one of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty at the time of his demise, which took place Nov. 27, 1744. The second Sir Charles Hardy died commander-in-chief of the Channel fleet, May, 1780. Of this latter respected officer, Charnock thus briefly sums up the character: – “Brave, prudent, gallant, and enterprising, without the smallest ostentatious display of his noble qualities – generous, mild, affable and intelligent – his virtues commanded the most profound respect, enabling him to pass through days, when the rage and prejudice of party blazed with a fury nearly unquenchable, without exciting envy or dislike, without even furnishing to the most captious man of party the smallest ground of reprehension or complaint.” One of his sons, Temple, was made a Post-Captain, Nov. 24, 1795; and died at Exeter, Mar. 29, 1814:– another, named Charles, was killed in battle, when serving as a midshipman on board the Cerberus frigate, June 4, 1781.
