Laforey and the first Lord Gardner, at the Leeward Islands.
In 1794, just twelve months before he had completed the usual period of service as a petty officer, Mr. Devonshire was appointed by Sir John Jervis (afterwards Earl of St. Vincent) to act as ninth lieutenant of his flag-ship, the Boyne 98; a distinguished mark of that officer’s approbation of his conduct on various occasions, whilst entrusted with the command of the Berbice schooner and various other small vessels, but more particularly for his active and successful co-operation with a Spanish brig of war, employed in clearing the coasts of Porto Rico of pirates and French privateers, by which the communication with St. Domingo had been interrupted, and the supplies for the British army at Martinique materially obstructed. His services during an insurrection amongst the slaves in St. Lucia, to which island he had conveyed the late Lieutenant-General Sir William Myers, in the hurricane season, procured him also thanks from General Sir Charles Grey, the military commander-in-chief.
Upon Sir John Jervis resigning the chief command in the West Indies, he appointed Mr. Devonshire a lieutenant of the Terpsichore frigate. Captain Richard Bowen, then employed in the important service of defending the British garrison of Fort Matilda, in Guadaloupe. Lieutenant-General Prescott, in one of his official despatches detailing the events of the siege, states, that the duty allotted to the Terpsichore was performed in a manner that “beggars all description.” The particular share assigned to Lieutenant Devonshire was that of keeping up with the boats the communication between the ship and the garrison, conveying supplies, &c. which it was necessary to do for upwards of two months, under a constant heavy cross fire.
The Terpsichore was latterly employed on the Mediterranean station, under the orders of Sir John Jervis, who in a private letter, dated off Toulon, July 27th, 1796, expresses himself as follows:–
