Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 04.djvu/414

 "the finest man-of-war upon her decks that ever I saw" wrote Nelson in congratulating him (ib. iii. 2). For the next three years she was employed in the North Sea, under Lord Duncan and Vice-admirals Mitchell and Dickson, and in the beginning of 1801 was sent into the Baltic with Sir Hyde Parker. It was Bertie's good fortune to be in the division detached under Lord Nelson against Copenhagen, and to have am important share in that hard-fought battle, 2 April. Early on the morning after the action Lord Nelson went on board the Ardent to thank her commander, officers, and men for their conduct and exertions, and on 9 April Sir Hyde Parker appointed Bertie to the Bellona, 74 guns, in room of Sir Thomas B. Thompson, who had lost a leg in the battle. The Bellona remained in the Baltic with Nelson till the July following, when she was sent to England and thence to join the blockade of Cadiz. On the peace she was sent to the West Indies, and was eventually paid off in June 1802. On the renewal of the war Bertie was appointed to the Courageux, but was compelled by family affairs to give up the command after a few months. In December 1805 he was appointed to the St. George, in the Channel, and continued in her until his promotion to flag rank, 28 April 1808. He was shortly after sent to the Baltic, and was actively engaged in that very arduous service till 10 Feb. 1810, when he was obliged by ill-health to strike his flag and go on shore, nor was he able again to accept employment before the peace. In June 1813 he was knighted, and received also the royal permission to accept and wear the insignia of the Swedish order of the Sword. He became vice-admiral on 4 Dec. 1813, and died on 13 June 1825.

 BERTIE, VERE (d. 1680), judge, was of a loyalist family, being fourth son to the lord chamberlain Montagu, second earl of Lindsey, by his first wife Martha, daughter of Sir William Cockayn of Rushton in Northamptonshire, and widow of John Ramsey, earl of Holderness. To this probably he owed his rapid professional advancement. He was entered at the Middle Temple 29 Jan. 1654–5, was called to the bar 10 June 1659, and became a master of the bench of his inn in January 1673–4. Previously to 1665 he obtained the degree of serjeant-at-law, and in that year, with his brother Charles, was made an honorary M.A. at Oxford on the occasion of the visit of the Earl of Manchester, secretary of the treasury and treasurer of the ordnance (, Fasti Oxon. ii. 285). On 4 June 1675 he was made a baron of the exchequer, and was transferred to the common pleas 15 June 1678. On the king's forming a new council of thirty, with Lord Shaftesbury as president of the ministry, he was discharged from his office 29 April 1679. With him were discharged also Sir William Wilde, and Sir Edward Thurland, and Sir Francis Bramston, barons of the exchequer. As Mr. Justice Bertie, along with these judges, had four days previously been among those who tried Nathaniel Reading in the court of king's bench at Westminster, who was indicted on the evidence of Bedloe for stifling king's evidence against the lords in the Tower, and as none of these judges concurred in the sentence of 1,000l. fine, one year's imprisonment, and one hour in the pillory, pronounced by the other judges, Sir F. North, lord chief justice of the common pleas, William Montagu, chief baron, and Sir R. Atkins, baron of the exchequer, Sir T. Jones, and Sir W. Dolben, probably the cause of his disgrace was want of political complaisance (State Trials, vii. 201, 24 April, 1679). He died unmarried 23 Feb. 1680–1, and was buried in the Temple Church. The contemporary law reports contain no report of any of his decisions.

 BERTIE, WILLOUGHBY, fourth (1740–1799), politician, the son of Willoughby Bertie, the third earl, by his wife Anna Maria, daughter of Sir John Collins, was born on 16 Jan. 1740, and succeeded to the earldom on his father's death in 1760. He was educated at Westminster School under Dr. William Markham, afterwards archbishop of York: in 1767 he was one of the stewards of the school anniversary. He proceeded to Magdalen College, Oxford, and was created M.A. on 20 Jan. 1761. He afterwards spent a few years in Geneva, where he adopted democratic principles. He seems to have made the acquaintance of Wilkes at an early date, and to have loyally supported him in his early struggles with the government (see Bertie's letter to Wilkes at Paris, 28 June, 1767; Addit. MSS. 30869, f. 133; 30875, ff. 1, 2). In 'The Speeches of John Wilkes,' published in 1777, the anonymous editor of the volumes, who is easily identified with Wilkes himself, describes Abingdon as 'one of the most steady and intrepid assertors of liberty in this age,' and the most delightful companion in