# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Hart, Henry

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​HART, Kt., K.C.H. (Rear-Admiral, 1846. f-p., 21; h-p., 30.)
Sir Henry Hart, born in 1781, is son of Rich. Hart, Esq., of Uckfield, co. Sussex, and belongs to an ancient and very respectable family, being a descendant of Sir Percival Hart, of Lullingstone Castle, co. Kent, and a distant relative of the present Sir Percival Hart Dyke, Bart., of the same place.
This officer entered the Navy, in March, 1796, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Indefatigable 46, Capt. Sir Edw. Pellew, and on 13 of the following Jan., being at the time in company with the Amazon 36, took part in a very gallant engagement of 10 hours, which ended in the loss of the French 74-gun ship Les Droits de l’Homme, whose opposition had had the effect of wounding 19 of the Indefatigable’s people. Being next transferred with Sir Edw. Pellew to the Impetueux 74, he had an opportunity of distinguishing himself during the blockade of Belleisle, besides attending the expedition of 1800 to Ferrol, where he commanded a flat-bottomed boat, and assisted at the cutting out from under the batteries in Vigo Bay of La Guépe, a vessel of 22 guns, desperately defended. On 2 April, 1802, having just completed his time, Mr. Hart was appointed by Lord Keith to a Lieutenancy in the Medusa 32, Capt. Sir John Gore – an act which the Admiralty confirmed on 12 of the next June. On becoming Senior of that frigate we find him making prize, in one of her boats, of a French privateer off Gibraltar; and afterwards contributing to the capture of three Spanish frigates laden with treasure, and the destruction of a fourth, near Cape St. Mary, 5 Oct. 1804; as also, in Nov. following, to the detention of the Matilda 36, a ship laden with a cargo of quicksilver worth 200,000l. He ultimately accompanied Lord Cornwallis, as Governor-General, to India, where, in July, 1805, he became Flag-Lieutenant, in the Culloden 74, to his old friend Sir Edw. Pellew; by whom, in the course of 1807, he was successively appointed Acting-Captain of the Terpsichore, Duncan, Caroline, and Fox frigates. While in the Caroline, Capt. Hart (independently of the cutting out from the coast of Java, in open day, of a Dutch sloop-of-war of 14 guns and 75 men) was instrumental to the annihilation at Griessee, 11 Dec. 1807, of the dockyard and stores, and of all the men-of-war remaining to Holland in the East Indies; being on that occasion intrusted with the duty of landing the troops and of commanding the seamen on shore. He subsequently, in the same frigate, partook of an engagement with the batteries and gun-boats at the entrance of Manilla Bay. Being superseded in the Fox in 1808, Capt. Hart, whose second promotal commission had been dated 12 Oct. 1807, was next appointed, in 1810, to the command of the Thracian 18, in which sloop he cruized off Cherbourg until posted 1 Aug. 1811. His subsequent appointments were – 10 Dec. 1813, to the Cyrus 20, in the Mediterranean – for some months in 1814, to the Revenge 74, bearing the flag of his former Captain, Sir John Gore – 27 Aug. 1818, to the Sapphire 26, in which vessel, prior to invaliding in Aug. 1820, we find him watching, with high credit to himself, the British interests at Porto Bello, at a time when that place was attacked by a force under Sir Gregor M‘Gregor in unison with the Mexican patriots, and next intrusted with a mission to the Governor-General of South America, who had been driven from Mexico to Carthagena – and, 30 Sept. 1831, to the Melville, 74, again as Flag-Captain to Sir J. Gore, then just appointed Commander-in-Chief in the East Indies. While on that station Capt. Hart was placed in temporary command of the Imogene, and specially deputed to conduct an important negotiation with the Imaum of Muscat; on the happy issue of which he went to Bombay with a ship of 74 guns, intended as a present from that potentate to William IV., who added her to the British Navy under the name of Imaum. The Melville returned to England with the Earl of Clare, and was paid off 22 July, 1835; a few months after which period, on 25 Jan. and 23 Feb. 1836, Capt. Hart, in acknowledgment of his services, was invested with the insignia of a K.C.H., and awarded the honour of Knighthood. He obtained the Captain’s Good-Service Pension 12 April, 1842; and on 1 Oct. 1846 he accepted the rank he now holds.
The Rear-Admiral was appointed, in 1845, a Commissioner of Greenwich Hospital. He married, in 1808, a daughter of Andrew Williams, Esq., of Southampton, sister of the present Lady Page Turner. Agents – Messrs. Halford and Co.