Royal Naval Biography/Pechell, George Richard
GEORGE RICHARD PECHELL, Esq.
A Magistrate for the county of Sussex.
[Post-Captain of 1822.]
Is the second surviving son of the late Major-General Sir Thomas Brooke-Pechell, Bart., M.P. for Downton, co. Wilts, and a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber to his late Majesty’s august consort, by Charlotte, second daughter of the late Lieutenant. General Sir John Clavering, K.B., Commander-in-chief in India; and grand-daughter of John, first Earl of Delawarr[1].
This officer entered the navy in Sept. 1803, as midshipman on board the Nemesis 28, Captain Philip Somerville; and afterwards served with Sir Robert Barlow and Captain (now Sir John) Gore, in the Triumph 74, and Medusa frigate, the former ship employed in the blockade of Toulon, under Lord Nelson, and the latter forming part of the squadron commanded by Captain (now Sir Graham) Moore, at the capture of three Spanish galleons, and the destruction of their consort, Oct. 5, 1804[2]. He also was present at the detention of the Matilda 36, from Cadiz bound to Mexico, with despatches and a valuable cargo of quicksilver, on the 8th of the following month.
In 1805, Mr. Pechell visited the Cape Verd Islands, Calcutta, and St. Helena; the Medusa being that year employed in conveying the Marquis Cornwallis to Bengal, and bringing home the suite of the same lamented nobleman[3]. Soon after her return to England, he followed Sir John Gore into the Revenge 74, which ship was one of the squadron under Commodore Sir Samuel Hood, when la Gloire, l’Armide, la Minerve, and l’Indefatigable, French frigates of the largest class, were brought to action and captured by the Centaur, Monarch, and Mars[4]. We subsequently find her stationed off Cadiz, where she remained until the cessation of hostilities between England and Spain, when she returned home with the commissioners appointed by the supreme council of Seville to treat with the British cabinet[5].
Mr. Pechell next joined the Venus 32, Captain James Coutts Crawford, and was present at the surrender of Vigo to the Spanish patriots, in March 1809. During the subsequent siege of that place, by the French army under Marshal Ney, he landed with his captain, and served in the citadel until the enemy was defeated at the bridge of San Payo, and obliged to retreat towards Lugo[6]. His first commission, appointing him lieutenant of the Cassar 80, Captain William Granger, on the Lisbon station, bears date June 25, 1810.
From that ship, Mr. Pechell was removed to the Macedonian 38, then employed on the coast of Portugal, but afterwards in the blockade of Rochefort. On the 7th Aug. 1812, the capture of a French lugger, lying aground within musket shot of the formidable batteries on l’Isle d’Aix, was communicated to the squadron by the following telegraphic message:– “None killed; drove on shore by ship last night, and gallantly brought from under batteries by Lieutenant Pechell.”
The Macedonian was at this time commanded by Captain John Surman Garden, whom Lieutenant Pechell shortly afterwards quitted in order to join the St. Domingo 74, bearing the flag of his uncle. Sir John Borlase Warren, Bart., who soon placed him in the temporary command of the Colibri brig, on the North American station, where he captured and destroyed many of the enemy’s merchantmen. In 1813, he again received an acting order from the same admiral, and cruised in the Recruit brig, with very great success, on the coasts of Carolina, Georgia, &c. The latter sloop had been frozen up, at the island of Cape Breton, the whole of the preceding winter ; her crew had suffered very much from the want of fresh provisions, warm clothing, and other necessaries; and when he sailed on his first cruise in her, she had not more than half of her established complement on board. Among the numerous vessels taken, re-captured, and destroyed, with such feeble means, was the American letter of marque schooner Inca, of 6 guns and 35 men. His promotion to the rank of commander, however, did not take place before May 30, 1814; from which period he remained on half-pay till May 26, 1818.
Captain Pechell was then appointed to the Bellette sloop, fitting out for the Halifax station, where we find him employed in protecting the revenue and fisheries, pursuant to the treaty of Ghent. In 1820, he was directed by Rear-Admiral Griffith (now Colpoys), to take the command of the Tamar 26, which ship had just arrived from Jamaica, with scarcely enough men on board to navigate her, even in the finest weather; her captain (Arthur Stow) and 75 of her crew, having died since her departure from the West Indies. This appointment, gave rise to an official correspondence, which terminated in the supercession by the Admiralty, of all the officers whom the commanders-in-chief on the Halifax and Jamaica stations, each claiming the patronage, had intended to raise to superior ranks[7]. The subject of this memoir was consequently obliged to return to the Bellette, after acting as captain of the Tamar for six months, during which period he had restored her to a state of efficiency, and captured, near the island of St. Domingo, a large piratical brig, pierced for 20 guns, with forged warlike commissions from all the different independent states of South America, and a crew of 98 men, desperadoes of every nation. While employed on the coasts of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the Bellette captured about twenty vessels of different descriptions, detected in the act of violating the above treaty and the existing revenue laws. She was paid off at Plymouth, about Christmas, 1821.
Captain Pechell is the author of “A Visit to the Capital and the Chief Ports of St. Domingo, in 1821.” He obtained post rank, Dec. 26, 1822 ; married, Aug. 1, 1826, the Hon. Katherine Annabella, daughter of Lord De La Zouche ; and took his seat as a Justice of the Peace for Sussex, in July, 1827.
Agent.– J. Copland, Esq.