Vice-Admiral Vice admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, usually equivalent to lieutenant general and air marshal. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral. Australia In the Royal Australian Navy, the rank of vic ...

Sir Samuel Cornish, 1st Baronet ( – 30 October 1770) was a

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

officer who served in the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War, 1756 to 1763, was a Great Power conflict fought primarily in Europe, with significant subsidiary campaigns in North America and South Asia. The protagonists were Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of Prus ...

Early career

Cornish was born and joined the

in 1728, and having been promoted to lieutenant in 1739, he participated in the

battle of Cartagena de Indias The Battle of Cartagena de Indias () took place during the 1739 to 1748 War of Jenkins' Ear between Spanish Empire, Spain and Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain. The result of long-standing commercial tensions, the war was primarily fough ...

in 1741.Sir Samuel Cornish at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
/ref> In 1742 he became flag captain of HMS ''Namur'' under Vice-Admiral

Thomas Mathews Thomas Mathews (October 16762 October 1751) was a British officer of the Royal Navy, who rose to the rank of admiral. Mathews joined the navy in 1690 and saw service on a number of ships, including during the Nine Years' War and the War of the ...

and served with him in the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

. He was given command of HMS ''Guernsey'' later that year and commissioned HMS ''Stirling Castle'' in 1755. In 1758 he transferred to HMS ''Union''. He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in 1749.

Seven Years' War

In 1759 Samuel Cornish took part in some battles against the French. When Spain entered the war early in 1762 Cornish was appointed Commander of an East Indies Squadron, who, together with soldiers of the 79th Regiment under William Draper were ordered to attack the Spaniards in the Philippines. In the following Battle of Manila the city was taken after a siege of 10 days. This victory made Cornish a very rich man. He saw no further service after this battle. He became

vice-admiral Vice admiral is a senior naval flag officer rank, usually equivalent to lieutenant general and air marshal. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral. Australia In the Royal Australian Navy, the rank of vic ...

in October 1762, was MP for New Shoreham between 1765 and 1770 and was created a baronet in 1766, a title which became extinct upon his death. In 1765 Cornish purchased Tofte Manor,

Sharnbrook Sharnbrook is a village and civil parish located in the Borough of Bedford in Bedfordshire, England, situated around north-west of Bedford town centre. The settlement was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as a parish within the Hundred o ...

, in

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated ''Beds'') is a Ceremonial County, ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to the south and the south-east, and Buckin ...

.Tofte Manor, Sharnbrook, in Bedfordshire
He left his large fortune to his nephew Captain Samuel Pitchford, who at the head of HMS America, had also taken part in the capture of Manila.

Legacy

The town Cornish in

New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

was named after him. A 1768 painting of Cornish, along with his fellow mariner Richard Kempenfelt and his secretary Thomas Parry (a future director of the

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

) went on permanent display at

Queen's House Queen's House is a former royal residence in the London borough of Greenwich, which presently serves as a public art gallery. It was built between 1616 and 1635 on the grounds of the now demolished Greenwich Palace, a few miles downriver fro ...

Greenwich Greenwich ( , , ) is an List of areas of London, area in south-east London, England, within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London, east-south-east of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime hi ...

in Autumn 2022. The painting is by the artist

Tilly Kettle Tilly Kettle (1735–1786) was a portrait painter and the first prominent English painter, English portrait painter to operate in Company rule in India, India. Life He was born in London, the son of a coach painter, in a family that had been m ...

and was purchased by the

National Maritime Museum The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is a maritime museum in Greenwich, London. It is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, a network of museums in the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Like other publicly funded national museums in the Unit ...

, with assistance from the

Society for Nautical Research The Society for Nautical Research is a British society that conducts research and sponsors projects related to maritime history worldwide. Founded in 1910, the Society initially encouraged research into seafaring, ship-building, the language and ...

References

External links

NY Times
* , - 1710s births 1770 deaths Royal Navy personnel of the Seven Years' War Baronets in the Baronetage of Great Britain Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies Royal Navy vice admirals Year of birth uncertain Fellows of the Royal Society British MPs 1761–1768 {{England-GreatBritain-MP-stub