Clotworthy Upton (1768–1822) was an officer in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

who served during the

French Revolutionary The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are consider ...

and

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

. He was the illegitimate son of Clotworthy Upton, 1st Baron Templetown. Upton joined the service at the age of eleven, as a captain's servant aboard . Despite passing his lieutenant's examination in 1790, he could not obtain a position in the Royal Navy and sought employment in the merchant fleet in 1791. Upton returned to military service in January 1801, when he was appointed

Master and Commander ''Master and Commander'' is a 1969 nautical historical novel by the English author Patrick O'Brian, first published in 1969 in the US and 1970 in the UK. The book proved to be the start of the 20-novel Aubrey–Maturin series, set largely in th ...

of . It was in her that Upton fought at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801. During the

Peace of Amiens The Treaty of Amiens (french: la paix d'Amiens, ) temporarily ended hostilities between France and the United Kingdom at the end of the War of the Second Coalition. It marked the end of the French Revolutionary Wars; after a short peace it se ...

, Upton was promoted to

Post Captain Post-captain is an obsolete alternative form of the rank of Captain (Royal Navy), captain in the Royal Navy. The term served to distinguish those who were captains by rank from: * Officers in command of a naval vessel, who were (and still are) ...

and in December 1804, following the restoration of war with France in May 1803, was given command of . In 1807, he took part in the

second battle of Copenhagen The Second Battle of Copenhagen (or the Bombardment of Copenhagen) (16 August – 7 September 1807) was a British bombardment of the Danish capital, Copenhagen, in order to capture or destroy the Dano-Norwegian fleet during the Napoleonic War ...

, aboard , which he commanded until 1813. He then commissioned for the war in North America. In 1818, Upton was appointed commissioner of the Royal Navy dockyard in

Trincomalee Trincomalee (; ta, திருகோணமலை, translit=Tirukōṇamalai; si, ත්‍රිකුණාමළය, translit= Trikuṇāmaḷaya), also known as Gokanna and Gokarna, is the administrative headquarters of the Trincomalee Dis ...

. He died on the way home in 1822, having fallen ill, and was buried at sea.

Early life and career

Clotworthy Upton was born in 1768, the illegitimate son of Clotworthy Upton, 1st Baron Templetown, and his eventual wife, Elizabeth Boughton. At the age of eleven, he joined the

as servant to captain

Richard Kempenfelt Rear-Admiral Richard Kempenfelt (1718 – 29 August 1782) was a British rear admiral who gained a reputation as a naval innovator. He is best known for his victory against the French at the Second Battle of Ushant and for his death when acciden ...

, aboard . He passed his lieutenant's examination in 1790 but was unable to find employment within the service, and between 1791 - 1794 worked on

merchant ship A merchant ship, merchant vessel, trading vessel, or merchantman is a watercraft that transports cargo or carries passengers for hire. This is in contrast to pleasure craft, which are used for personal recreation, and naval ships, which are u ...

s travelling to and from the

Eastern World The Eastern world, also known as the East or historically the Orient, is an umbrella term for various cultures or social structures, nations and philosophical systems, which vary depending on the context. It most often includes at least pa ...

. One such journey, in 1792, was to

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

aboard the King George.Hore p. 94

Command

In January 1801, Upton returned to the Royal Navy as

of . She had been fitted as a

fireship A fire ship or fireship, used in the days of wooden rowed or sailing ships, was a ship filled with combustibles, or gunpowder deliberately set on fire and steered (or, when possible, allowed to drift) into an enemy fleet, in order to destroy sh ...

was sent to the

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages * Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originati ...

with a large force, under Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, to disrupt the league of armed neutrality. Because of the shoal waters around

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, Parker's larger ships were unable to get close enough to engage the anchored Danish fleet but ''Zephyr'' joined Horatio Nelson's squadron and was at the Battle of Copenhagen on 2 April. ''Zephyr'' was in a squadron of

sloops A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular ...

and

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...

s, under the command of

Edward Riou Edward Riou FRS (20 November 17622 April 1801) was an officer of the Royal Navy who served during the French Revolutionary Wars under several of the most distinguished naval officers of his age and won fame and honour for two incidents in part ...

, that attacked the Danish vessels near the harbour mouth.Clowes (Vol.IV) p.432 Riou's force took heavy fire from the Trekroner batteries and withdrew when Parker gave the signal. In celebration of the

, a number of officers were given promotions, and Upton received the rank of

. Hostilities resumed in May 1803 and, in December 1804, Upton was given command on the 28-gun sixth-rate frigate, .Winfield p. 223 In December 1805, he moved to of 20 guns,Winfield p. 227 then in March 1806, to of 32 guns, in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

.Winfield p. 202 in which Upton served from 1807 to 1813, was his longest command. In her, he took part in the

. On 25 January 1808, Upton's ''Sibylle'' captured the 4-gun French privateer ''Grand Argus'' and on 16 August, the 16-gun brig-corvette ''Espiegle''. In 1810, she took the 14-gun brig, ''Edouard''. Upton took command of in North America, in September 1813, and sailed in her for the Halifax Station.Winfield p. 179 On 3 April 1814, while cruising with , ''Junon'' chased the

USS Constitution USS ''Constitution'', also known as ''Old Ironsides'', is a three-masted wooden-hulled heavy frigate of the United States Navy. She is the world's oldest ship still afloat. She was launched in 1797, one of six original frigates authorized ...

into

Marblehead, Massachusetts Marblehead is a coastal New England town in Essex County, Massachusetts, along the North Shore. Its population was 20,441 at the 2020 census. The town lies on a small peninsula that extends into the northern part of Massachusetts Bay. Attache ...

. The captain of ''Tenedos'', Hyde Parker, wanted to follow but Upton ordered him to abandon the pursuit. Upton's last command at sea was which he joined in 1815, shortly before she was

laid up in ordinary A reserve fleet is a collection of naval vessels of all types that are fully equipped for service but are not currently needed; they are partially or fully decommissioned. A reserve fleet is informally said to be "in mothballs" or "mothballed"; ...

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

.Winfield p. 78 In 1818, Upton took the position of commissioner at the Royal Navy dockyard in

Personal life

Despite the marriage of his parents a year after his birth, Upton's illegitimacy could not be revoked and he was deprived of any legal claim on the family estate. He did however inherit from his father, who prior to his death in 1785, had set up a trust for all his children. Upton did not receive the family barony though, which passed to his brother John, the eldest surviving of the couple's three legitimate offspring. Upton was married in 1805, at St Pancras Old Church, London, to Elizabeth Walton, whose father was a wealthy American merchant. They had one child, a daughter, Eliza Mary, who went on to marry a Scottish lord. Upton died and was buried at sea, in 1822. He was on his way home from his appointment in Trincomalee where

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...

had taken its toll on his fellow officers.

Citations

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Upton, Clotworthy Royal Navy personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars Royal Navy personnel of the Napoleonic Wars 1768 births 1822 deaths Royal Navy personnel of the War of 1812 Royal Navy officers people who died at sea