Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v2p1.djvu/45

  officer served under Sir John Jervis at the reduction of Martinique and St. Lucia, in 1794; and after the capture of the latter island, was promoted from a Lieutenancy in the Boyne of 98 guns, to the command of the Rattlesnake sloop of war, in which vessel he returned to England with the officers who were charged with the official accounts of that conquest. He afterwards commanded the Termagant sloop; and on the 13th June 1796, was posted into la Mignonne of 32 guns, from which ship he removed into the Blanche, another frigate of the same class.

On the night of Dec. 19, in the same year, the Blanche, in company with la Minerve, bearing the broad pendant of Commodore Nelson, fell in with two Spanish frigates, one of which, the Sabina, was taken by the latter, but soon after recaptured. Captain Preston engaged the other, and obliged her to surrender, with the loss of 22 men killed and wounded; but before she could be taken possession of, a Spanish 3decker and two other frigates approached, and compelled the Blanche to wear and make sail in the direction of her consort. Captain Preston subsequently commanded the Dido of 28 guns, Boston 32, and during the greater part of the late war, the Sea Fencibles between Flamborough Head and the river Tees. In Dec. 1813, he was appointed Commodore of a division of prison-ships; and on die 24th Aug. 1819, obtained the superannuation of a Rear-Admiral. His eldest son is in holy orders; another is a Lieutenant R.N.

Residence.– Askam, near York. 

 officer was made a Post-Captain June 28, 1796; and from that period till the latter end of 1800, commanded the Queen of 98 guns, bearing the flag of Sir Hyde Parker, on the Jamaica station. At the close of the late war he was employed to regulate the Impress service at Bristol. His superannuation took place Aug. 24, 1819.

Residence.– Oxendon, near Market Harborough, Leicestershire.

