William Hotham, 1st Baron Hotham

William Hotham, 1st Baron Hotham
Born	1736
Died	1813
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	Royal Navy
Rank	Admiral
Commands held	Mediterranean Fleet
Battles/wars	American Revolutionary War French Revolutionary Wars

Admiral William Hotham, 1st Baron Hotham (1736–1813) was an officer in the Royal Navy. He was the son of Sir Beaumont Hotham (died 1771), a lineal descendant of Sir John Hotham.

Hotham was educated at Westminster School and at the Royal Naval Academy, Portsmouth. He entered the navy in 1751, and spent most of his midshipman's time in American waters. In 1755 he became lieutenant in Admiral Sir Edward Hawke's flagship St George and he soon received a small command, which led gradually to higher posts. In Syren (20) he fought a sharp action with the French Telemaque of superior force, and in the sloop Fortune he carried, by boarding, a 26-gun privateer.

For this service he was rewarded with a more powerful ship, and from 1757 onwards commanded various frigates. In 1759 his ship Melampe, with Southampton, fought a spirited action with two hostile frigates of similar force, one of which became their prize. Melampe was attached to Augustus Keppel's squadron in 1761, but was in the main employed in detached duty and made many captures. In 1776, as a Commodore, Hotham served in North American waters, and he had a great share in the Battle of St. Lucia (15 December 1778).

Here he continued till the spring of 1781, when he was sent home in charge of a large convoy of merchantmen. Off Scilly Hotham fell in with a powerful French squadron, against which he could effect nothing, and many of the merchant-men went to France as prizes.

In 1782 Commodore Hotham was with Richard Howe at the relief of Gibraltar, and at the time of the Spanish armament of 1790 he flew his flag as Rear Admiral of the Red. By 1791 he was made Vice Admiral. He hoisted his flag aboard HMS Britannia that year. As Lord Hood's second-in-command in the Mediterranean, from August 1793, he was engaged against the French Revolutionary navy, and when his chief retired to England in December the command of the Mediterranean Fleet devolved upon him. On 12 March 1795 he fought an indecisive fleet action at the Naval Battle of Genoa, in which the brunt of the fighting was borne by Captain Horatio Nelson, and some months later, now a full admiral, he again engaged a French fleet, at the Naval Battle of Hyères Islands on 13 July 1795, this time under conditions which might have permitted a decisive victory; of this affair Nelson wrote home that it was a "miserable action."

...
Wikipedia