Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 37.djvu/268

 vice, and afterwards with his father-in-law, Captain Chester, into the West Indies with a small ship called the Margaret and John of London, where they were assaulted by two of the king's of Spain's galeons, and after a long and bloody fight, with the loss of a great part of their men, came off with honour [cf. , Naval History, p. 465; the fight was off Dominica in 1620]. Likewise to Virginia, and since, he commanded the Seahorse in his Majesty's service; which employments with his own industry have made him fit for command and his king's and country's service’ (State Papers, Dom. Charles I, xxiv. 87).

During the following years Mennes continued actively employed at sea. In July 1626 he was at Portsmouth, in command of the Espérance prize. From 1628 to 1630 he commanded the Adventure in the North Sea, capturing or detaining Hamburg or Dutch ships laden with prohibited goods for France. On 25 May 1629 he reported to the admiralty that, according to his orders, he had landed the Marquis de Ville at Dunkirk, and had brought back to Dover ‘a gentleman who is coming towards his Majesty.’ This ‘gentleman’ is identified by Mr. Sainsbury with Rubens, the celebrated painter (Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. viii. 437). In 1630 and 1631 Mennes commanded the Garland in the Narrow Seas. In March 1635 he was appointed to the Red Lion, one of the fleet in the Narrow Seas under the Earl of Lindsey (cf., p. 524), and on 7 Oct. was moved by Lindsey to the Vanguard, as vice-admiral of the fleet for the guard of the Narrow Seas, under Sir John Penington [q. v.] On 13 Nov., however, Penington ordered him to leave the Vanguard, take command of the Swiftsure, and carry her up the river to Woolwich or Deptford. In the following year he was captain of the Convertine, in the fleet under the Earl of Northumberland. In 1639 he was captain of the Victory, and on 22 Feb. 1639–40 was appointed by Northumberland, then lord high admiral, to raise, command, and exercise a troop of carabineers, to be conducted to the rendezvous when required.

On 28 April 1640 he took his troop to Newcastle, and during the year continued with the army in the north of England. On 8 Dec. Sir John Conyers wrote to Lord Conway that he had orders to send 20,000l. to the Scottish army under the care of a discreet captain; ‘Jack Mince shall be the man;’ on 18 Dec. he wrote to the Earl of Northumberland, ‘Captain Mynce has marched today towards Ripon to convoy the money to Croft Bridge.’ On 1 Jan. 1640–1 Mennes was asking for his promotion, presumably on account of this service, and during the following months he was in command of Commissary-general Wilmot's regiment of horse, till it was disbanded on 28 Aug. On 25 Feb. 1641–2 he was knighted at Dover, and shortly afterwards was again appointed captain of the Victory under the Earl of Warwick [see ]. On 2 July Warwick sent him an order to attend a general council on board the James, his flagship. Mennes paid no attention to the order, and ‘for this contempt and misdemeanour’ Warwick, two days later, 4 July, discharged him from the command of the Victory (State Papers, Dom. Charles I, ccccxci. 51, 53; the official account, which differs considerably in its details from that given by, Hist. of the Rebellion, Macray's edit. ii. 218).

During the civil war he served with the royalist army. In 1644 he was governor of North Wales for the king, apparently on the appointment of Prince Rupert (Addit. MS. 18981;, Mem. of Prince Rupert, ii. 371–3, iii. 55; , Collection of Original Letters, &c., i. 49, 54, 67), and in 1645, on the death of Sir John Penington, was named as commander of the king's navy (ib. i. 89). In 1648 his estates in Bedfordshire, inherited from his brother, Sir Matthew, were seized, and the rents and arrears detained, he ‘being in arms against the parliament’ (Cal. Committee for Advance of Money, p. 892). He was at that time with Rupert as commander of the Swallow and rear-admiral of the semi-piratical squadron (, iii. 266;, iv. 424), which was finally crushed by Blake in November 1650 [see ; and ]. For the next ten years he followed the fortunes of the king, a trusted agent when occasion required (, v. 372;, Cal. Clarendon State Papers, vol. iii. passim), and whiling away his enforced leisure in writing verses.

At the Restoration Mennes returned to England, and in 1661–2 was commander-in-chief in the Downs and admiral of the Narrow Seas, with his flag in the Henry. On 30 Oct. 1661 he was appointed comptroller of the navy, and on 26 May 1662 he was elected master of the Trinity House. As comptroller, he was necessarily brought into close relationship with Samuel Pepys [q. v.], whose ‘Diary’ abounds with references to him. These are more favourable than those to most of Pepys's intimate acquaintances. He is, he says, ‘most excellent company,’ ‘doats mightily’ on Chaucer, ‘seems to know something of chemistry,’ and ‘hath some judgment in pictures.’ On 2 Jan. 1665–6 he ‘was in the highest