Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 29.djvu/336

 Characters’ (ii. 350). He was short, thin, and in old age much bent. His dress was singular, and when walking he attracted notice by striking his stick loudly on the stones. Faulkner (Hist. of Chelsea) says he was a man of ‘careless and unsuspicious character,’ and J. T. Smith (Book for a Rainy Day, under date 1818), that he was an accomplished and entertaining companion. He was eccentric in his habits, and was believed by his friends to keep an oven in his house for the cremation of his body. At bedtime and on rising he exercised himself with his ‘broadsword,’ a long and ponderous instrument of wood, capped with lead; he then mounted his chaise-horse, composed of leather and inflated like a pair of bellows, and took ‘exactly one thousand gallops.’ Jennings married, first, about 1760, Juliana Atkinson, who died in 1761, and by whom he had a son, John Henry; secondly, a daughter of Roger Newell of Bobins Place, Kent (Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. ix. 65, 6th ser. viii. 8). In his later years he took the name of Noel (or Nowell) on receiving a legacy. His old friend Nollekens calls him ‘Nowell Jennings,’ but he appears to have been generally known as Jennings. 

JENNINGS, JOHN (1664–1743), admiral, born in 1664, fifteenth child of Philip Jennings of Duddleston Hall, Shropshire (, vol. i. pt. ii. p. 196), was appointed lieutenant of the Pearl on 12 May 1687, of the St. David on 27 Aug. 1688, and of the Swallow, by Lord Dartmouth, on 22 Dec. 1688. On 16 Nov. 1689 he was promoted to the command of the St. Paul fireship, and in 1690 was captain of the Experiment frigate, cruising with some success on the coast of Ireland. In 1693 he was captain of the Victory, with the flag of Sir John Ashby [q. v.] on board, and on Ashby's death in July he was appointed to the Mary, one of the fleet which went with Russell to the Mediterranean [see ]. He continued in her till 1696, when he was moved into the Chichester of 80 guns, and again, in January 1696–7, into the Plymouth, in which he was employed actively cruising in the Channel till the peace. During 1698, still in the Plymouth, he was commander-in-chief in the Medway, and in May 1699 he was turned over to the Orford. In February 1700–1 he was appointed to the Kent of 70 guns, which in 1702 was one of the fleet under Sir George Rooke [q. v.] at Cadiz, and afterwards at Vigo was the Torbay's second [see ]. In March 1702–1703 Jennings was appointed to the St. George, in which he accompanied Sir Clowdisley Shovell [q. v.] to the Mediterranean, and again in 1704 with Rooke, at the capture of Gibraltar and the battle of Malaga, when he was one of the seconds of the commander-in-chief. On his return to England he was knighted, 9 Oct. 1704, and on 20 Jan. 1704–1705 he was advanced to be rear-admiral of the blue. In May he hoisted his flag on board the Royal Anne, as commander in the third post of the fleet going out to the Mediterranean. The attitude of the enemy's force in Brest led to a change in this arrangement, and Jennings, shifting his flag to the Mary, remained cruising in the Soundings and off Ushant, under the orders of Sir George Byng [q. v.] In the following year he was sent to the Mediterranean, with Byng, to reinforce Sir John Leake [q. v.], and took part in the relief of Barcelona and the operations on the coast of Spain. On the surrender of Cartagena, Jennings, with a small squadron, was left to maintain peace and order, and six weeks later rejoined Leake at Alicant. On the reduction of that place he was ordered, with nine ships of the line and two frigates, to refit at Lisbon and proceed to the West Indies, in the hope of inducing the Spanish settlements to declare in favour of King Charles. The governor of Cartagena, however, refused to accede to his proposals, and Jennings returned to England, arriving at Spithead on 22 April 1707. On 8 Jan. 1707–1708 he was promoted to be vice-admiral of the red, and in March, on intelligence of the meditated invasion of Scotland, he was appointed commander-in-chief in the Thames and Medway. Towards the end of the year he was ordered to the Mediterranean with Sir George Byng, but was left at Lisbon to keep watch on the Straits of Gibraltar; and there he remained for the most part till the end of 1710, when he returned to England. He had been advanced to the rank of admiral of the blue on 17 Dec. 1708, and of admiral of the white on 14 Nov. 1709.

Early in 1711 he was appointed commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, and sailed from St. Helens on 7 Jan., with his flag on board the Blenheim. Having collected the trade at Lisbon, he convoyed it through the Straits, and on 20 March arrived at Barcelona, where he remained, occasionally going to Port Mahon for provisions, or for a cruise off Toulon. In the presence of the fleet the French were powerless, and the work of the English was