Samuel Graves British Admiral Date of Birth: 17.04.1713 Country: Great Britain

1. Early Life and Naval Career
2. Command and West Indian Service
3. Vice-Admiral and North American Station
4. Difficulties and Royal Navy Challenges
5. Later Life and Legacy

Early Life and Naval Career

Thomas Graves was born in 1725 and entered the Royal Navy in 1732. In 1739, he became a lieutenant and participated in the 1741 expedition against Cartagena, serving on the third-rate (80-gun) ship HMS Norfolk under the command of his uncle and future admiral, Thomas Graves. His cousin, Thomas Graves the Younger, the son of Captain Graves and also a future admiral, served alongside him on the Norfolk.

Command and West Indian Service

In 1743, Graves received command of the sloop Bonetta and served in the West Indies until 1747, commanding in turn the prize ship HMS Rippon and then HMS Enterprise. In 1756, he rose to command HMS Duke. Two years later, he again served on the Duke under Admiral Hawke at Quiberon on November 20, 1759. He continued in command of HMS Duke until his promotion to rear admiral in October 1762.

Vice-Admiral and North American Station

In October 1770, Graves was promoted to vice-admiral and in July 1774, took command of the North American Station. His orders were vague, his forces too widely dispersed, and he was tasked, according to the Dictionary of National Biography, with a "hopeless" mission. He was instructed to enforce various customs duties and trade acts regulating North American colonial trade within the British Empire, particularly the Boston Port Act. With only 26 ships and over a thousand miles of coastline from Nova Scotia to Florida to patrol, Graves' task proved daunting.

Difficulties and Royal Navy Challenges

Manning shortages further strained the Royal Navy, forcing it to resort to impressment to replenish depleted ship crews. The issue was compounded by the attitude and behavior of naval officers, who did not recognize local authority and often flouted the authority of colonial officials in sensitive matters. Based in Boston, Graves found himself at the heart of the revolutionary turmoil in New England.

His sailors rowed the boats that ferried British soldiers across the Charles River on the night of April 18, 1775, en route to Concord. Two months later, on June 17, 1775, his men again assisted in the ferrying of troops, this time to the Charlestown Peninsula, and his ships provided fire support during the pyrrhic victory at Bunker Hill. During the Siege of Boston, Admiral Graves ordered Lieutenant Henry Mowatt, commander of the armed vessel Canceaux, to destroy seaport towns that supported the rebellion. On October 18, Mowatt burned Falmouth, present-day Portland, Maine.

Later Life and Legacy

On January 27, 1776, Vice-Admiral Richard Howe replaced Graves as commander of the North American Station. Graves returned to England with no appointment. In September 1777, he declined command of the Plymouth Dockyard but stated his willingness to return to active duty. On January 29, 1778, he was promoted to admiral of the blue and on April 8, 1782, to admiral of the white. He died at his estate at Hembury Fort, Honiton, Devon on March 8, 1787.

Graves was married twice, first to Elizabeth Sedgwick, daughter of John Sedgwick of Staindrop, County Durham. After Elizabeth's death in 1767, he remarried in 1769 to Margaret Spinks, daughter of Elmer Spinks of Aldwinkle, Northamptonshire, and elder sister of Elizabeth Simcoe. He had no children of his own, except for an adopted daughter (his late sister-in-law's daughter), who married his godson John Graves Simcoe, later the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada. He was an uncle to Admiral Thomas Graves, 1st Baron Graves, and a cousin to Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Graves.