Thomas Dumaresq
officer in the British Royal Navy (1729-1802)
Admiral Thomas Dumaresq (1729 – 18 July 1802) was an officer in the British Royal Navy that rose to the rank of Admiral. Dumaresq was notable for his role as Captain of HMS Repulse in the Battle of the Saintes during the American Revolutionary War.
Life
Thomas was born in 1729 to Jean Dumaresq and Ann Bokenham (niece of Captain William Bokenham), and was a member of the notable Dumaresq family of the Channel Islands.
He would obtain a commission as a lieutenant in 1755 and in 1763 he would obtain his first command, of the British Cutter, named the "Esther".
Thomas Dumaresq was promoted to Rear-Admiral in 1794, and a Vice-Admiral in 1795. On 1 January 1801, he was promoted to Admiral of the Blue.
Issue with Privateers
During the American Revolution an order was given to seize all ships and vessels of the Thirteen-Colonies. This led to an increase of privateering and illegal privateers used by foreign powers and other British Colonies alike to still trade with the rebellious colonies. Vice-Admiral James Young who was commander-in-chief in the Leeward Islands Station made the decision to treat illegal privateering as piracy and seize any vessels without the proper commission.
In 1777, Captain Thomas Dumaresq who commanded HMS Portland, the flag-ship of Vice-Admiral James Young was involved in an incident where the Portland seized the Hammond, a privateering ship from British Antigua.
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This entry incorporates text from “Thomas Dumaresq” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.