Vice-admiral Sir John Thomas Duckworth is one of those brave officers whose professional services have shed such lustre on the maritime county of Devon.

Sir John is the descendant of an ancient and highly respectable, though not opulent, family in that county. His father was a clergyman, whose living, as is too frequently the case with the undignified part of the profession, was not very productive; but who, by means of a strict economy, was enabled to provide for his family, and to live in a respectable manner. Being extremely well qualified for such a task, he educated the subject of this memoir, and fitted him for the service to which he has since done so much honour.

The first account which we find of our young seaman is, while he was serving as a Midshipman on board of the Kent, of 74 guns, Captain Charles Fielding. He was in that ship when her aftermost magazine blew up, on the 4th of July, 1774. While saluting the Admiral, as she was sailing out of Plymouth Sound, the wadding from the guns of the Kent communicated with some powder in an ammunition-chest on the poop, which instantly took fire, and blew up all that part of the ship. The beams of the quarter-deck were forced in; and many others, in different parts, were much shattered and broken.