{{Short description|British Royal Navy officer (1777–1833)}} {{Use British English|date=October 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2021}} {{Infobox military person |honorific_prefix = Vice-Admiral The Honourable |name = Sir Henry Hotham |honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|GCMG|KCB}} |image = Monument to Sir Henry Hotham Upper Barrakka Gardens.jpg |image_size = |alt = Monument to Hotham in Upper Barrakka Gardens, Valletta |caption = Monument to Sir Henry Hotham in Upper Barrakka Gardens, Valletta |birth_date = {{Birth date|1777|2|19|df=yes}} |death_date = {{Death date and age|1833|4|19|1777|2|19|df=yes}} |birth_place = |death_place = Valletta, Malta |burial_place = |burial_label = Msida Bastion Cemetery, Floriana, Malta |burial_coordinates = <!-- {{Coord|LAT|LONG|display=inline,title}} --> |nickname = |birth_name = |allegiance ={{flagcountry|Kingdom of Great Britain}}<br>{{flagcountry|United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland}} |branch = {{navy|Kingdom of Great Britain}} |service_years = 1790–1833 |rank = Vice-Admiral |service_number = |unit = |commands = {{Plainlist | * {{HMS|Fleche|1794|2}} * HMS ''Mignonne'' * {{HMS|Dido|1784|6}} * {{HMS|Blanche|1786|6}} * HMS ''Immortalite'' * HMS ''Imperieuse'' * {{HMS|Revolutionnaire||6}} * {{HMS|Defiance|1783|6}} * {{HMS|Northumberland|1798|6}} * {{HMS|Superb|1798|6}} * Mediterranean Fleet }} |battles = {{tree list}} * French Revolutionary Wars ** Siege of Bastia * Napoleonic Wars ** Battle of Cape Ortegal ** Battle of Les Sables-d'Olonne ** Action of 22 May 1812 ** Hundred Days * War of 1812 {{tree list/end}} |awards = Order of the Bath (1815)<br />Order of St Michael and St George (1831) |relations = {{Plainlist| * Admiral William Hotham (uncle) * Admiral Sir William Hotham (cousin) * General Beaumont Hotham, 3rd Baron Hotham (nephew) }} |other_work = }} Vice-Admiral '''Sir Henry Hotham''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|GCMG|KCB}} (19 February 1777 – 19 April 1833) was a Royal Navy officer who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and War of 1812. He was later a member of the Board of Admiralty, and ended his career as Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet.
==Biography==
===French Revolutionary Wars=== Henry Hotham was the youngest surviving son of Beaumont Hotham (2nd Baron Hotham from 1813) and Susanna, daughter of Sir Thomas Hankey.<ref name="marshall">{{cite book |last=Marshall |first=John |author-link=John Marshall (biographer) |title=Royal Naval Biography : or Memoirs of the services of all the flag-officers, superannuated rear-admirals, retired-captains, post-captains and commanders, whose names appeared on the Admiralty list of sea officers at the commencement of the year 1760, or who have since been promoted; illustrated by a series of historical and explanatory notes. With copious addenda. |volume=I, Part II |pages=[https://archive.org/details/royalnavalbiop201marsuoft/page/615 615]–621, 872 |year=1823 |publisher=Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/royalnavalbiop201marsuoft |access-date=21 October 2013 }}</ref> He joined the Navy in 1790 (aged 13) serving aboard {{HMS|Princess Royal|1773|2}},<ref name="Msida">{{cite web |url= http://website.lineone.net/~stephaniebidmead/msida.htm |title=Msida Bastion Cemetery |first=Stephanie |last=Bidmead |work=Malta Family History |year=2012 |access-date=21 October 2013}}</ref> the flagship of his uncle Rear-Admiral William Hotham.<ref name="Winfield">{{Cite book |last1=Winfield |first1=Rif |title=British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714–1792 |year=2007 |publisher=Seaforth Publishing |isbn=978-1-84415-700-6 }}</ref> He went on to serve aboard {{HMS|Lizard|1757|2}}, {{HMS|Lapwing|1785|2}}, {{HMS|Victory||2}} and {{Ship|French frigate|Aigle|1782|2}}, and finally once again with his uncle, now a Vice-Admiral, aboard {{HMS|Britannia|1762|2}} in the Mediterranean.<ref name="Msida"/>
Hotham was present as a midshipman at the Siege of Bastia in April–May 1794.<ref>{{cite book |last1=James |first1=William |author-link1=William James (naval historian) |title=Naval History of Great Britain |url=http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/Naval_History/Vol_I/P_190.html |access-date=21 October 2013 |volume=I |year=1837 |publisher=Richard Bentley |location=London |page=191 |archive-date=22 April 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080422233133/http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/Naval_History/Vol_I/P_190.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> He was subsequently commissioned as a lieutenant on 6 June 1794 (aged just 17)<ref>{{cite book |title=The Commissioned Sea Officers of the Royal Navy, 1660-1815 |first=David Bonner |last=Smith |year=1954 }}</ref> and was given command of the prize sloop {{HMS|Fleche|1794|2}} in November 1794.<ref name="marshall"/> He was promoted to captain on 13 January 1795, in the prize frigate {{Ship|French frigate|Mignonne|1767|2}}, and later commanded the sixth-rate {{HMS|Dido|1784|2}} and the fifth-rate {{HMS|Blanche|1786|2}}.<ref name="marshall"/>
Hotham was in command of ''Blanche'' on 5 February 1797 when she and {{HMS|Inconstant|1783|2}}, Captain Thomas Fremantle, captured the ship ''Fortune'' of Philadelphia.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=15376 |date=16 June 1801 |page=679 }}</ref> On 20 November 1797 he captured the French privateer brig ''Le Coureur'', of 14 guns and 90 men, after a three-hour chase.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=14071 |date=5 December 1797 |page=1161 |nolink=yes }}</ref> On 27 December 1797, about {{Convert|170|nmi|abbr=on}} west of Porto, he captured the ''Bayonnois'', a French privateer brig of six guns and 40 men, after a 16-hour chase. The brig had sailed from Bayonne 31 days previously and had made no captures.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=14086 |date=27 January 1798 |page=89 |nolink=yes }}</ref>
''Blanche'' was paid off in August 1798,<ref>{{cite book |first=Rif |last=Winfield |title=British Warships of the Age of Sail 1793-1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates |publisher=Seaforth |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-86176-246-7 |page=186}}</ref> and Hotham was appointed to the frigate {{Ship|French frigate|Immortalité|1795|2}} in early 1800.<ref name="marshall"/> He operated in the Bay of Biscay, taking several prizes. Late on the evening of 12 September 1800 he captured a small Spanish vessel laden with stone, but while boarding her observed two French privateer ships, ''Brave'' and ''Bellone'' coming out of the Gironde. He was obliged to scuttle the Spaniard to make chase. The French attempted to evade him during the night, but Hotham anticipated their movements, and was still following the next day. Unfortunately he lost them the second night, having pursued them for 259 miles. However, on 20 September, he recaptured the English ship ''Monarch'', of 645 tons, laden with timber, which had been taken by ''Bellone'' four days earlier. On 22 September, off Cordouan Lighthouse, he chased a French brig, and by 9.30 p.m., had come within musket-shot, when both vessels unexpectedly grounded near Noirmoutier. The brig was wrecked; but ''Immortalite'' refloated herself the next morning, suffering nothing more serious than the loss of an anchor, cable, and boat. On the morning of the next day, the 24th, he spotted the French letter of marque schooner ''Constance'', carrying a cargo of coffee and sugar from Guadaloupe to Bordeaux, but the privateer lugger ''Cynthia'' from Guernsey, captured her before he could intervene.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=15308 |date=4 November 1800 |pages=1255–1256 |nolink=yes }}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette |issue=15462 |date=16 March 1802 |page=284 |nolink=yes }}</ref> On 26 October 1800 ''Immortalite'', in company with {{HMS|Thames|1758|2}} and {{HMS|Beaulieu||2}}, captured the French privateer ''Diable à Quatre'',<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=15410 |date=26 September 1801 |page=1186 |nolink=yes }}</ref> of 16 guns and 150 men, and on the 29th a letter of marque schooner, sailing from Guadaloupe to Bourdeaux, with a cargo of coffee.<ref name="marshall"/> Hotham was also present in ''Immortalite'' at the capture of the {{Ship|French frigate|Dédaigneuse|1797|2|up=yes}} on 27 January 1801.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=15487 |date=8 June 1802 |page=600 |nolink=yes }}</ref> He then, on 14 April 1801, captured the French privateer brig ''Laure'', of 14 guns and 78 men. She was 15 days out of St. Malo, and had captured a Portuguese vessel sailing Bristol to Lisbon, and had made 17 other captures in previous cruises.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=15361 |date=2 May 1801 |page=482 |nolink=yes }}</ref> On 27 July, assisted by the presence of the frigate {{HMS|Arethusa|1781|2}}, he captured the ''Invention'', an unusual privateer designed and commanded by M. Thibaut. She was {{Convert|147|ft}} long, but only {{Convert|27|ft}} wide, with four masts, and carried 24 guns on a flush deck, and a crew of 210. She had sailed from Bordeaux nine days before on her first cruise.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=15393 |date=1 August 1801 |page=949 |nolink=yes }}</ref> Towards the close of the war in 1802, the ''Immortalite'' was blockading the port of Brest.<ref name="marshall"/>
===Napoleonic Wars=== Soon after the renewal of hostilities in May 1803, Hotham obtained command of the 40-gun frigate ''Imperieuse'', and in the same year he recaptured a South Sea whaler, homeward bound in the Channel.<ref name="marshall"/>
He was appointed to the frigate {{HMS|Revolutionnaire||2}} in April 1804, conveying Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex from Lisbon to Portsmouth in August. In September he escorted an outward bound East India fleet, before proceeding to Halifax.<ref name="marshall"/> On 1 December 1803 ''Imperieuse'' recaptured the ship ''Britannia'',<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=15671 |date=31 January 1804 |page=151 |nolink=yes }}</ref> and on 4 November 1805 he assisted at the capture of four French ships by Sir Richard Strachan in the Battle of Cape Ortegal.<ref name="marshall"/>
In March 1806 Hotham took command of the 74-gun {{HMS|Defiance|1783|2}}, in the squadron of Rear-Admiral Robert Stopford. On 23 February 1809 Stopford's squadron fought three French frigates in the Battle of Les Sables-d'Olonne. The three French ships were anchored off the port under the protection of coastal batteries, but ''Defiance'', {{HMS|Caesar|1793|2}} and {{HMS|Donegal|1798|2}} closed in, and fired on the French ships until forced to withdraw by the ebbing of the tide, damaging them to the extent the one was subsequently broken up, and the other two declared unfit for naval service and sold. ''Defiance'' was much cut up and had two men killed and 25 wounded.<ref name="marshall"/> In 1807, Hotham was employed on the coast of Spain, co-operating with Spanish forces. On 24 June, shortly after the French withdrawal from the north-western ports of Ferrol and Corunna, Hotham landed a detachment of seamen and marines to destroy various batteries commanding the bay, and also captured the castle of San Felipe, still under the command of French sympathizers.<ref name="marshall"/> On 23 December 1809 ''Defiance'' recaptured the ship ''Ellison'' from the French.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=16393 |date=4 August 1810 |page=1168 |nolink=yes }}</ref> On 1 June 1810 he captured the French chasse-marées ''Syrene'', ''Eugene'', and ''St. Yves''.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=16443 |date=12 January 1811 |page=85 |nolink=yes }}</ref>
thumb|''Destruction of the French Frigates Arianne & Andromaque 22nd May 1812'', From left to right: ''Mameluck'', ''Ariane'', ''Andromaque'' (on fire) and ''Northumberland'' Hotham then took command of the ship {{HMS|Northumberland|1798|2}}.<ref name="marshall"/> On 5 November 1810 he recaptured the ''Zodiac'', and on the 9th captured the ''Venus''.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=16572 |date=4 February 1812 |page=257 |nolink=yes }}</ref> On 22 November 1810, he captured the French privateer ketch ''Glaneuse'', of 14 guns and 85 men, after a two-day pursuit, after preventing her from capturing a British packet ship.<ref name="marshall"/> On 4 April 1811 he destroyed two chasse-marées, but not before removing 63 casks of wine from them.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=16596 |date=21 April 1812 |page=760 |nolink=yes }}</ref> In 1812 Hotham was serving under Rear-Admiral Sir Harry Neale off Ushant, and was sent by him to cruise off l'Orient, to intercept three expected French vessels. In the ensuing action on 22 May ''Northumberland'', assisted by the gun-brig ''Growler'', encountered the French frigates {{Ship|French frigate|Ariane|1811|2}} and {{Ship|French frigate|Andromaque|1811|2}}, both of 44 guns and 450 men, and the brig ''Mameluke'', of 18 guns and 150 men, near the island of Groix. Hotham skilfully manoeuvred his ship so as to force the enemy to ground themselves. ''Northumberland'' then opened a steady fire at point-blank range until the ships were abandoned and burning.<ref name="marshall"/>
===War of 1812=== In December 1812 Hotham was appointed Captain of the Fleet to Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren on the North American Station.<ref name="marshall"/> On 4 December 1813, he was promoted to rear-admiral,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=16821 |date=4 December 1813 |page=2432 |nolink=yes }}</ref> and nominated a Colonel of Marines.<ref name="marshall"/> From 4 June 1814 he served under Vice-Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane.<ref name="marshall"/> On 17 December 1814, he submitted to the Admiralty a list of 82 American vessels captured, burnt, and destroyed by his squadron between 6 August and 9 October 1814.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=16966 |date=17 December 1814 |page=2467 |nolink=yes }}</ref> This does not include the frigate USS ''President'', captured by four ships of his squadron on 15 January 1815.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=16985 |date=18 February 1815 |page=281 |nolink=yes }}</ref>
Hotham was made a Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath on 2 January 1815, having his investiture on 12 April.<ref name="KtsoEng">{{Cite book |first1=William Arthur |last1=Shaw |author-link1=William Arthur Shaw |first2=George Dames |last2=Burtchaell |title=The Knights of England : A Complete Record from the Earliest Time to the Present Day of the Knights of all the Orders of Chivalry in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and of Knights Bachelors Vol I. |publisher=Sherratt & Hughes |location=London |year=1906 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/knightsofengland01shawuoft/page/221 221]& 332 |url=https://archive.org/details/knightsofengland01shawuoft |access-date=21 October 2013}}</ref>
===The Hundred Days=== On the renewal of the war in Europe, following Napoleon's return from Elba in March 1815, Hotham commanded a division of the Channel Fleet,<ref name="marshall"/> flying his flag in {{HMS|Superb|1798|2}}. In July 1815 Hotham was stationed in Quiberon Bay, from where he sent Captain Frederick Maitland in {{HMS|Bellerophon|1786|2}} to blockade the port of Rochefort. Reinforced by {{HMS|Myrmidon|1813|2}} and {{HMS|Slaney|1813|2}}, Maitland prevented Napoleon from fleeing to the United States, and took him to England, from where he was sent to his final exile in Saint Helena.<ref>{{Cite book |first=Frederick Lewis |last=Maitland |author-link=Frederick Lewis Maitland (Royal Navy officer) |title=The Surrender of Napoleon: Being the Narrative of the Surrender of Buonaparte, and of his residence on board H.M.S. Bellerophon, with a detail of the principal events that occurred in that ship between the 24th of May and the 8th of August 1815 |url= http://www.gutenberg.org/files/28934/28934-h/28934-h.htm |publisher=William Blackwood & Sons |location=Edinburgh & London |year=1904 |access-date=21 October 2013}}</ref>
===Post-war career=== On 25 March 1818 Hotham was appointed a member of the Board of Admiralty,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=17344 |date=28 March 1818 |page=558 |nolink=yes }}</ref> his position being renewed in March 1819<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=17459 |date=13 March 1819 |page=463 |nolink=yes }}</ref> and February 1822,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=17788 |date=5 February 1822 |page=218 |nolink=yes }}</ref> serving until March 1822.<ref name="marshall"/> On 28 May 1825 he was promoted to vice-admiral,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=18141 |date=28 May 1825 |page=932 |nolink=yes }}</ref> and returned to serve on the Board of Admiralty in September 1828,<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=18506 |date=19 September 1828 |page=1733 |nolink=yes }}</ref> renewed in June 1829<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=18588 |date=26 June 1829 |page=1192 |nolink=yes }}</ref> and July 1830,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=18711 |date=27 July 1830 |page=1581 |nolink=yes }}</ref> until November 1830. He was appointed Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean on 30 March 1831,<ref>{{cite book |last=Clowes |first=William Laird |author-link=William Laird Clowes |title=The Royal Navy: A History From the Earliest Times to the Present |url=https://archive.org/details/royalnavy06clow |access-date=21 October 2013 |volume=VI |year=1901 |publisher=Sampson Low, Marston & Company |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/royalnavy06clow/page/224 224] }}</ref> and on 4 July 1831 was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George.<ref name="KtsoEng"/>
One of Hotham's more notable acts as Commander-in-Chief was claiming a new territory for Britain. In July 1831 Commander Charles Henry Swinburne of {{HMS|Rapid|1829|2}} reported a volcanic eruption and a column of vapour rising from the sea, some 26 miles off Sciacca, Sicily. Within a month it had grown into a roughly circular island of black volcanic sand about {{Convert|3|mi}} in circumference, and {{Convert|74|ft}} above sea level at its highest point. Hotham, in his flagship {{HMS|St Vincent|1815|2}}, sailed to the new island and on 1 August sent his flag-captain Humphrey Fleming Senhouse ashore with a landing party to raise the Union Flag, and claim the island for Britain under the name "Graham Island", after the First Lord of the Admiralty, Sir James Graham. Later the Sicilians also landed, hoisted a flag, and claimed the island under the name "Ferdinandea", after King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies. The French made a claim to the island under the name "Julia", as did the Spanish. Diplomatic arguments continued until December 1831, by which time the island had been washed away leaving only a seamount {{Convert|26|ft}} below the waves.<ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/1414903/Hello-Foreign-Office-I-am-on-a-boat-off-Sicily-about-to-claim-Graham-Island-for-Britain.html |title=Hello, Foreign Office? I am on a boat off Sicily about to claim Graham Island for Britain |first=Adam |last=Lusher |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=1 December 2002 |location=London |issn=0307-1235 |oclc=49632006 |access-date=21 October 2013}}</ref>
Hotham died suddenly of an intracranial hemorrhage in Valletta, Malta, on 19 April 1833, and was buried at Msida Bastion Cemetery in Floriana on 24 April.<ref name="Msida"/>
==Personal life== On 6 July 1816 Hotham married Lady Frances Anne Juliana Rous, the only child of John Rous, 1st Earl of Stradbroke, and his first wife Frances Juliana Warter-Wilson. They had three sons:<ref>{{Cite book |editor-first=Charles |editor-last=Mosley |title=Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage |edition=107th |volume=2 |page=1976 |location=Wilmington, Delaware |publisher=Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd. |year=2003 }}</ref> * Reverend Henry John Hotham (1822–1885), Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge * Reverend Frederick Harry Hotham (1824–1887), Rector of Rushbury, Shrewsbury * Captain Beaumont Williams Hotham (1825–1915), HM Consul at Calais 1859–1882
==See also== * Baron Hotham * South Dalton
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{cite web |url= https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=050-ddho&cid=0#0 |title=Papers of the Hotham Family of Scorborough and South Dalton |work=The National Archives }}
{{s-start}} {{s-mil}} {{succession box|title=Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet|before=Sir Pulteney Malcolm|after=Sir Pulteney Malcolm|years=1831–1833}} {{end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hotham, Henry}} Category:1777 births Category:1833 deaths Category:Royal Navy personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars Category:Royal Navy personnel of the Napoleonic Wars Category:Lords of the Admiralty Category:Royal Navy vice admirals Category:Younger sons of barons Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Henry Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George