John Bentinck - Naval Career

Naval Career

He entered the Royal Navy at an early age. In August 1752, he was serving as a volunteer on board the Centurion, in which vessel he visited Lisbon, but returned in the same year to Leyden, where he remained for some time. In 1753, he was appointed midshipman to the Penzance, a fifth-rate of 44 guns, commanded by Captain Bonfoy (or Bonnefoy), and joined his ship at Plymouth in June of that year to make a voyage in the following July to Newfoundland.

In 1758, Bentinck was present at an engagement in which the British captured the French ship Raisonnable. In the same month, he was appointed to the command of the sloop Fly, and in that vessel took part later in the expedition under Lord Anson to cover the landing of the Duke of Marlborough at St Malo during the Raid on St Malo. He was then for some time stationed with his sloop off Emden, at the time of the capture of Emden, and while there he became involved in an unfortunate misunderstanding, in the course of which he took the extreme step of placing a Captain Angell, his superior officer, under arrest. The affair, however, was cleared up, the accusations against Captain Angell which had prompted his arrest were fully withdrawn, and on 17 October 1758, Bentinck was promoted to be captain of the frigate Dover. In January 1759, being then still on board the Fly, he had to aid in the transport of troops to England, and in March of that year, took up his new command. He did not remain long on the Dover, but was soon removed into the frigate Niger. In this vessel he was employed in 1760 as a cruiser, and distinguished himself highly in an engagement with a French ship of war of very superior weight and armament—the Diadem, of 74 guns. About a week after this action, in returning from Plymouth, where he had gone to repair damages, he fell in with and captured the Jason, a French privateer carrying 8 guns and 52 men. In the following November, he captured off Morlaix the French corvette Epreuve, carrying 14 guns and 136 men. He remained in the Niger till the end of the war in 1762.

Quitting the Niger on the conclusion of peace, he remained without a commission till 1766. In that year, he was commissioned to the Dragon, of 74 guns, at Portsmouth, and retained that command for three years. In 1770, he was appointed successor to Captain Robert Hughes in command of the Centaur, 74 guns, a guardship at Portsmouth, and held this, his last command, for three years. He died two years later on 23 September 1775.