The Edgcumbe family, which is of great antiquity in Devonshire, derives its name from the beautiful manor of Edgcumbe, situated in that county.

George, Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, the subject of this memoir, was the second son of Richard, who was created Baron of Mount Edgcumbe, by George the IId. on the 20th of April, 1742. Having made choice of a maritime life, he went to sea, when very young, as midshipman on board one of the ships stationed in the Mediterranean, under the orders of Admiral Haddock. As early as the 19th of August, 1744, having passed through the subordinate ranks of lieutenant and commander, he was made post captain in the Kennington, of 20 guns; and, towards the end of the following year, he was promoted to the command of the Salisbury, of 50 guns, in which he remained till the conclusion of the war. On the 30th of January, 1747, while on a cruise, in the latitude of 47 deg. 47 min. 106 leagues to the westward of Scilly, he had the good fortune to fall in with, and capture, the Jason, a French East India ship, of 30 guns, and 180 men, bound from Port l'Orient to Pondicherry. Besides a cargo of stores and ammunition, the Jason had eight cases of silver on board, which materially enhanced her value to the captors.

FEW men have served their country more faithfully than this officer, and still fewer in this age of egotism and vanity, have taken so little pains to make their services known.

Mr. C. Pole, the son of Reginald Pole, Esq. of Stoke Damarell, in Devonshire, and of Anne, second daughter of John Francis Buller, Esq. of Morval, in Cornwall, was born at Stoke on the 18th of January, 1757. He is a descendant from the eminent family of Pole, belonging to Shute, in Devonshire, being great grandson of Sir John Pole, the third baronet, and of Anne, youngest daughter of Sir William Morice, Knt. one of the secretaries of state to Charles II.

Mr. Charles Pole received the first rudiments of his education at the grammar school at Plympton, and thence was entered at the Royal Academy at Portsmouth, June 18, 1770. After having gone through the plan, which is prescribed for the midshipmen brought up at that institution, he embarked with the early patron of Nelson, Captain Locker, in his Majesty's ship Thames, of 32 guns, in which he served until December 1773; when he was discharged into the Salisbury. It was on board this ship that Sir E. Hughes afterwards hoisted his broad pendant, Captain G. R. Walters, and proceeded to the East Indies in 1774.

“WE shall endeavour to make the Naval Chronicle an useful and interesting library of itself to seamen, and an acceptable work to every one who partakes of the glory acquired by our own countrymen on their own element, or experiences the security derived from their valour.

Our leading principle will be to adhere strictly unto truth; to render justice unto naval merit, present and departed, both when it has met with success, and also, (which is of the greatest importance) when it has unsuccessfully struggled with unfavourable events, We shall not palliate enormities, should any such present themselves to our view in the course of our labours; nor shall we permit prejudice, unnoticed, to overwhelm misfortune when unaggravated by misconduct.”

This is the engagement we contracted with the public in the introduction of our first Volume, on New Year's Day, 1799; and after more than ten years have revolved, we confidently appeal to the suffrages of our professional, as well as of our literary patrons, whether we have redeemed our pledge; and whether we have not contributed abundantly, as well as usefully, towards the naval annals of our country during that period.

Conscious of the rectitude of our intentions, and (we will venture to add) of our merit in their execution, we shall detain the reader by only one more general remark.

From the admiral to the cabin-boy, the name of Benbow is so familiar to every individual in the navy, and his memory is so often mentioned with respect and admiration, that no excuse can be requisite for presenting a condensed narrative of his life and actions. We are the more induced to this, from the circumstance of the original portrait of the admiral, for which he sat to Sir Godfrey Kneller, being in our possession; by which we are enabled to prefix to the memoir the only authentic engraved likeness of this officer now extant.

The origin of the “brave Admiral Benbow” was not of that mean description that has been at times represented; on the contrary, he was the descendant of a family both ancient and honourable, which had long flourished in the county of Salop. In the reign of James I. John Benbow, his grandfather, held the office of deputy clerk of the crown; and, in the unfortunate times of Charles I. Thomas and John Benbow, his uncle and father, were distinguished by their loyalty. They both served as colonels in the king's army; and, in the fatal battle of Worcester, they both fell into the bands of the rebels.

If ever any one deserved, that high character, without any fulsome compliment, it is the subject of the following memoir: who after having been placed in very delicate and arduous situations, has obtained the friendship of all who have served with him, and has kept up the discipline of the navy, without creating a single enemy.

Mr. John Holloway was born at Wells, in Somersetshire, the present residence of his family. During the year 1760, when he was about 13, he resolved to devote himself to the royal navy; and his intention being sanctioned by his father, and recommended by Mr. James Grenville, he was sent on board the Antelope, of 50 guns, Captain Webb, and afterwards, in 1761, sailed in her to Newfoundland, with Captain, the late Lord Graves; who had been appointed governor of the island, and commander in chief on that station. Mr. Holloway then served for two years under Sir Hugh Palliser; and also, with a view of promotion, embarked with Admiral Durell, appointed commander in chief at Halifax: but that officer dying soon after his arrival in America, Mr. Holloway was, in 1768, taken under the patronage of Commodore Samuel Hood, in the Romney.

During the period of Mr. Holloway's services as a midshipman, no opportunity offered to distinguish himself by any brilliant or daring exploit.

Of this naval hero's life no historical record will or can be exempted from that pride of the historian who knew him the best, which the hero deprecated in the partialities of those he loved, and who loved him.

Pride he certainly possessed, but it was of the noblest kind: it prompted him to disdain a mean act, or a selfish thought. But no gallant spirit was ever more elevated above the vanity of self-applause. He was even so modest as to give himself no credit for the sentiment, or the habit, of that modesty itself, as a virtue.

It shall be my ambition to give a picture of him, and from the life, under the discipline of this check upon my own pride; though such a love as I bore to him neither hopes nor wishes to be disinterested. But zeal for the memory of a character so dear to me would be miscalculated, if it could violate those principles of honour which it was the uniform habit of his life to revere.

This gentleman, whose professional gallantry has often been the theme of praise, was the descendant of an ancient Scotch family. He was born in Scotland; but, as his father shortly afterwards settled in Ireland, he was bred and educated in the latter country; whence, at a suitable period, he passed over into England, with the view of entering into the naval service.

With the early services of Mr. Macbride, we are very slightly acquainted; but, in every situation, he is known to have evinced uncommon skill and bravery. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant on the 27th of October, 1758; previously to which he is understood to have had some successful cruises, and also to have been captured by a French ship of war, which carried him into Brest, where he remained for some months on parole, till exchanged by cartel.

The first instance in which he particularly distinguished himself was in the month of August, 1761, whilst commanding the Grace armed cutter. Assisted by the boats of the Maidstone frigate, he then cut a French privateer out of Dunkirk road; the official account of which exploit is given in the following words:—

The Nineteenth Volume of the Naval Chronicle contains various interesting documents relative to the present eventful crisis; and, by its biographical memoirs, has rendered the services of some of our naval officers more generally known.

If it should be objected, that we do not always select the most renowned and distinguished of our naval heroes, it may be replied, that such officers do not so much require the adventitious assistance of the biographer, as men of equal merit though not of equal celebrity. At the present awful crisis of civilized Europe, amidst the general wreck and degradation of the continent, whilst the storm is still raging, and the gloom of military tyranny is deepening on all sides, it is devoutly to be wished, that our endless factions and parties would think only of employing men of the most high and established professional merit. There is a dreadful stagnation in the service, a dead calm, hitherto unprecedented in the long and desperate contest in which we have been engaged. The country, and its natural bulwark, the British Navy, wants men who will dare to act and think, without that eternal wavering, and looking to others for an opinion, which paralyses all national exertions.

Sir charles saxton was the descendant of a Berkshire family. Edward Saxton, his father, was a London merchant; and his mother was the daughter of Thomas Bush, Esq. of Burcott, in Oxfordshire. He was the youngest of seven children, and was born in the year 1732.

He is believed to have been originally intended for the navy; he entered the service in 1745. Previously to the year 1760, he received an appointment, as lieutenant, from Admiral Watson, on the East India station; and after his return to England, he held the same rank on board the Modeste in the early part of the year just mentioned, and was first lieutenant in the action with Conflans, 1759. On the 11th of October, 1760, he was promoted to the rank of commander; and in 1761, according to Charnock, “he commanded the Fubbs yacht, ordered to the continent, for the conveyance to England of her present majesty and her suite.” In the list of the squadron which was employed upon that occasion, we, however, find only one yacht (the Royal Charlotte) mentioned, and she was commanded by Captain, afterwards Admiral Sir Peter, Denis. His other services, as commander, are wholly unrecorded.

On the 28th of January, 1762, Captain Saxton was made post, and appointed to the Magnanime, under Commodore Lord Viscount Howe.