Royal Naval Biography/Kent, Bartholomew
BARTHOLOMEW KENT, Esq.
[Commander.]
Eldest son of the late John Kent, Esq., many years a purser in the royal navy, who, in consideration of his loyal services, was, in 1803, appointed by Earl St. Vincent to the civil situation of steward of the royal naval hospital at Plymouth, where he died in 1827.
This officer’s paternal grandfather married the eldest sister of the late Vice-Admiral John Hunter, many years governor of New South Wales; and grand-niece of the Lord Provost Drummond, of Edinburgh. His father’s brothers were, William, captain of the Union 98, who died on board that ship, off the mouth of the Rhone, in Aug. 1812; and Henry, commander of the Dover 44, armed en flûte, who died on the coast of Egypt, in 1801. His maternal uncles were all brought up in the military service, viz. Robert Wright, a colonel of the royal regiment of artillery, who commanded that corps in Scotland, and served as aid-de-camp to the late Duke of Kent, in Nova Scotia and at Gibraltar, died in 1823 or 1824; Peter a captain in the Hon.E.I.C. infantry, died of wounds received in battle at Ceylon; and George, now; colonel of the royal engineers. His surviving brothers, William George Carlile and Henry, are commanders in the royal navy[1]; another, John, late first lieutenant of the Thais frigate, died at Stonehouse, after a lingering illness of fourteen months, occasioned by over-exertion in his professional duties, Jan. 27th, 1816[2]. One of his cousins, Bartholomew Kent, first lieutenant of the Goliath 74, Captain (afterwards Sir Charles) Brisbane, was killed in a boat affair, under the batteries of Sable d’Ollone, in 1803; and another, Lieutenant Mark Kent, R.N., died at sea in 1828.
Mr. Bartholemew Kent, the subject of this memoir, commenced his naval career, at the age of thirteen years, under the auspices of the late Vice-Admiral Sir William Mitchell, and served with that officer and Captains the Hon. Also Hyde (afterwards Viscount) Gardner, the Hon. John Murray, and Theophilus Jones, in the Resolution 74, and Atlas 98, attached to the Channel fleet, until the termination of hostilities in 1801. He then joined the Buffalo store-ship, commanded by his uncle, Captain William Kent, and destined to New South Wales; where, in April 1803, he received an appointment to act as lieutenant, which was confirmed by the Admiralty on the 2d May, 1804.
The Buffalo was principally employed in conveying supplies to our settlements in that distant quarter, and surveying some of the South Sea islands. In June 1805, Mr. H. Kent was appointed first lieutenant of the Investigator sloop, then about to sail for England; and on that ship being paid off, in Jan. 1806, he immediately joined the Thames frigate, Captain Brydges W. Taylor, employed in the blockade of Boulogne.
After an ineffectual attempt to destroy the enemy’s invasion flotilla, by means of rockets, on which occasion Lieutenant Kent commanded a boat, the Thames was sent, with the Phoebe frigate in company, to Iceland, for the protection of the Greenland fishery; but she had not the good fortune to fall in with any of the enemy’s cruisers. On her return home, about Mar. 1807, Lieutenant Kent was appointed first of the Hussar 38, Captain Robert Lloyd, in which ship he was present at the bombardment of Copenhagen, and the consequent surrender of the Danish navy, Aug. and Sept. 1807.
The Hussar was subsequently employed, for eighteen months, in the West Indies and on the Halifax station, where she appears to have captured four letters of marque. On her being ordered home. Lieutenant Kent followed Captain Lloyd into the Guerriere 38, in which frigate he continued, under Captains Samuel John Pechell and James Richard Dacres, until she was captured by the United States’ ship Constitution, after a severe action, Aug. 19th, 1812. On this unfortunate occasion he was wounded by a splinter, but continued to assist his captain until the end of the conflict: his readiness to lead on the boarders, and his gallant exertions throughout the whole affair, were duly acknowledged, as will be seen by reference to Vol. II. Part II. p. 974 et seq.
Previous to this unlucky rencontre, the Guerriere had been one of the most successful cruisers on the North American station, having, amongst other prizes, taken three vessels with very valuable cargoes, from Bourdeaux, for a breach of the Orders in Council.
About a fortnight after their arrival at Boston, the captain, surviving officers, and ship’s company of the late Guerriere, were exchanged and sent to Halifax, where they underwent the usual trial by court-martial, and obtained an honorable acquittal. This ordeal over, Lieutenant Kent was preparing to return home, but had not completed his arrangements when he was sent for by Admiral Sir John B. Warren, and informed that it was his intention to retain him on the station, and that he had accordingly appointed him to the command of the Nova Scotia brig, formerly an American privateer; in which vessel, during the winter of 1812, we find him employed in convoying the trade between Halifax and New Brunswick, and cruising in the Bay of Fundy.
In June 1813, Lieutenant Kent was sent home, with the despatches announcing the capture of the American frigate Chesapeake; and on his arrival in England, the Nova Scotia having been rated a sloop of war, he appears to have been superseded in the command of that vessel by the present Captain William Ramsden. Being then placed on the Admiralty list for promotion, in North America, he immediately returned thither, and had the gratification to find that his friend Captain Robert Lloyd, having joined the fleet on that station, in the Plantagenet 74, had applied for him to be appointed his first lieutenant; a request most readily granted.
After cruising for some time amongst the West India islands, in quest of the large American frigates, the Plantagenet was attached to the Jamaica station, then again recently become a separate command. In consequence of this arrangement, Lieutenant Kent reluctantly left that ship, in order not to lose his chance of an Admiralty vacancy, and was appointed first of the Asia 74, Captain Alexander Skene. He subsequently joined the Tonnant 80, bearing the flag of the Hon. Sir Alexander I. Cochrane, from whom he received an appointment to command the Weser troop-ship, dated Dec. 24th, 1814[3].
At this period, Lieutenant Kent was actively employed in the arduous service of disembarking the army destined against New Orleans; and during the disastrous military operations in that quarter, we find him on shore, at the “Fishermen’s Huts,” assisting Captain Thomas Ball Sulivan in the superintendence of the naval department. On the 22d Jan. 1815, he assumed the command of the Weser, in which ship he was present at the capture of Mobile, and afterwards employed in bringing home from Quebec the seamen who had been serving on the Canadian Lakes. The Weser was paid off at Portsmouth, Oct. 27th, 1815.
Commander B. Kent married, Aug. 23d, 1823, Penelope Percival, only surviving child of his uncle Commander Henry Kent. In 1831, he had a severe attack of erysipelas, and his life, for some time, hung on a thread. This disease first attacked his young cousin and guest, Mr. George Collier Kerr, who ultimately recovered; but Mrs. Kent and the father of the youth, Captain Alexander R. Kerr, C.B., in the course of one short week, unfortunately fell victims to it.
- ↑ See p. 161.
- ↑ See Nav. Chron. v. 35, p. 176.
- ↑ Confirmed by the Admiralty Mar. 29th, 1815.