Francis Holburne - Naval Career

Naval Career

Francis entered the Navy in 1720 as a volunteer aboard HMS St Albans, passing his examinations in 1725. He began his career in 1727 with a promotion to lieutenant and was promoted to Captain in 1739.

Francis was appointed commodore and commander-in-chief at the Leeward Islands in 1748. In 1749, after the War of the Austrian Succession, he was sent to Barbados to help secure the execution of the treaty terms.

Admiral Holburne was still ambitious and keen to make plans for his future. He aroused some resentment amongst his peers with Admiral Lord Boscawen describing him in a private letter to his wife as being ‘Rich and contrived to insinuate himself into the good graces of Lord Anson’.

Francis had known Lord Morton as an intimate family friend and may well have owed his advancement in the Navy to Archibald Campbell, Duke of Argyll who "took him by the hand in his younger days and made him a Captain.

In 1757 as Vice Admiral of the Blue Holburne embarked on a command at Halifax, Nova Scotia to capture Louisbourg as part of the Louisbourg Expedition led by Lord Loudon. There were many delays, and fever had struck his fleet, causing much of it to remain in port. On the night of 24 September they were caught up in a violent storm which drove several of his ships onto the shore and dismasted most of the fleet under his command, causing further delays and difficulties requiring a major refit.

Shortly after eventually returning to England he was appointed to the post of Port Admiral at Portsmouth which largely discontinued his active service at sea. He held this post more or less continuously for the unusually long term of eight years.

He was appointed a member of the court-martial that was convened to try Admiral John Byng. The trial began in December 1756 and ran until March 1757. When the Tribunal was examined before the House of Lords, "all the court martial seemed terrified....except old Admiral Holbourne, who cursed and swore at the bar of the House, because Byng was not shot out of the way, without giving him the trouble of coming from Portsmouth".

In July 1761, some three years after the loss of HMS Invincible, the 70-gun HMS Dorsetshire ran aground on the Horse Sands. Her loss caused Holborne to issue an order to all naval shipping masters, "...to sound out the channels, which they should do several times by way of refreshing their memories, this being the second great ship they have run ashore lately." His orders did not have the effect he had intended as in October that year, just four months later, the 50-gun HMS Portland ran aground off Ryde.

In November 1764 Holburne ordered a secret investigation into an apparent plot to set fire to Portsmouth Dockyard.