Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 04.djvu/401

  of its authorship, is of singular interest and value.

Within a few days of the battle Berry was sent off in the Leander with the admiral's despatches. On 18 Aug. the little 50-gun ship was met by the Généreux, 74 guns, and captured after a stout defence, in the course of which Berry received a severe wound in the arm. He was taken, with the ship, to Corfu, and did not reach England till the beginning of December. The news of which he was the bearer had been already received in duplicate, but Berry was welcomed with the utmost enthusiasm, was blighted on 12 Dec., and presented with the freedom of the city. Early in the spring of 1799 he was appointed to the Foudroyant, in which he arrived at Palermo on 6 June. On the 8th Nelson hoisted his flag on board, but afterwards, staying at Palermo, sent the Foudroyant to strengthen the blockade of Malta. Berry had thus the gratification of assisting in the capture of his former captor, the Généreux, 18 Feb., and of the Guillaume Tell, 31 March, the last of the French ships which had been in the battle of the Nile [see ]. In the following June the Foudroyant carried the queen of Naples from Palermo to Leghorn, on which occasion her majesty presented Berry with a gold box set with diamonds and a diamond ring. A few months later Berry quitted the ship and returned to England. In the summer of 1806 he was appointed to the Agamemnon, and joined the fleet off Cadiz only just in time to share in the glories of Trafalgar; he had, however, no opportunity of special distinction in it, nor yet, the following year, 6 Feb., in the action off St. Domingo. The Agamemnon was put out of commission toward the end of 1806, and Berry was made a baronet. He is said to have been the only officer in the navy, of his time, except Collingwood, who had three medals, having commanded a ship in three general actions, namely, the Nile, Trafalgar, and St. Domingo. If to these we add St. Vincent and the First of June, and the five actions in the East Indies between Hughes and Suffren, together with the loss of the Leander and the capture of the Généreux and the Guillaume Tell, it will be seen that the record of his war services is in the highest degree exceptional. In 1811 he commanded the Sceptre, and in September 1812 changed into the Barfleur, which he took to the Mediterranean. In December 1813 till the peace he commanded one of the royal yachts, and on 2 Jan. 1815 was made a K.C.B. On 19 July 1821 he attained the rank of rear-admiral, but never hoisted his flag. His health was much broken, and for several years before his death, on 13 Feb. 1831, he had been quite incapable of any active duties. He left no children, and the baronetcy became extinct. His portrait by Copley is in the Painted Hall at Greenwich, to which it was presented by his widow in 1835; another and perhaps more pleasing portrait, drawn and engraved by Orme, is given in the 'Naval Chronicle.'

 BERRY, JAMES (fl. 1655), one of Cromwell's major-generals, was about 1642 a clerk in some iron-works in Shropshire. Baxter speaks of him as 'my old bosom friend that had lived in my house and been dearest to me' ( Autobiography, pp. 57-97). Berry took service under Cromwell, and instigated the other officers of his troop to invite Baxter to become their chaplain. He was one of Cromwell's favourites. Acting as his captain-lieutenant, he slew Charles Cavendish at the battle of Gainsborough (28 July 1643. Cromwell, Appendix, v). In the course of the disputes between the army and parliament in 1647 Berry was active for the army, and was chosen president of the council of adjutators. He was selected by Cromwell to carry the despatch narrating the victory of Preston, and was rewarded by the house with 200l. (Journals of the House of Commons, 23 Aug. 1648). Baxter speaks mournfully of the change which under Cromwell's influence came over Berry's religious views. He became, he says, filled with spiritual pride, and was led away by 'the new light' to look down on puritans of the old type. Still he admits that Berry 'lived as honestly as could be expected in one that taketh error for truth and evil to be good' (p. 57). In the spring of 1655 Berry was employed in the suppression of an attempted rising in Nottinghamshire, and in the winter of the same year was appointed major-general of Hereford, Shropshire, and Wales (see Letters in  State Papers, vols, iii., iv., v.) Cromwell nominated him a member of his House of Lords, and it is said that, unlike most of the army, he was in favour of the Protector's acceptance of the crown. On the death of Cromwell he took an active part in the councils of the party which overthrew Richard. This he later repented, and meeting Mr. Howe after the Restoration, 'he very freely told him, with tears running down his cheeks, that if Richard had but at that time hanged up him and nine or ten more, the nation might have been happy' 