Marriott Arbuthnot

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Admiral Marriott Arbuthnot RN (1711 – 31 January 1794) was a British admiral, who commanded the Royal Navy's North American station during the American War for Independence.

A native of Weymouth, England, Arbuthnot was the son of Robert Arbuthnot and Sarah, née Bury. The father was the son of the Rev. Robert Arbuthnot, minister of Chrichton & Cranston. Marriott Arbuthnot entered the Royal Navy in the late 1720s, became a lieutenant in 1739, commander in 1746 and post captain in 1747. In 1759, during the Seven Years' War, he commanded The Portland, one of the ships employed under Commodore Robert Duff in the blockade of Quiberon Bay, and was present at the total defeat of the French on 20 November.

From 1775 to 1778, he was naval commissioner resident at Halifax, Nova Scotia. He was Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, 1776-78. He was replaced in this role by Richard Hughes. We believe it was about then that an armed schooner was named Arbuthnot after him. In 1779, he was made vice admiral, and commander-in-chief on the American station. Soon after arriving at his destination, he was blockaded in New York City harbor by the French fleet under Count d'Estaing.

In December 1779, Arbuthnot conveyed the troops of Sir Henry Clinton to Charleston, South Carolina, and cooperated with him in laying siege to that city. In 1781, he fought the French Newport squadron, in the Battle of Cape Henry, before returning to England.

He advanced by seniority to become, in February 1793, Admiral of the Blue. He died in London the following year, leaving two sons, John and Charles.

That he was ignorant of the discipline of his profession was proved by his altercation with Sir George Rodney; that he was destitute of even a rudimentary knowledge of naval tactics was shown by his absurd conduct of the Battle of Cape Henry; and, for the rest, he appears in contemporary stories (cf. Morning Chronicle, 18 May 1781) as a coarse, blustering, foul-mouthed bully, and, in history, as a sample of the extremity to which the maladministration of Lord Sandwich had reduced the British Navy.

Admiral Arbuthnot is thought to have been related to Dr. John Arbuthnot, the satirist and mathematician.