Sir John Thomas Briggs (4 June 1781 – 3 February 1865) was an English civil servant who was accountant-general of 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 ...

. He came from an old

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

family, a direct descendant of Dr. William Briggs, and, in a collateral line related to Professor

Henry Briggs Henry Briggs may refer to: *Henry Briggs (mathematician) (1561–1630), English mathematician *Henry Perronet Briggs (1793–1844), English painter *Henry George Briggs (1824–1872), English merchant, traveller, and orientalist *Henry Shaw Briggs ...

, was born in London on 4 June 1781. He entered into the civil service of the

Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong *Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral *Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings * Admiralty, Traf ...

in 1796. At the age of 25, he was appointed secretary to the commission for "revising and digesting" the Royal Navy's civil affairs, under the presidency of Lord Barham, in which capacity he was the virtual author of the voluminous reports issued by the commission from 1806 to 1809. Briggs was then appointed assistant-secretary of the

victualling board The Commissioners for the Victualling of the Navy, often called the Victualling Commissioners or Victualling Board, was the body responsible under the Navy Board for victualling ships of the British Royal Navy. It oversaw the vast operation of ...

, a post which he held till, in 1830, he was selected by Sir James Graham, then

first lord of the admiralty The First Lord of the Admiralty, or formally the Office of the First Lord of the Admiralty, was the political head of the English and later British Royal Navy. He was the government's senior adviser on all naval affairs, responsible for the di ...

, as his private secretary; but was shortly afterwards advanced to be commissioner and accountant-general of the

. That board was abolished in 1832, and Briggs was appointed accountant-general of the navy. He held this office for the next 22 years, during which term many and important improvements were made in the system of accounts, in the framing of the naval estimates, in the method of paying the seamen, and, more especially, in enabling them to remit part of their pay to their wives and families. On 26 February 1851, Briggs received the honour of

knighthood A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...

in acknowledgement of his long and efficient departmental service, from which he retired in February 1854. In Briggs's entry in the ''

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'', naval historian

Andrew Lambert Andrew Lambert (born 31 December 1956) is a British naval historian, who since 2001 has been the Laughton Professor of Naval History in the Department of War Studies, King's College London. Academic career After completing his doctoral resear ...

remarked that Briggs "made a major, sustained contribution to the modernization of naval administration between 1809 and 1854" and noted that "he published several pamphlets on naval administration." He died at his home, 4 Royal Crescent,

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

on 3 February 1865. His wife, to whom he was married in 1807, survived him several years, and died at the age of ninety, on 24 December 1873. His son, Sir John Henry Briggs, chief clerk at the admiralty, was knighted on his retirement in 1870, after a service of forty-two years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Briggs, John Thomas 1781 births 1865 deaths 19th-century Royal Navy personnel Civil servants from London Knights Bachelor