Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 26.djvu/175

Rh HERBERT, ANNE, (1590–1676). [See Clifford, Anne (DNB00).]  HERBERT, ARTHUR, (1647–1716), admiral of the fleet, second son of Sir Edward Herbert (1591?-1657) [q. v.], and elder brother of Sir Edward Herbert, titular Lord Portland (d. 1698) [q. v.], entered the navy in 1663, and was in 1666 appointed lieutenant of the Defiance, with Captain (afterwards Sir John) Kempthorne [q. v.], in which he was present in the action against the Dutch on 25 July. On 8 Nov. following he was promoted to the command of the Pembroke of 32 guns, and, on a cruise to Gibraltar, fought in her a sharp but undecided action with a Dutch frigate. Coming home with the squadron under Kempthorne, the Pembroke, when off Portland, fell on board the Fairfax, and sank almost immediately. No blame seems to have been attached to Herbert, who was at once appointed to the Constant Warwick, from which in 1669 he was moved into the Dragon, one of the squadron sent into the Mediterranean, under Sir Thomas Allin [q.v.], to repress the Algerine corsairs. Towards the end of 1670 Allin returned to England, leaving the command with Sir Edward Spragge [q. v.], under whom Herbert, in the Dragon, took part in the destruction of the Algerine squadron in Bugia Bay on 8 May 1671. Peace having been concluded, the squadron came home in the spring of 1672, and Herbert was appointed to the Dreadnought, which he commanded in the battle of Solebay (28 May). He was immediately afterwards moved into the Cambridge, in the room of Sir Frescheville Holles [q. v.], slain in the fight, and in her took part in the action of 28 May 1673, when he was severely wounded, and the ship so damaged that she, had to be sent into the river. In the following year, still in the Cambridge, he went out to the Mediterranean with Sir John Narbrough [q. v.],but came home in the summer of 1675.

In 1678 he commissioned the Rupert, in which he again went to the Mediterranean, with local rank of vice-admiral under Narbrough. He had scarcely arrived on the station when, in company with Sir Roger Strickland in the Mary, he captured a large Algerine ship of 40 guns, after an obstinate action, the stress of which fell exclusively on the Rupert. On the Mary coming up the Algerine surrendered, having lost, it was said, about two hundred men. The Rupert had nineteen killed and thirty or forty wounded; Herbert lost one of his eyes by the accidental explosion of some cartridges. In May 1679 Narbrough returned to England, leaving the command with Herbert, who in July 1680 received a commission as admiral and commander-in-chief within the Straits. In December 1679 he had moved into the Bristol, and in the following spring, with the squadron under his orders, took an active part in the defence of Tangier, then besieged by the Moors. He was afterwards engaged in one of the continually recurring wars with Algiers, and brought it to a successful end in April 1682, when he concluded a treaty which proved somewhat more stable than any before it. He wrote home that these frequent wars were due in great part to the misbehaviour of the consuls, and suggested that it would be the truest economy to pay a liberal salary, perhaps 300l. or 400l. a year, 'to a man of known integrity, capacity, and courage' (, p. 137). After concluding the treaty he moved into the Tiger, and seems to have spent the greater part of the next year at Tangier, where he had a house on shore (, Life, Journal, and Correspondence, i. 401). On Lord Dartmouth's coming out in the summer of 1683, with orders for the dismantling and evacuation of the place, Herbert returned to England. In the following spring(3 Feb.1683-4) he was nominated rear-admiral of England; he was also appointed master of the robes, and in April 1685 was returned to parliament as member for Dover. Two years later (March 1686-7), on his refusal to vote for the repeal of the Test Act, as contrary to his honour and conscience, he was summarily dismissed from all his employments, of the value, it is said, of 4,000l. a year.

The king, who had counted on his poverty and on the proved loyalty of his family, was much enraged, and caused his accounts as master of the robes to be severely scrutinised. It was more than a year before he was able to get them passed, and in July 1688 he went over to Holland and placed his services at the disposal of the Prince of Orange, who presently appointed him to the command of the fleet which was to convoy his expedition, hoping that Englishmen would be unwilling to fight against a countryman of their own. The English fleet, however, had been already won over; and when the Dutch under Herbert put to sea, Lord Dartmouth was unable to follow till it was too late, and even then with a private understanding among the several captains that if he attacked the Dutch they were to 'leave him and range themselves on the other side' (Memoirs relating to the Lord Torrington, Camden Society, pp. 26-9; cf. ). The precautions taken,