Admiral Salmon Morrice (11 April 1672 – 25 March 1740) was a Royal Navy officer and Vice-admiral of the White.

Life

He was born on 11 April 1672 in Stepney to Captain William Morrice RN of Werrington in Devonshire (now part of

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

) and his wife Jane Salmon. He went into service in 1690, somewhat late by the standards of the day, as a first lieutenant on . On this very large ship, he served under three captains: Robert Deane, George Mees and James Killigrew, the latter being killed in his role. On HMS ''York'', he saw quite a bit of action: the battles of Beachy Head (1690) and Barfleur (1692), and the captures of the French ship ''La Marianne' (1693), the

privateer A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...

''Le Saint Antoine'' (1693), and the Jacobite privateer ''Prince of Wales'' (1693). In April 1695 he was created commander of the newly completed 4-gun , serving in

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. In February 1696 he transferred to the slightly larger . In May 1697 he was promoted to captain and given command of the 18-gun . This ship was gifted to the Russian Navy, and from November 1698 to May 1699 Morrice took extended leave. He was then given command of , a 24-gunner under the command of Admiral

Richard Coote Richard Coote, 1st Earl of Bellomont (sometimes spelled Bellamont, 1636 – 5 March 1700/01In the Julian calendar, then in use in England, the year began on 25 March. To avoid confusion with dates in the Gregorian calendar, then in us ...

and serving in the Americas and the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

. In these duties, he was placed in both

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Harbour and New York Harbour and may have been involved in the capture of the pirate Captain Kidd. In October 1702 he took command of , a freshly captured French ship of 70 guns. This commission was as an Advice Prize (advance prize), as he was responsible for its capture in

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Bay. In July 1703 he was made captain of , the ship which had earlier taken Captain Kidd to England for execution, and took part of the capture of the French privateer ''La Saint Sulplice'' in May 1704. He then before commanded

HMS Romney Five ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS ''Romney''. The origins of the name are from the town of New Romney, although it may be that the name entered the Royal Navy in honour of Henry Sydney, 1st Earl of Romney. * was a 48-gun fourth r ...

from December 1705 serving 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 ...

. He changed again in March 1706 to the elderly but recently refitted of 64 guns. He served in the Mediterranean and North Sea and captured a French Navy vessel and a French privateer in the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

: ''La Conquerante'' (1709); and ''Le Saint Francois D'Assise'' (1710). On

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1710, he moved to , a 60-gunner mainly based in the Channel and North Sea. The only significant action was the capture of ''La Duchesse D'Aumont'' in 1711. In 1714 he was given a shore based command as Commander-in-Chief of

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Naval Docks, a fairly important role. He held this post for nine years. This may be linked to his purchase in 1712 of Northborne Manor near Betteshanger probably due to marriage (see below). In April 1723 he returned to sea as captain and commander of the huge but elderly , a 90-gunner. However, this ship was then solely used as a guardship based at Blackstakes, a rock outcrop in the

Medway Medway is a unitary authority district and conurbation in Kent, South East England. It had a population of 278,016 in 2019. The unitary authority was formed in 1998 when Rochester-upon-Medway amalgamated with the Borough of Gillingham to for ...

. In February 1725 he moved to the faster . which had 70 guns but only replaced HMS ''Sandwich'' as the guardship at Medway. In November 1726 he briefly moved to HMS ''Union'', another 90-gunner. However, this post was purely symbolic, as the ship was not in active service at that point and was undergoing extensive works in

Chatham Docks Medway Ports, incorporating the Port of Sheerness and Chatham Docks is part of Peel Ports, the second largest port group in the United Kingdom. The Ports authority is also responsible for the harbour, pilotage and conservancy matters for of ...

. After another six month interlude he was created

Rear-Admiral of the White The Rear-Admiral of the White was a senior rank of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom, immediately outranked by the rank Rear-admiral of the red (see order of precedence below). Royal Navy officers currently holding the ranks of commodore, ...

on 21 April 1727 under Admiral Sir John Norris. This position gave him command of central section of the Fleet, which was divided into Red, White, and Blue sections. He served in both the Red (advance) and Blue (vanguard) sections before becoming Vice Admiral of the White. As he was not assigned to a specific ship during his admiralcy, it is hard to establish if he did or did not see active service. However, he did sail with the whole fleet in May 1727 in a delegation to

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. Morrice retired in June 1732 at the age of 60. He died on 25 March 1740 at the age of 68. His tomb, lying in a small vault attaching the side of the local church, was sculpted by

Peter Scheemakers Peter Scheemakers or Pieter Scheemaeckers II or the Younger (10 January 1691 – 12 September 1781) was a Flemish sculptor who worked for most of his life in London. His public and church sculptures in a classicist style had an important influenc ...

Family

He married Elizabeth Wright (1685-1733), daughter of William Wright, a Royal Navy Commissioner. Wright's position would have (and seems to have) enabled him to give his son-in-law "safer" posts and certainly posts less far from home in Betteshanger. They had two sons and four daughters, including Wryght Morrice who married Sarah Peke, and William Morrice (died 1758) who married Mary Chadwick, daughter of Captain Robert Chadwick RN of Northsleet. William had a son, also named William, who was a lieutenant colonel in the dragoons and inherited the estate at Betteshanger. A nephew seems to have also been named Salmon Morrice (1688–1740).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morrice, Salmon 1672 births 1741 deaths People from Stepney Royal Navy admirals People from Northbourne, Kent