NOTABLE MEN OF WALES.

ADMIRAL SIR THOMAS FOLEY.

In the present number I propose to attempt a sketch of the life and services of a distinguished naval officer, a native of Pembrokeshire, whose career was passed in the days when the British navy asserted and maintained the supremacy of its country over that of every other nation; and whose individual services contributed in no small degree to some of the most glorious successes achieved in that War of Titans carried on by Napoleon the Great against Europe in arms. I allude to Sir Thomas Foley, the friend of Nelson, leader of the British line at the battle of the Nile, and his Flag Captain at Copenhagen.

In those days the life of the British sailor and his junior officers was not, perhaps, one of unmixed pleasure. Excitement there certainly was, and prize money, but the discipline was severe; flogging reigned supreme; mutinies, doubtless brought on by extreme severity, were not uncommon. The captains were despots, and in many cases tyrants; whilst the crews, often supplied by the Press Gang, were not derived from the most cultivated branches of the lower classes, and often drew down by their conduct those punishments, which were dealt out to them with an unsparing hand. In these days we are advocates of self-respect, and therefore substitute penal servitude for the old methods.

The midshipmen of Rodney and Nelson were little more than children when they entered the service. Much of their time was passed in the darkness of the cockpit, and, doubtless, a fair share of bullying on the part of their bigger brethren was their lot. The junior lieutenants, unless they had good interest, remained lieutenants until their demise, though they may have done excellent service, and borne a conspicuous part in fighting their ships triumphantly through actions the description of which even now thrills the blood and excites the astonishment of a generation which knows not anything of a parallel nature. These were the days and the conditions when young Foley chose a sailor's life, with few other possessions than the mind of a gentleman the tenderness of a woman-the heart of a hero.

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The materials for this Biography are unfortunately very meagre. One would have wished to have laid before the public the early life of this gallant officer; for certainly, judging from his love of his profession, his modest appreciation of his own merits, his devotion to duty, and his brilliant services when the opportunity came, a fuller description of the days passed in the lower ranks of the profession he had chosen would have shown a bright example to the present generation; but the dry records of his services alone remain-brilliant enough though they are, as will be seen.

Sir Thomas Foley was born in 1757. He was the second of three sons of John Foley, Esq., of Ridgeway, near Narberth, Pembrokeshire. His elder brother, John Herbert Foley, succeeded to the Ridgeway estate, and his direct descendant now possesses it. The younger brother, Richard, was a Barrister. He died in 1803, and a letter of sympathy on that occasion from Lord Nelson to Sir T. Foley will be found in a later part of this sketch. His mother was the second daughter of John Herbert, Esq., of Court Henry, near Llandilo, Carmarthenshire. They married in the year 1753. The pedigree of the Foley family begins with John Foley and Ellen, his wife, of Ridgeway, in the parish of Llawhaden, in the county of Pembroke, in the year 1383, to whom the estate of Ridgeway was granted in that year by Bishop Hoton, of St. David's. The grant in question is now among the title deeds of the Ridgeway estate. In it the above named John Foley is styled Constabularius Castri Nostri de Llawhaden, et Magistri operum nostrum." The Castle, which has always given the Barony to the Bishop of St. David's, is now in ruins, though a considerable part was standing in the early years of the present century. It was an extensive fortress of great magnitude and strength, built of fine hewn stone and well fortified. It appears by family documents that the Castle was commanded by the above named John Foley, and was put in a perfect state of defence by the orders of Guido de Mona, the then Bishop of St. David's, in the year 1412, during Glendower's insurrection in the reign of Henry IV. When Henry VIII. diminished the possessions of the Church at the Reformation, the diocesan of St. David's at the time, Bishop Barlow, claimed the estate for the Church. The claim was tried in the Court of Star Chamber, before King Henry in person; and the estate was confirmed to the Foleys of Ridgeway for ever, subject to paying a nominal rent to the Church.

From the Ridgeway papers it appears that the male part of the family had chiefly been in the Royal Service either by sea or land, and that five of them were killed at Colby Moor, near the Ridgeway estate, in the year 1648, whilst fighting for the Crown during the civil war between King Charles I. and the Parlia

ment. An uncle of the subject of the present sketch, also Capt. Thomas Foley, was a post captain in the navy in 1754, and had been with Lord Anson in his voyage round the world.

Turning to Sir Thomas Foley's maternal ancestry, the pedigree of the Herberts of Court Henry commences with Sir William Herbert, of Rhagland, or Raglan Castle. He had two sons. From the elder, William Earl of Pembroke, descended William Earl of Huntingdon, and Charles Somerset, Earl of Worcester, the paternal ancestor of the present Duke of Beaufort. From the younger son, Sir Richard Herbert of Coldbrook, who married Margaret, sister of Sir Rhys ap Thomas, Knight of the Garter, were descended two sons-the eldest Sir William Herbert of Coldbrook, Knt., ancestor of the Herberts of Coldbrook; and the second being Sir Richard Herbert of Powys, Knt., the ancestor of the Herberts of Parke, and grandfather of the John Herbert of Court Henry, whose second daughter was the mother of the subject of our sketch.

Young Foley entered the navy as midshipman on board H.M.S. Otter in the year 1770, when only thirteen years of age. The Otter was employed on the Newfoundland and Labrador stations, but returned each winter to Spithead. In November, 1773, he was appointed to the Egmont, then guardship at Spithead, in which ship he remained till February, 1774. In this month he was appointed to the Antelope, the flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Clarke Gayton, Commander-in-Chief at Jamaica, where he remained until the latter part of 1775. In October of that year he was appointed to the Race Horse, which was employed cruising in the Windward Passage to protect the trade against American privateers till November, 1776, when he became acting lieutenant on board the Atalanta, on the coast of West Florida. During this appointment he sailed up the River Mississippi as high as New Orleans. In September, 1777, he was appointed to the Porpoise on the coast of Jamaica, but only remained in her till November in the same year, when he rejoined Admiral Gayton's flag-ship, the Antelope. From Admiral Gayton he received much kindness, and fifty years afterwards, when taking up his appointment as Commander-inChief at Portsmouth, he made Lieutenant Charles Gayton, a descendant of the admiral, his flag lieutenant, for he never forgot a friend. Lieutenant Gayton, an excellent and meritorious officer, died only a few years since, himself then, in his turn, an admiral.

In the Antelope he seems to have come home to Spithead in May, 1778, and on the 28th of that month he joined the America as lieutenant. The America formed part of the Channel fleet off Brest, and young Foley saw his first general action in her, in the engagement between that fleet, under the command of the Honourable Admiral Keppel, and the French

fleet under Comte d'Orvilliers, on 27th July, 1778. Mr. Foley continued in the America till October, 1779, when he was appointed to the Prince George, ninety-eight guns, RearAdmiral Digby's flag-ship, on the Channel station. On board this ship was Prince William Henry, afterwards King William IV., who had joined her as a midshipman on 15th June previously. The Prince George was attached to the Channel fleet under the orders of Sir Charles Hardy, and cruised in the Bay of Biscay until the latter end of the same year, when she accompanied Sir George Rodney to the relief of Gibraltar, the garrison of which place had long been subjected to the privations attendant on a close blockade. On the passage to that garrison on January 8th, 1780, the British force captured a Spanish sixty-four gun ship, five frigates, and several sail of transports. To Lieutenant Foley was given the charge of one of the prizes, the San Beuno, of twenty-eight guns, to take to England. He arrived at Plymouth, and was ordered round to the Thames. On this passage, on 12th April, off Beachy Head, he fell in with the Ranger, brig of war, and the Three Sisters, armed ship, with a convoy, which were being attacked by two French frigates. Lieutenant Foley instantly joined in the fight, and the result of their united efforts was that the enemy's ships, after a conflict of several hours' duration, sheered off, much damaged in their sails and rigging.

After delivering his prize to the agent, Lieutenant Foley rejoined the Prince George at Portsmouth, and was employed in the Channel fleet until the end of the year, when he was again sent to Gibraltar, then again besieged, and subsequently rejoined the Channel fleet until the month of June, 1780, when Admiral Digby was appointed Commander-in-Chief on the North American station. In November the Prince George was attached to the fleet under the orders of Sir Samuel (afterwards Lord) Hood, and sailed to the West Indies. She took part in the three actions fought by him with a superior French force under Comte de Grasse, for the protection of the Island of St. Kitt's. The Prince George also took a distinguished part in the actions of the 9th and 12th April, 1782, between the British force under the command of Sir George (afterwards Lord) Rodney, and the French fleet under Comte de Grasse. She had nine men killed, and twenty-four wounded. Lieutenant Foley was in a few months afterwards made a Commander into the Britannia, guardship at Sandy Hook, at the mouth of the New York River, from December, 1782, to March, 1783. He continued in her, cruising on the coast of North America and Canada, between New York and Quebec, until November, 1784; and in January, 1785, arrived at Spithead, where he remained until March. Commander Foley had the Race Horse from December, 1787, to September, 1790, cruising on the N.E. coast of England, and