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 of Norfolk, Index; cf. ''Add. MS''. 14299, ff. 55, 143), one of whose sons, Christopher, was baptised at Blakeney on 8 March 1585 (, Genealogist, i. 38–9). His mother, Katherine Parr (baptised at Kelling on 16 June 1605), was the daughter of Christopher Parr, the owner of property in the neighbourhood. The son, Christopher, was baptised at Salthouse on 22 Nov. 1625 (Kelling and Salthouse registers, by the kindness of the rector, the Rev. C. E. Lowe). It is probable that from his early youth he was brought up to the sea in the local coasting-trade; but while still a mere lad he entered on board one of the state's ships, and served, as a shipmate of Thomas Brooks [q. v.], for ‘several years’ before 1648 (State Papers, Dom. Interregnum, ciii. 128). In 1652 he was serving in the squadron in the Mediterranean under Commodore Richard Badiley [q. v.], probably as lieutenant or master of the Elizabeth. On the homeward passage in May 1653 the captain of the Elizabeth was killed in an engagement with a Dutch ship (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 16 June 1653; cf. , p. 551 n.), and Myngs was promoted to the vacancy. On arriving in England, the men of the Elizabeth, with those of the other ships, insisted on being paid off; but the ship was refitted and remained as soon as possible (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 24–27 June 1653), and, under Myngs's command, took part in the final action of the war, 29–31 July 1653 (''Add. MS''. 22546, f. 185). On 3 Oct. she had just carried the vice-chancellor of Poland and his retinue across to Dieppe, when, on her return voyage, she fell in with a fleet of Dutch merchant-vessels under convoy of two men-of-war, which, after a sharp action, Myngs brought into the Downs. He reported the affair on the 4th, and on the 6th it was ordered by parliament ‘that the Council of State take notice of the captain of the Elizabeth, and consider the widow and children of the master,’ who had been killed in the fight (Cal. State Papers, Dom.). The Elizabeth afterwards carried Whitelocke, the ambassador to Sweden, to Gothenburg, where he arrived on 15 Nov. The ship was detained there by contrary winds, and her men became very sickly; ninety men, Myngs wrote, were sick, and five had died. She was thus so weak that when, on her way home, she met a Dutch convoy, she was obliged to leave them after an interchange of shot (ib. 2 Jan. 1654). Myngs continued to command the Elizabeth in the Channel and on the coast of France during 1654 and the early months of 1655. On 30 Jan. 1654–5 his old shipmate and friend, Thomas Brooks, wrote to the commissioners of the admiralty, recommending him for preferment. ‘He is,’ he said, ‘a man fearing the Lord; a man of sound principles, and of a blameless life and conversation; he is one of much valour, and has shown it again and again in several engagements and by the prizes he has taken. Vice-admiral Goodsonn and Vice-admiral Badiley, if they were here, would underwrite this writing from their knowledge of him and their love to him: more than I have written I have heard them say’ (State Papers. Dom. Inter. ciii. 128).

In October 1655 Myngs was appointed to the Marston Moor, which had come home from Jamaica, and whose men were in a state of mutiny on being ordered back to the West Indies (cf. ib. 1 Oct. 1655). When Myngs joined the ship at Portsmouth, he found the men ‘in such an attitude as did not admit of further employment.’ They were mostly all strangers to him, he said, so that he had no personal influence with them (ib. 12 Oct.). Some of the worst were made prisoners; the rest were paid their wages, and within a few days the ship sailed for the West Indies, where during the next six or seven years ‘he came into great renown’ (, 13 June 1666), though the particulars of his service there have not been preserved. In July 1657 the Marston Moor returned to England, was paid off and ordered to be refitted. Myngs, meanwhile, obtained leave of absence and was married (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 7, 14 July, 31 Aug. 1657); but by the beginning of December was again, with the Marston Moor, in the Downs, waiting for a small convoy he was to take to Jamaica. He seems to have been still in the West Indies at the Restoration, and to have been one of the very few who were not affected by the change of government. In 1662 he was appointed to the Centurion, in which he was again at Jamaica in 1663 (cf. Cal. State Papers, America and West Indies, 31 July 1658, 1 and 20 June 1660, 25 May 1664). In 1664 he commanded, in quick succession, the Gloucester, Portland, and Royal Oak, in which last he hoisted his flag as vice-admiral of a Channel squadron commanded by Prince Rupert. In 1665 he was vice-admiral of the white squadron, with his flag in the Triumph, in the battle of Lowestoft on 3 June; and for his services on this day was knighted on 27 June (, Pedigrees of the Knights). When the Duke of York retired from the command and the fleet was reorganised under the Earl of Sandwich, Myngs became vice-admiral of the blue squadron, and served in that capacity during the autumn campaign