maritime manuscript Revolutionary War Royal Navy papers signed Admiral Frazer

Description: Framed. Coffee, tea or blood-stained?? These are the maritime documents of Charles Johnston attesting to his experience and seamanship acquired in the Royal Navy during the American Rebellion and qualifying him for employment in the capacity of Able-bodied Seaman or Midshipman in the naval service. It is an Admiralty certification that Johnston “can splice, knot, Reef a Sail, work a Ship in sailing, keep a reckoning of a Ship’s Way by plane sailing and Mercator, observe by Sun or Star, and find the variation of the Compass”. It is endorsed by his current commander Captain Alexander Fraser who notes Johnston is serving in 1795 as Master’s Mate of HMS Proserpine. Born in 1768, the nine year old Charles Johnston initially served as the servant or cabin boy to 20-gun HMS Squirrel’s Sailing Master between 23 March 1777 and 11 January 1778. The Squirrel arrived at Plymouth, England just four days earlier and for the next three months underwent a refit at Portsmouth. She was recommissioned under Captain Henry Harvey and sailed for Newfoundland on 14 April 1777. Apparently, the lad Johnston left the vessel upon Squirrel’s return and redeployment in the African trade in February 1778. After a twenty-one month hiatus on land, Charles Johnston next served on the 74-gun HMS Berwick as the Master’s Servant and then subsequently as the Captain’s Servant for eighteen months between 1 October 1779 and 1 March 1781. Throughout 1779, HMS Berwick served with the Channel Fleet under Captain Keith Stewart. In 1780, the vessel was sent with Commodore Walshingham’s squadron to reinforce the fleet of Sir George Romney in the West Indies. Walshingham’s ships arrived too late to support Rodney’s fleet in battle. Berwick was sent to Jamaica where she was dismasted and blown out to sea during the second week of October in the devastating Great Hurricane of 1780. The vessel returned to England for repairs and then sailed to the North Sea where Stewart was promoted to command the station. The North Sea had by then become an important convoy route as French and Spanish warships were wreaking havoc on the Western approaches to the English Channel. Apparently, the cabin boy Johnston left service on the Berwick prior to her change in command from Stewart to Captain John Ferguson. Within a month Charles Johnston entered service on the 36-gun HMS Flora under the command of Captain William Peere Williams as an Able-bodied Seaman, in which capacity he served until 9 October when he was appointed Midshipman at the age of thirteen, serving in that rate until 7 December 1781. By 12 April 1781, Flora was sailing in a fleet of twenty-nine ships under the command of Vice-Admiral George Darby escorting a hundred vessels of stores bound for the relief of Gibraltar, suffering under the “Great Siege” prosecuted by the French and Spanish. Afterwards, in company with the 28-gun HMS Crescent, the Flora escorted a convoy to Minorca, where on the homeward bound voyage the two were engaged by a Spanish squadron off Spain on 23 May 1781. One man was killed and another wounded on Johnston’s vessel when one of her guns prematurely exploded. The British frigates made port at Gibraltar six days later and departed shortly thereafter for Cueta, located on the African side of the Straits where they engaged the 36-gun Dutch warships Castor and Briel. Later dubbed the Battle of Cape St. Mary, the two hour action between Flora and Castor was particularly hot and bloody before the Dutch struck. HMS Flora suffered nine men killed including her Lieutenant of Marines and thirty-two wounded while her opponent the Castor had twenty-two killed and forty-one wounded. HMS Crescent sustained casualties of 26 dead and 67 wounded. Several weeks later on her return voyage to England with the Crescent and Castor, the three frigates were confronted by two 32-gun French warships Gloire and Friponne. Unwilling to engage with his depleted compliment of men, Captain Williams ordered the British vessels to scatter. The heavily damaged Castor and Crescent proved easy targets for the French and only the HMS Flora escaped. In December 1781, about the same time Charles Johnston left the vessel, Captain Williams was replaced in command by Captain Samuel Marshall. On 8 December 1781, the day following termination of his duty on the Flora, Midshipman Charles Johnston entered service on the 32-gun HMS Juno under the command of Captain James Montagu. As plankholder, her first commander Montagu had been with the Juno since her commissioning in September 1780. Shortly after, Juno sailed to the East Indies in early 1782 to join Richard Bickerton’s squadron. HMS Juno participated in the 20 June 1783 Battle of Cuddalore between the British fleet of Admirals Sir Edward Hughes and L.J. Weiland and a smaller French fleet off the coast of India. Johnston would stay with the vessel for four and a half years serving under Captain Montagu in the capacity of Midshipman until the vessel returned home for a refit, the crew paid off and Juno placed in ordinary. Johnston’s discharge from naval service at about the age of seventeen occurred on 16 March 1785. Four years after the cessation of his early naval career on 19 November 1789, twenty-one year old Charles Johnston was married to Sophia Grossman Carter of the same age, in St. Mary’s Parish church in Portsea, a community within Portsmouth. According to the marriage record, Johnston’s occupation was noted as a grocer at that time. Based on census records, it appears the couple bore a daughter Sophia about 1791 and a son Charles Alexander Johnston about 1792. Charles Johnston’s maritime documents include the endorsement of Captain Alexander Fraser who notes Johnston is serving on 10 January 1795 as Master’s Mate of the sixth-rate frigate HMS Proserpine. How long prior to that date Johnston had been with the vessel is unknown but it is likely he was serving on the vessel since July 1794 when Captain Fraser assumed command. The will of Charles Johnston of the ship Proserpine (ADM 48/46/78) is dated two weeks earlier on 28 December 1794 and is witnessed by Captain Fraser and the vessel’s Boatswain. He names as sole executrix his “beloved wife Sophia Grossman Johnston of the Parish of Portsea in Southampton”. By the time of his death on 23 April 1804, Charles Johnston had achieved the rank of Lieutenant. The circumstances of his death are not presently known. According to the naval biography of his son, Commander Charles Alexander Johnston entered service in the Royal Navy during the year prior to his father’s death and participated in the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805 as a Midshipman on the 64-gun HMS Agamemnon. Having joined the Royal Navy at the age of twelve, HMS Proserpine's Captain Alexander Fraser rose in rank to become Rear Admiral of the Blue in 1811, Rear Admiral of the White the following year and Vice Admiral of the Fleet in 1819.

Price: 150 USD

Location: Bridgeton, New Jersey

End Time: 2024-08-23T16:13:33.000Z

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