Sir Henry Martin, 1st Baronet

Sir Henry Martin, Bt
Born	1733
Died	1794
Allegiance	Kingdom of Great Britain
Service/branch	Royal Navy
Rank	Captain

Captain Sir Henry Martin, 1st Baronet (1733–1794) was a naval commander whose final appointment was Comptroller of the Navy 1790–1794.

Martin was born at Shroton House, Dorset, 29 August 1733. On the death of his brother George in 1748 he became the eldest surviving son of the second marriage of Samuel Martin, plantation owner of Antigua to Sarah née Wyke, 20, widow of William Irish, plantation owner of Montserrat in the West Indies.

Martin was educated at the Portsmouth naval academy and privately by Dr Pemberton. He was appointed a Captain in the Royal Navy and served in American and West Indian waters in the Seven Years' War. He married in 1761 and after the conclusion of the peace treaties in early 1763 they lived at Bishopstown near Cork where he had a leasehold farm. Considered by his father to be 'self-diffident' and in 'want of that assurance so necessary to push his way to preferment' he was given the goad of being let survive with some difficulty on limited resources from prize money and his father's marriage settlement. He returned to the Navy briefly in 1770 during a war scare and thereafter lived at Bath where his father joined them.

In 1780 he was appointed resident naval commissioner at Portsmouth and acquitted himself competently for ten years. As commissioner he twice played host to the young Prince William, later William IV, the adroit handling of whose involvement with Martin's daughter bore him credit with King George III.

Harry Martin succeeded his half-brother, Samuel as a plantation owner in Antigua in 1788. In March 1790 he was appointed Comptroller of the Navy and later that year was elected Member of Parliament for Southampton. He was created a baronet 28 July 1791, Martin of Lockynge, Berkshire.

Henry Martin married, 26 November 1761, Eliza Anne Gillman, daughter of Harding Parker of Passage West county Cork and widow of St Leger Hayward Gillman of Gillmansville county Cork. They had four sons and four daughters.
Their youngest son, Admiral Sir Thomas Byam Martin was also Comptroller of the Navy 1816–1831.

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