Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 59.djvu/419

 tised there on 5 Oct. His grandfather, Arthur Warren, married Alice, only daughter and heiress of Sir John Borlase, bart., of Little Marlow, at whose death in 1689 the baronetcy became extinct. As a lad young Warren was intended for the church. He was admitted a fellow-commoner of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, on 23 Sept. 1769, and seems to have kept his terms there till March 1771. The death of his elder brothers changing his prospects changed also his views; and on 24 April 1771 he was entered on the books of the Marlborough, guardship in the Medway, as an ‘able seaman.’ From this time his residence at Cambridge was curiously intermittent. His service on board the Marlborough must have been equally irregular, and early in 1772 his name was marked on the ship's books with an R, that is, run or deserted. On 14 Feb. the R was taken off, ‘per navy board's order,’ and on the 17th he was discharged to the Alderney sloop, employed on preventive service on the east coast from Orfordness to the Humber. On 9 April 1772 he was rated a midshipman of the Alderney, but for the next eighteen months he alternated, as before, between service on board the Alderney and residence at Emmanuel. In 1773 he graduated as B.A., and on 17 March 1774 he was discharged from the Alderney ‘per admiralty order.’ In the general election of 1774 he was elected member of parliament for Marlow; and on 1 June 1775, being by the death of his father the representative of the Borlase family, the baronetcy was restored in his person. In 1776 he took his M.A. at Cambridge. About this time he bought Lundy Island and a yacht, in which ‘he amused himself in the Bristol Channel.’ On the imminence of war with France he resolved to join the navy in earnest; he sold his yacht, ‘left Lundy to the rabbits,’ and in the autumn of 1777 went out to North America in the Venus frigate, from which in December he was moved into the Apollo.

On 19 July 1778 he was promoted to be fourth lieutenant of the Nonsuch, from which he was discharged in October, and returned to England. In March 1779 he was appointed to the Victory, and on 5 Aug. 1779 was promoted to command the Helena sloop. In February 1781 he was removed to the Merlin; and on 25 April 1781 was posted to the 20-gun frigate Ariadne. In March 1782 he was moved to the Winchelsea of 32 guns, and at the peace was put on half-pay. During the following years he is said to have occasionally served as a volunteer under Commodore John Leveson-Gower [q. v.].

On the outbreak of war in 1793 Warren was appointed to the Flora of 36 guns, in which for some months Rear-admiral John Macbride [q. v.] hoisted his flag as commander of a frigate squadron off Brest and among the Channel Islands. Early in 1794 he was himself ordered to hoist a broad pennant and take command of a frigate squadron on the coast of France, and especially to look for a squadron of French frigates which had done much damage to English trade. On 23 April he fell in with these, brought them to action, and succeeded in capturing three out of four [see ]. For this service Warren was made a K.B. In August he drove on shore, near the Penmarks, the French 36-gun frigate Volontaire and two 18-gun corvettes. One of these, though badly damaged, was afterwards got off, but the other and the frigate were totally destroyed (, ii. 382–4). The number of vessels which he destroyed as they were endeavouring to carry on the French coasting trade was very great. In the spring of 1795 Warren was moved to the 44-gun frigate Pomone, one of those captured on 23 April 1794, and was ordered to convoy and support the expedition of the French royalists to Quiberon Bay. The troops were safely landed on 27 June, but after some early successes were decisively defeated by the republican forces; many deserted; many capitulated and were afterwards butchered; about eleven hundred of the soldiers and 2,400 of the sympathising population were received on board the English ships. Warren then took possession of Hoedic and Houat and of the Isle Dieu, where the refugees were landed. In October he was joined by Captain Charles Stirling [see under ], convoying a reinforcement of four thousand British troops, which were also landed on Isle Dieu; but after several weeks' delay it was resolved that nothing could be done; the people were re-embarked, and the whole expedition, with the survivors of the royalists, returned to England (, i. 278–80).

In 1796 Warren was directed to attend more particularly to the enemy's coasting trade; and during the year he destroyed, captured, or recaptured no fewer than 220 sail, thirty-seven of which were armed vessels, including the 36-gun frigate Andromache [see ]. For this service he was presented by the patriotic fund with a sword of the value of a hundred guineas. In the following year he was appointed to the 74-gun ship Canada, one of the Channel fleet, sometimes off Brest under the command of Viscount Bridport, and during the mutiny in the spring of 1797,