# Royal Naval Biography/Laforey, Francis

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SIR FRANCIS LAFOREY, Baronet; Vice-Admiral of the White; and Knight Commander of the most honorable Military Order of the Bath.
The immediate ancestor of this officer was Lieutenant-Colonel John Laforey, Governor of Pendennis Castle, only son and heir of Louis Laforey, the descendant from a family of that name in Poictou, and brother to the Marquis de la Forest, who came over with King William, at the revolution.
Governor Laforey died in 1753, and left two sons, the eldest of whom, John, created a Baronet Nov. 3, 1789, married Eleanor, only surviving daughter of Francis Farley, Colonel of the corps of artillery; a member of the council; and one of the judges in the island of Antigua; by whom he had only one son, the subject of this memoir.
Our officer was born at Virginia, Dec. 31, 1767, and in 1791, we find him commanding the Fairy sloop, at the Leeward Islands, where he continued under the orders of his father until the spring of 1793, when he was sent home with an account of the capture of Tobago, an island which had been ceded to the French government, at the preceding peace.
​On the 5th June, four days after his arrival, he was promoted to the rank of Post-Captain, and soon after appointed to the Carysfort of 32 guns and 197 men, in which ship, on the 29th May, 1794, he fell in with, and after a well fought action of an hour and a quarter, captured the Castor French frigate (formerly British) of 36 guns and 200 men, 16 of whom were killed, and 9 wounded. The Carysfort had only 1 man slain, and 6 wounded.
Upon the arrival in port of Captain Laforey, the principal officers and commissioners of the navy put in a claim for the prize to be restored to the service, on payment of the customary salvage. To this claim, an opposition was made on the part of the commander, officers, and crew of the Carysfort. The French Captain, in answer to the 4th interrogatory, stated, that he had been appointed to the command of the Castor by the French Admiral, commander of a division of the naval army of the French republic, by whose orders and commission he took possession of her at sea, as of a ship of war in the service of the republic; the said Admiral having been invested with the power and authority to condemn prizes, and to arm, fit out, and equip such ships as he might take, and think calculated for the purpose as ships of war in the service of the French republic, without first sending them to France to pass through any formal process; and that the said frigate, the Castor, had been so armed, equipped, and fitted out accordingly.
The question therefore was, whether, under the circumstances of the case, the recaptors should have the whole of the prize, or only proportional salvage?
Sir James Marriot, judge of the High Court of Admiralty, in a speech of some length, in which he made several observations on the unequal distribution of prize-money in like cases between his Majesty’s ships of war, and privateers, wherein the latter are entitled to a sixth, as salvage for re-captures, while the former have only oneeighth; at the same time instanced, that in former wars, ships belonging to his Majesty, re-taken by his Majesty’s ships, were entitled to only a salvage of one-eighth. But as there is a general sweeping clause in the latter part of the section in the present prize-act, which says, “That if any ship or vessel re-taken, ​shall appear to have been, after the taking of his Majesty’s enemies, by them set forth as a ship of war, the said ship or vessel shall not be restored to the former owners or proprietors, but shall in all cases, whether re-taken by his Majesty’s ships, or by any privateer, be adjudged a lawful prize for the benefit of the captors.”
Sir James Marriot therefore pronounced that the whole value of his Majesty’s ship the Castor, re-captured under the circumstances in question, should be adjudged to be lawful prize to the captors.
Captain Laforey was afterwards appointed to l’Aimable, of 32 guns; and in the summer of 1795, conveyed his father to Antigua, he having been re-appointed to the chief command on the Leeward Island station. Early in the following year, our officer removed from the Beaulieu, which frigate he had commanded but a short time, into the Scipio, of 64 guns, and in that ship assisted at the capture of the Dutch settlements of Demerara, Essiquibo, and Berbice, by the squadron under the orders of Commodore Parr, in conjunction with a body of troops, commanded by Major-General Whyte. In the harbour of Berbice were taken, the Thetis, of 24 guns, a cutter of 12 guns, and several merchant vessels, richly laden.
On the 21st April, the day that Demerara surrendered, Rear-Admiral Christian arrived in the West Indies, and relieved Sir John Laforey, who sailed for England, in the Majestic, two days after. Unfortunately, he fell a victim to the yellow fever, on the 1 4th June, two days before the ship made the land. His remains were publicly interred at Portsmouth, on the 21st of the same month.
In the following year, Captain Laforey, who had succeeded to the Baronetcy on the demise of his father, was appointed to the Hydra frigate, stationed on the coast of France.
On the 1st May, 1798, being on a cruize off Havre, in company with the Vesuvius bomb, and Trial cutter, Sir Francis gave chace to a French frigate, a corvette, and cutter. The former endeavoured to effect her escape into Havre; but being hard pressed by the Hydra, and after engaging her for three quarters of an hour, ran ashore, and was destroyed by the British boats the following morning. She proved to be la Confiante, of 36 guns; and by a role d’equipage found on ​board, manned with 300 men, several of whom were found killed upon her decks; the rest of the crew escaped on shore. The corvette la Vesuve, of 20 guns, escaped; but the cutter was driven on shore and destroyed. This service was effected without any loss on hoard the English ships.
In 1799 and 1800, the Hydra was employed at the Leeward Islands. On his return from thence, Sir Francis removed into the Powerful of 74 guns, and proceeded to the Baltic to reinforce the fleet in that sea. He afterwards accompanied Sir Charles M. Pole to Cadiz Bay, where he continued until the termination of hostilities. The Powerful subsequently formed part of the squadron of observation sent from Gibraltar to Jamaica, under Captain (now Sir Henry) Darby.
Some time after the renewal of the war, our officer obtained the command of the Spartiate, another 74-gun ship, and again visited the West Indies, from whence he returned with Lord Nelson in pursuit of the combined fleets of France and Spain, and was thus afforded the happy opportunity of participating in the glories of the never-to-be-forgotten 21st Oct. 1805, on which day that great Commander expired in the arms of victory. The loss sustained by the Spartiate, in the battle of Trafalgar, was 3 killed and 20 wounded. Sir Francis Laforey afterwards assisted at the funeral of his heroic chief, and in the procession by water from Greenwich carried the standard in the first barge.
We next find the subject of this sketch employed in the Spartiate, guarding the coast of Sicily; on which service he continued until his advancement to the rank of Rear-Admiral, July 31, 1810. He was then nominated Commander-in-Chief at the Leeward Islands, and proceeded thither in the Dragon of 74 guns. Sir Francis remained on that station until the commencement of 1814. He was created a K.C.B. Jan. 2, 1815; and became a Vice-Admiral, Aug. 12, 1819.
Country seat.– Whitby, co. Devon.
Town residence.– 62, George-street, Portman-square.
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