Misplaced Pages

Digby Dent (Royal Navy officer, born 1713)

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

For other Royal Navy officers names Digby Dent, see Digby Dent.
Digby Dent
Commodore Digby Dent by Nathaniel Dance-Holland
Born17 January 1713
Died5 June 1761
Allegiance Kingdom of Great Britain
Service / branch Royal Navy
RankCaptain
CommandsHMS Kinsale
HMS Hampton Court
Jamaica Station
HMS Queenborough
Battles / warsWar of Jenkins' Ear
Third Carnatic War

Captain Digby Dent (17 January 1713 – 5 June 1761) was a Royal Navy officer who served as Commander-in-Chief of the Jamaica Station.

Naval career

Born 17 January 1713 and baptised 4 February 1713 at St Nicholas Chiswick Middlesex, the son of Captain Digby Dent and his wife Ursula. Dent joined the Royal Navy on 20 October 1726 and was commissioned as a lieutenant in January 1734. In August 1737 he was given command of the small 8-gunner HMS Drake.

He was promoted to post captain on 9 June 1738 on appointment to the command of the fifth-rate HMS Kinsale. He transferred to the command of the third-rate HMS Hampton Court in 1739 and saw action in operations against Santiago de Cuba during the War of Jenkins' Ear. After several short commands he became captain of HMS Plymouth a 60-gunner which was involved in a large battle with the French fleet on 3 August 1746 near Jamaica which was part of the War of Austrian Succession.

He was appointed a commodore, and became Commander-in-Chief of the Jamaica Station in 1747. In March 1747 he became overall Commander of the British Fleet in the West Indies and oversaw the Battle of Santiago de Cuba. He was court-martialled im 1749 over his choices in the 1741 Battle of Santiago de Cuba but found not guilty.

He was appointed Comptroller of the Navy in 1756.

He died at his house in Dover Street St George Hanover Square on 5 June 1761.

Family

On 28 June 1731, aged 18, Dent, of St George Hanover Square, married Mary Tredway Rule at St Katherine by the Tower by licence. His second marriage took place in September 1750 when he married 17-year-old Sophia Pitt Drake at St Mary's Church in Twickenham Following Dent's death Sophia married Admiral George Pocock who was a long-term friend of her father. His brother Captain Cotton Dent RN was father to Sir Digby Dent.

References

  1. "Image 35/237; Film Number 008008452". Family Search.
  2. ^ "Digby Dent (1710–1761)". threedecks.org.
  3. Cundall, p. xx
  4. 1749 Derby Mercury 2 March
  5. Clowes, William (1898). "The royal navy: a history from the earliest times to the present". Sampson Low Marston. Retrieved 15 October 2015.
  6. 1761 Kentish Weekly Post or Canterbury Journal 10 June
  7. London and Surrey, England, Marriage Bonds and Allegations, 1597-1921
  8. "Commodore Digby Drake". Twickenham Museum. Retrieved 15 October 2015.
  9. Bernard Burke (1865). Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire. Harrison. p. 886.
  10. "Sir Digby Dent". More than Nelson. Retrieved 8 March 2021.

Sources

Military offices
Preceded byCornelius Mitchell Commander-in-Chief, Jamaica Station
1747 		Succeeded byCharles Knowles
Preceded byCharles Saunders Comptroller of the Navy
1756 		Succeeded byGeorge Cockburne
Categories: