Vice Admiral James Littleton (1668–1723) was a

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 ...

officer who served as Commander-in-Chief of the

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Naval career

Littleton 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) ...

on 27 February 1693 on appointment to the command of the

sixth-rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a sixth-rate was the designation for small warships mounting between 20 and 28 carriage-mounted guns on a single deck, sometimes with smaller guns on the upper works and ...

HMS ''Swift Prize''. He transferred to the command of the

fourth-rate In 1603 all English warships with a compliment of fewer than 160 men were known as 'small ships'. In 1625/26 to establish pay rates for officers a six tier naval ship rating system was introduced.Winfield 2009 These small ships were divided i ...

HMS ''Portland'' in January 1696, of the fourth-rate HMS ''Anglesea'' in 1698 and of the fourth-rate HMS ''Medway'' in 1702. He went on to receive the command the

third-rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy, a third rate was a ship of the line which from the 1720s mounted between 64 and 80 guns, typically built with two gun decks (thus the related term two-decker). Years of experience proved that the third r ...

HMS ''Cambridge'' in 1705 and saw action at the relief of

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and in command of a naval brigade at the capture of

Alicante Alicante ( ca-valencia, Alacant) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 , the second-largest in t ...

before taking command of the

first-rate In the rating system of the British Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a first rate was the designation for the largest ships of the line. Originating in the Jacobean era with the designation of Ships Royal capable of carrying at ...

HMS ''Royal Sovereign'' in 1708. Promoted to

commodore Commodore may refer to: Ranks * Commodore (rank), a naval rank ** Commodore (Royal Navy), in the United Kingdom ** Commodore (United States) ** Commodore (Canada) ** Commodore (Finland) ** Commodore (Germany) or ''Kommodore'' * Air commodore ...

, Littleton became Commander-in-Chief of the

with his

broad pennant A broad pennant is a triangular swallow-tailed naval pennant flown from the masthead of a warship afloat or a naval headquarters ashore to indicate the presence of either: (a) a Royal Navy officer in the rank of Commodore, or (b) a U.S. Nav ...

in the third-rate HMS ''Defiance'', in 1710.Cundall, p. xx He secured the

capture of the San Joaquin The Capture of the galleon ''San Joaquin'' or the Battle of Cartagena was a naval engagement that took place off the coast near Cartagena (present day Colombia). It involved five British ships of the line against the Spanish galleon ''San Joaqu ...

in August 1711 during the

War of the Spanish Succession The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict that took place from 1701 to 1714. The death of childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700 led to a struggle for control of the Spanish Empire between his heirs, Phil ...

. He went on to be Commander-in-Chief at

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in 1714 and, having been promoted to

rear admiral Rear admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, equivalent to a major general and air vice marshal and above that of a commodore and captain, but below that of a vice admiral. It is regarded as a two star "admiral" rank. It is often regarde ...

on 1 February 1717, second-in-command in the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

that year. He was promoted to vice admiral on 14 Mar 1718. Littleton served as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis from 1710 to March 1711, when he was unseated by petition, and from April 1711 to May 1711 when he was again unseated by petition. He was elected for that constituency, without being unseated, in 1713 and served until 1715. He later served as Member of Parliament for

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from 1722 to 1723.

References

Sources

* , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Littleton James Royal Navy vice admirals 1668 births 1723 deaths Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1710–1713 British MPs 1713–1715 British MPs 1722–1727 People involved in anti-piracy efforts