Roger curtis biography

Admiral Sir Roger Curtis, 1st Baronet, GCB (4 June 1746 – 14 November 1816) was a Royal Navy officer who enjoyed an extensive career which was punctuated by.
Admiral Sir Roger Curtis, 1st Baronet, GCB was a Royal Navy officer who enjoyed an extensive career which was punctuated by a number of highly controversial incidents.
CURTIS, Sir ROGER, naval officer; b.

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CURTIS, Sir ROGER, naval officer; b. 4 June 1746 in Downton, Wiltshire, England, only son of Roger Curtis, a prominent farmer, and Christabella Blachford; m. December 1778 Jane Sarah Brady, daughter and heiress of Matthew Brady of Gatcombe House (Gatcombe), England, and they had two sons and one daughter; d. 14 Nov. 1816 at Gatcombe House.

At the age of 16, Roger Curtis travelled to Portsmouth to join his first ship, the Royal Sovereign, on 22 June 1762. After voyages in this and other vessels, he spent three years on the Newfoundland station during the governorship of Hugh Palliser* as a midshipman in the frigate Gibraltar. He then served briefly in the Venus and the Albion under Captain Samuel Barrington, who became a lifelong friend.

On 28 Jan. 1771 Curtis was promoted lieutenant and posted to the sloop Otter. In her he spent the next three summers on the coast of Labrador and rapidly became familiar with the geography, fisheries, and peoples of this remote region. At the end of his second summer he

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Sir Roger Curtis

1746-1816. He was born on 4 June 1746 at Downton, Wiltshire, the only son of a wealthy tradesman and farmer, Roger Curtis, and of his wife Christabella Blachford.

In 1762 Curtis entered the Navy upon the Royal Sovereign 100, Captain Robert Hathorn, the flagship of Vice-Admiral Francis Holburne, and following the end of the Seven Years War he found a berth aboard the Assistance 50, Captain James Smith, sailing for the coast of West Africa. He then moved to the Medway guard-ship Augusta 64, Captain Matthew Whitwell, and thereafter spent three years aboard the frigate Gibraltar 20, Captains Richard Braithwaite, Lucius O’Brien and William Long, serving off Newfoundland and later in home waters. During 1769 he moved into the Venus 36, Captain Hon. Samuel Barrington, and transferred with that officer a year later to the home-based guardship Albion 74.

On 19 January 1771 Curtis was commissioned lieutenant and he returned to Newfoundland aboard the sloop Otter 14, Captain John Morris. Here, as well as gaining a thorough understanding of the Labrador coastline, its fi

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Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Curtis, Roger

CURTIS, Sir ROGER (1746–1816), admiral, was the son of Mr. Roger Curtis of Downton in Wiltshire, and presumably descended from that Roger Curtis who served with Sir John Lawson on board the Swiftsure, and was slain at Algiers in 1662 (Cal. of State Papers, Dom. 7 Feb. 1663). He entered the navy in 1762, on board the Royal Sovereign, with Vice-admiral Holburne; and after the peace served in the Assistance on the coast of Africa, in the Augusta guardship at Portsmouth, and for three years in the Gibraltar frigate in Newfoundland. In 1769 he joined the Venus with Captain Barrington, whom he followed to the Albion. He was made lieutenant in 1771, and was again sent to Newfoundland in the Otter sloop. There he had the good fortune to attract the notice of the governor, Captain (afterwards Lord) Shuldham, who, having attained his flag, was in 1775 appointed commander-in-chief on the North American station, took Curtis with him as a lieutenant of the flagship, and the following year promoted him to the command of the