Peter Rainier (24 November 1741 – 7 April 1808) 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 during the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754� ...

, the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

and the

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 ...

. From 1794 to 1805, Rainier was commander-in-chief of the Navy's

East Indies Station The East Indies Station was a formation and command of the British Royal Navy. Created in 1744 by the Admiralty, it was under the command of the Commander-in-Chief, East Indies. Even in official documents, the term ''East Indies Station'' was ...

, covering all seas between the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...

and the

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phil ...

Mount Rainier Mount Rainier (), indigenously known as Tahoma, Tacoma, Tacobet, or təqʷubəʔ, is a large active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, located in Mount Rainier National Park about south-southeast of Seattle. With a s ...

in the state of

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

was named after him by

George Vancouver Captain George Vancouver (22 June 1757 – 10 May 1798) was a British Royal Navy officer best known for his 1791–1795 expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern Pacific Coast regions, including the coasts of what a ...

Naval career

Rainier was born in

Sandwich, Kent Sandwich is a town and civil parish in the Dover District of Kent, south-east England. It lies on the River Stour and has a population of 4,985. Sandwich was one of the Cinque Ports and still has many original medieval buildings, including sev ...

, England, on 24 November 1741. He was the grandson of Daniel Regnier, a

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

refugee who had fled France following the revocation of the

Edict of Nantes The Edict of Nantes () was signed in April 1598 by King Henry IV and granted the Calvinist Protestants of France, also known as Huguenots, substantial rights in the nation, which was in essence completely Catholic. In the edict, Henry aimed pr ...

, and the son of merchant Peter Rainier and his wife Sarah Spratt. Rainier was educated at

Tonbridge Tonbridge ( ) is a market town in Kent, England, on the River Medway, north of Royal Tunbridge Wells, south west of Maidstone and south east of London. In the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Malling, it had an estimated population ...

from 1754, before joining the

in 1756. Rainier initially served on the 50-gun fourth rate , but when she was broken up in 1758 he transferred to the 64-gun ship of the line . In that ship he sailed to the

, arriving in March, at which point Rainier moved from ''Yarmouth'' into the 60-gun fourth rate , also on the station. In ''Tiger'' he fought at the Battle of Cuddalore on 29 April, the Battle of Negapatam on 3 August, and in another engagement off the

Coromandel Coast The Coromandel Coast is the southeastern coastal region of the Indian subcontinent, bounded by the Utkal Plains to the north, the Bay of Bengal to the east, the Kaveri delta to the south, and the Eastern Ghats to the west, extending over an ...

on 10 September 1759. In June 1760, he transferred to serve aboard the 64-gun ship of the line , which was the flagship of Rear-Admiral

Charles Steevens Rear-Admiral Charles Steevens (c. 1705 – 20 May 1761) was a Royal Navy officer who became Commander-in-Chief of the East Indies Station. Naval career Born the fifth son of John Steevens, Steevens was promoted to lieutenant in the Royal Nav ...

. In ''Norfolk'' Rainier served at the Siege of Pondicherry between September 1760 and January 1761. In April of the latter year Steevens died and was replaced on board by Vice-Admiral

Samuel Cornish Samuel Eli Cornish (1795 – 6 November 1858) was an American Presbyterian minister, abolitionist, publisher, and journalist. He was a leader in New York City's small free black community, where he organized the first congregation of black Pre ...

, under whom Rainier fought at the Battle of Manila between September and October 1762. Rainier returned home from the East Indies in ''Norfolk'' in 1764, at which point the ship was paid off. After this, Rainier was not immediately employed by the navy again, and it is possible that he instead went to sea with the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

. Despite this, he passed his examination for the rank of lieutenant on 26 May 1768. In January 1774, he was appointed as such to serve on the 28-gun frigate , serving in 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 ...

. The commander in chief there, Vice-Admiral Clark Gayton, promoted Rainier to commander on 3 May 1777, giving him command of the 14-gun sloop . On 8 July of the following year, Rainier engaged and captured a large American privateer, and was badly wounded in the battle. In reward for this action, Rainier 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 29 October. He received his next command, that of the 64-gun ship of the line , in January 1779. In ''Burford'' Rainier joined the fleet of Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Hughes that sailed for the

on 7 March of the same year. In 1790, he became the commander of . On 8 May 1792,

named

in modern-day

after Captain Rainier: "The weather was serene and pleasant, and the country continued to exhibit between us and the eastern snowy range the same luxuriant appearance. At is northern extremity, Mount Baker bore by compass N. 22E.; the round snowy mountain, now forming its southern extremity, and which, after my friend, Rear Admiral Rainier, I distinguish by the name of Mount Rainier, bore N(S) 42 E." In early 1793, Rainier commissioned the 74-gun . From 1794 to 1805, Rainier commanded Royal Navy operations on the

. During his tenure, large swaths of territory came under British control. In 1795, Rainier was promoted to rear admiral. Four years later, he was promoted to the rank of vice admiral. He served in the

East Indies The East Indies (or simply the Indies), is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The Indies refers to various lands in the East or the Eastern hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainlands found in and around t ...

as commodore and commander-in-chief of a fleet. In 1800, he commanded an expedition to Java. On 23 August 1800, , , , and entered Batavia Roads and captured five Dutch armed vessels in all and destroyed 22 other vessels. The British took one vessel into service and Captain

Henry Lidgbird Ball Henry Lidgbird Ball (7 December 1756 – 22 October 1818) was a Rear-Admiral in the Royal Navy of the British Empire. While Ball was best known as the commander of the First Fleet's , he was also notable for the exploration and the establishmen ...

of ''Daedalus'' named her , and ordered her manned, armed, and equipped. ''Admiral Rainier'' was sold in September 1803. In 1805, Rainier returned to England and retired from active duty.

Later life

After Rainier's retirement, the ministry continued to consult him. In 1805, he was promoted to

Admiral of the Blue The Admiral of the Blue was a senior rank of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom, immediately outranked by the rank Admiral of the White (see order of precedence below). From 1688 to 1805 this rank was in order of precedence third; after 1805 ...

in the celebratory promotions following the British victory at the

Battle of Trafalgar The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was a naval engagement between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies during the War of the Third Coalition (August–December 1805) of the Napoleonic Wars (180 ...

. In 1807, he became a

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

Sandwich A sandwich is a food typically consisting of vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a po ...

. He died the following year at his home on

Great George Street Great George Street is a street in Westminster, London, leading from Parliament Square to Birdcage Walk. The area of the current street was occupied by a number of small roads and yards housing inns and tenements. In the 1750s these were demol ...

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

, with his nephew, John Spratt Rainier, succeeding him as MP for Sandwich. Rainier left an estate valued at £250,000, largely prize money gained during his naval career. He was not married, and although the bulk of his estate was divided between his nephews, John and Peter Rainier, ten percent was left to the

Chancellor of the Exchequer The chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the Chancellor is ...

to be used to reduce the national debt, in acknowledgement of: "the national establishment of the Royal Navy, in which I have acquired the principal part of the fortune I now have, which has exceeded my merit and pretensions." In 1898 botanist

Edward Lee Greene Edward Lee Greene (August 20, 1843–November 10, 1915) was an American botanist known for his numerous publications including the two-part ''Landmarks of Botanical History'' and the describing of over 4,400 species of plants in the American W ...

published '' Rainiera'' which is a genus of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

s in the daisy family,

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

from northwestern United States. Greene named the genus after Mount Rainier, where it had been found.

Citations

References

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rainier, Peter 1741 births 1808 deaths English people of French descent Huguenots Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Military personnel from Kent People from Sandwich, Kent Royal Navy admirals Royal Navy personnel of the American Revolutionary War UK MPs 1807–1812