{{Short description|Royal Navy officer (c. 1710–1765)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2021}} {{Infobox military person | honorific_prefix = Rear-Admiral | name = Robert Swanton | birth_date = {{circa}} 1710 | death_date = 11 July 1765 (aged {{circa}} 55) | image = | caption = | birth_place = | death_place = | allegiance = Great Britain | service_years = 1724-1764 | rank = Rear-Admiral | branch = Royal Navy | commands = HMS ''Mary Galley''<br>HMS ''Hampton Court''<br>HMS ''Vanguard''<br>Leeward Islands Station | battles = {{Tree list}} *Seven Years' War **Siege of Louisbourg **Battle of Pointe-aux-Trembles {{tree list/end}} | children = 1 daughter }} Rear-Admiral '''Robert Swanton''' ({{c.|}}1710 – 11 July 1765) was a Royal Navy officer who became commander-in-chief of the Leeward Islands Station.
==Naval career== Swanton joined the Royal Navy on 8 September 1724 as a cadet.<ref name=decks>{{cite web|url=https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_crewman&id=13827|title=Robert Swanton (d.1765)|publisher=Three Decks|access-date=30 July 2022}}</ref>
He was given an operational post as lieutenant in January 1734.<ref name=dcb>{{cite web|title=Dictionary of Canadian Biography SWANTON, ROBERT, naval officer|url=http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/swanton_robert_3E.html|website=biographi.ca|publisher=University of Toronto, 2016|accessdate=17 November 2016}}</ref> In May 1735, he was serving on HMS Rippon moving to HMS Oxford in April 1737. In February 1738, he moved to HMS Flamborough on which he was part of the attack on St Augustine in 1740.<ref name=decks/>
Promoted to captain in 1743, he took command of the fifth-rate {{HMS|Mary Galley|1744|6}} in August 1744, the third-rate HMS ''Hampton Court'' in 1757 and the third-rate HMS ''Vanguard'' later that year.<ref name=decks/> In HMS ''Vanguard'', he saw action at the Siege of Louisbourg in 1758 and at the Battle of Pointe-aux-Trembles in 1760 during the French and Indian War.<ref name=dcb/> He became commander-in-chief of the Leeward Islands Station in 1763.<ref name=haydn>{{cite book|last1=Haydn|first1=Joseph|title=The Book of Dignities: Containing Lists of the Official Personages of the British Empire ... from the Earliest Periods to the Present Time ... Together with the Sovereigns and Rulers of Europe, from the Foundation of Their Respective States; the Peerage of England and Great Britain Original 1851 Digitized by the University of Michigan|date=13 June 2008|publisher=Longmans, Brown, Green, and Longmans|page=279|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aURnAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Admiral+William+O%27Bryen+Drury%22&pg=PA272|language=en}}</ref>
He died in Westminster on 11 July 1765.<ref name=decks/>
==Family==
His wife Emma died in 1822. They had a daughter, Frances (d. 1841).<ref name=decks/>
He was brother-in-law to Admiral John Carter Allen.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://morethannelson.com/officer/john-carter-allen/|title=John Cater Allen|publisher=More than Nelson|access-date=29 July 2022}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{S-start}} {{s-mil}} {{s-bef | before=Sir William Burnaby}} {{s-ttl | title=Commander-in-Chief, Leeward Islands Station | years=1763–1764}} {{s-aft | after=Richard Tyrell}} {{s-end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swanton, Robert}} Category:Royal Navy rear admirals Category:18th-century births Category:1765 deaths Category:Royal Navy personnel of the Seven Years' War