Benjamin Hallowell Carew
Encyclopedia
Admiral Sir Benjamin Hallowell Carew GCB
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...

, (born Benjamin Hallowell) (?1 January 1761-2 September 1834) was a senior officer in the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

. He was one of the select group of officers, referred to by Nelson as his "Band of Brothers
Nelson's Band of Brothers
Band of Brothers was a phrase used by Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson to refer to the captains under his command just prior to and at the Battle of the Nile in 1798. The phrase, taken from Shakespeare's Henry V, later came to be more generally applied to his relationship with the captains and men under...

", who served with him at the Battle of the Nile
Battle of the Nile
The Battle of the Nile was a major naval battle fought between British and French fleets at Aboukir Bay on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt from 1–3 August 1798...

.

Early years

Although he is often identified as Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, Hallowell's place and exact date of birth have been the subject of dispute among researchers. He was probably born on 1 January 1761 in Boston, Massachusetts, where his British
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 father, former naval captain Benjamin Hallowell (1723–1799), was Commissioner of the Board of Customs
Customs
Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting and safeguarding customs duties and for controlling the flow of goods including animals, transports, personal effects and hazardous items in and out of a country...

. His mother, Mary (Boylston) Hallowell, was the daughter of Thomas Boylston, and a first cousin of Susanna Boylston
Susanna Boylston
Susanna Boylston Adams Hall was a prominent early-American socialite, mother of the second U.S. President, John Adams and grandmother of the sixth President, John Quincy Adams....

, the mother of the 2nd President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

, John Adams
John Adams
John Adams was an American lawyer, statesman, diplomat and political theorist. A leading champion of independence in 1776, he was the second President of the United States...

, and grandmother of the 6th President, John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams
John Quincy Adams was the sixth President of the United States . He served as an American diplomat, Senator, and Congressional representative. He was a member of the Federalist, Democratic-Republican, National Republican, and later Anti-Masonic and Whig parties. Adams was the son of former...

. He was a brother of Ward Nicholas Boylston
Ward Nicholas Boylston
Ward Nicholas Boylston , a descendent of the physician Zabdiel Boylston , was a man of wealth and refinement, a merchant, a philanthropist and a great benefactor of Harvard University...

 and a nephew of Governor Moses Gill
Moses Gill
Moses Gill was a Massachusetts politician who briefly served as Acting Governor of the state.-Life:He was a merchant living in Boston, until 1767, when he removed to Princeton, Massachusetts. In 1759 he married Sarah Prince, daughter to pastor Thomas Prince of Boston's Old South Church...

.

His father's job exposed Hallowell's Loyalist
Loyalist (American Revolution)
Loyalists were American colonists who remained loyal to the Kingdom of Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War. At the time they were often called Tories, Royalists, or King's Men. They were opposed by the Patriots, those who supported the revolution...

 family to attacks as American revolutionary sentiment grew. In August 1765 the Hallowell house in Roxbury
Roxbury
Roxbury may refer to:United States*Roxbury, Boston, Massachusetts*Roxbury, Connecticut*Roxbury, Kansas*Roxbury, Maine*Roxbury, New Hampshire*Roxbury Township, New Jersey*Roxbury, New York...

 was ransacked by a mob and the family relocated to Jamaica Plain and in September 1774 his father was pursued by a furious mob of 160 mounted men who had gathered to hear news of the resignation of other customs officials. The family left the country in March 1776, at the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...

, and their estates were confiscated. They stayed for a short time in Halifax, Nova Scotia, then took a passage to England in July 1776.

Educated in the private schools of England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, through his father's connections with Admiral Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood
Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood
Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood was a British Admiral known particularly for his service in the American War of Independence and French Revolutionary Wars...

, Hallowell entered the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 at a slightly later age than was normal, receiving his promotion to lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...

 on 31 August 1781.

Naval career

Benjamin Hallowell's naval career spanned the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...

, the French Revolutionary Wars
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...

 and the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

, and he took part in a number of important actions in all three. As a lieutenant in Admiral Lord Hood
Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood
Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood was a British Admiral known particularly for his service in the American War of Independence and French Revolutionary Wars...

's fleet, he saw action in the Battles of St. Kitts
Battle of St. Kitts
The Battle of Saint Kitts, also known as the Battle of Frigate Bay, was a naval battle that took place on 25 and 26 January 1782 during the American Revolutionary War between a British fleet under Rear-Admiral Sir Samuel Hood and a larger French fleet under the Comte de Grasse.-Background:When Hood...

 and the Saintes
Battle of the Saintes
The Battle of the Saintes took place over 4 days, 9 April 1782 – 12 April 1782, during the American War of Independence, and was a victory of a British fleet under Admiral Sir George Rodney over a French fleet under the Comte de Grasse forcing the French and Spanish to abandon a planned...

 in 1782. He continued on active service after the end of the war and was promoted to the rank of commander
Commander
Commander is a naval rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service. Commander is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the armed forces, particularly in police and law enforcement.-Commander as a naval...

 in about 1791. Commissioned as a post-captain
Post-Captain
Post-captain is an obsolete alternative form of the rank of captain in the Royal Navy.The term served to distinguish those who were captains by rank from:...

 in August 1793, he and his ship took part in the evacuation following the Siege of Toulon
Siege of Toulon
The Siege of Toulon was an early Republican victory over a Royalist rebellion in the Southern French city of Toulon. It is also often known as the Fall of Toulon.-Context:...

 in that year. He was involved in the Siege of Bastia
Bastia
Bastia is a commune in the Haute-Corse department of France located in the northeast of the island of Corsica at the base of Cap Corse. It is also the second-largest city in Corsica after Ajaccio and the capital of the department....

 under the command of Lord Hood, and then as a volunteer at the capture of Calvi
Calvi
Calvi is a commune in the Haute-Corse department of France on the island of Corsica.It is the seat of the Canton of Calvi, which contains Calvi and one other commune, Lumio...

, Corsica
Corsica
Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....

, in 1794 (in which Nelson lost the sight of his right eye); he was mentioned in despatches by Lord Hood for his part in this action, and was subsequently given command of .

By 1795 he was in command of HMS Courageux, and took part with her in the Battle of Hyères
Naval Battle of Hyères Islands
The Naval Battle of Hyères Islands was fought on 13 July 1795 off the Hyères Islands, a group of islands off the French Mediterranean coast, about 25 km east of Toulon. The battle was fought between the van of a British fleet chasing the French squadron, and the French rear...

. He was not aboard in December 1796 when the vessel was wrecked after an incident in the Bay of Gibraltar
Bay of Gibraltar
The Bay of Gibraltar is a bay at the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula. It is around long by wide, covering an area of some , with a depth of up to in the centre of the bay...

 during bad weather. Her mooring cable parted and she was driven within range of Spanish shore batteries
Artillery battery
In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit of guns, mortars, rockets or missiles so grouped in order to facilitate better battlefield communication and command and control, as well as to provide dispersion for its constituent gunnery crews and their systems...

; Hallowell, ashore to sit at a court-martial
Court-martial
A court-martial is a military court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the armed forces subject to military law, and, if the defendant is found guilty, to decide upon punishment.Most militaries maintain a court-martial system to try cases in which a breach of...

, was denied permission to rejoin the ship and take her to safety, and she was subsequently wrecked off Monte Hacho
Monte Hacho
Monte Hacho is a low mountain that overlooks the Spanish city of Ceuta, on the north coast of Africa. Monte Hacho is positioned on the Mediterranean coast at the Strait of Gibraltar opposite Gibraltar, and along with the Rock of Gibraltar is claimed by some to be one of the Pillars of Hercules .In...

 in high winds during her officers' attempts to move to a safer anchorage, with the loss of almost 500 lives. Following her loss, Hallowell served as a volunteer aboard during the Battle of Cape St. Vincent (1797)
Battle of Cape St. Vincent (1797)
In the Battle of Cape St Vincent a British fleet under Admiral Sir John Jervis defeated a larger Spanish fleet under Admiral Don José de Córdoba near Cape St. Vincent, Portugal.-Origins:...

, was commended to the Admiralty by Admiral Sir John Jervis
John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent
Admiral of the Fleet John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent GCB, PC was an admiral in the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom...

 for his actions during the battle and was given another command: , in which he took part in the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (1797)
Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (1797)
The Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife was an amphibious assault by the Royal Navy on the Spanish port city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands. Launched by Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson on 22 July 1797, the assault was heavily defeated, and on 25 July the remains of the landing party ...

, where Nelson lost an arm.

Nelson's coffin

Hallowell is probably best known as the man who made Nelson a present of what would become his own coffin, after the Battle of the Nile
Battle of the Nile
The Battle of the Nile was a major naval battle fought between British and French fleets at Aboukir Bay on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt from 1–3 August 1798...

 in August 1798. Hallowell commanded HMS Swiftsure
HMS Swiftsure (1787)
HMS Swiftsure was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She spent most of her career serving with the British, except for a brief period when she was captured by the French during the Napoleonic Wars...

 during the battle, a 74-gun ship of the line
Ship of the line
A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th through the mid-19th century to take part in the naval tactic known as the line of battle, in which two columns of opposing warships would manoeuvre to bring the greatest weight of broadside guns to bear...

 which bombarded the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 flagship
Flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, reflecting the custom of its commander, characteristically a flag officer, flying a distinguishing flag...

 L'Orient
French ship Orient (1791)
The Dauphin-Royal was an Océan class 118-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.During the French Revolution, she was renamed Sans-Culotte in September 1792, and eventually Orient in May 1795....

 at close quarters and played a major role in her destruction. Some time later he sent Nelson a coffin
Coffin
A coffin is a funerary box used in the display and containment of dead people – either for burial or cremation.Contemporary North American English makes a distinction between "coffin", which is generally understood to denote a funerary box having six sides in plan view, and "casket", which...

 he had ordered to be made from a salvaged piece of L'Orients mainmast, with an accompanying note: Nelson is said to have been pleased with the gift, keeping it propped against the wall of his cabin for some time, behind the chair in which he sat for dinner, and taking it with him to his next command. After he was killed in 1805 during the Battle of Trafalgar
Battle of Trafalgar
The Battle of Trafalgar was a sea battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French Navy and Spanish Navy, during the War of the Third Coalition of the Napoleonic Wars ....

, he was buried in Hallowell's coffin.

Hallowell himself, now in command of HMS Tigre
French ship Tigre (1793)
Tigre was a 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.Her first captain was Pierre Jean Van Stabel. When Van Stabel was promoted, she became the flagship of his 6-ship squadron. She notably fought in 1793 to rescue the Sémillante, along with the Jean Bart.Under Jacques Bedout, she took part in...

, missed the Battle of Trafalgar. His ship, along with five others in his squadron, had been sent to Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...

 for water and on convoy duty. However his old command, Swiftsure, took part on the French side. She and her officers and crew, including Hallowell, had been captured in 1801 after a fight with a squadron of five French warships. Hallowell faced a court-martial over this incident when he was returned to England after a short time as a prisoner of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...

, but he was honorably acquitted of any failure of duty.

Hallowell remained a serving naval officer after Nelson's death. He was promoted to the rank of Rear-Admiral of the Blue on 1 August 1811; Rear-Admiral of the White in 1812; Vice-Admiral of the Blue on 12 August 1819; Vice-Admiral of the White on 19 July 1821; and Admiral of the Blue in 1830.

Honours

Hallowell was awarded the Neapolitan
Kingdom of Naples
The Kingdom of Naples, comprising the southern part of the Italian peninsula, was the remainder of the old Kingdom of Sicily after secession of the island of Sicily as a result of the Sicilian Vespers rebellion of 1282. Known to contemporaries as the Kingdom of Sicily, it is dubbed Kingdom of...

 Order of Saint Ferdinand and Merit
Order of Saint Ferdinand and Merit
The Illustrious Royal Order of St. Ferdinand and Merit is an order of knighthood of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.It was established on 1 April 1800 by Ferdinand IV of Naples and III Sicily to award those who did important deeds and gave proof of loyalty to the Head of the Royal House and to the...

 for his actions during the siege of Corsica
Corsica
Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....

, an honour also presented to Nelson. He was appointed a Colonel of Royal Marines
Royal Marines
The Corps of Her Majesty's Royal Marines, commonly just referred to as the Royal Marines , are the marine corps and amphibious infantry of the United Kingdom and, along with the Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary, form the Naval Service...

 on 31 July 1810, and was number 61 amongst those appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the restructuring of the Order on 2 January 1815, and promoted to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) on 6 June 1831.

Inheritance and change of name in later life

In 1828, Sir Benjamin Hallowell succeeded to the estates of the Carew family
Carew Baronets
There have been three Baronetcies created for persons with the surname Carew, two in the Baronetage of England and one in the Baronetage of Great Britain. One creation is extant as of 2008....

 of Beddington
Beddington
Beddington is a settlement between the London Boroughs of Sutton and Croydon. The BedZED low energy housing scheme is located here. In Beddington was a static inverter plant of HVDC Kingsnorth....

, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

, on the death of his cousin, who had herself inherited them from her brother-in-law. In accordance with the terms of her will, he assumed the Carew name and coat of arms, becoming known as Admiral Sir Benjamin Hallowell Carew. He died on 2 September 1834.

In fiction

  • Hallowell appeared as a character in Dudley Pope
    Dudley Pope
    Dudley Bernard Egerton Pope was a British writer of both nautical fiction and history, most notable for his Lord Ramage series of historical novels. Greatly inspired by C.S. Forester, Pope was one of the most successful authors to explore the genre of nautical fiction, often compared to Patrick...

    's novel Ramage and the Drum Beat (1968).

Further reading

  • Elson, Bryan, Nelson's Yankee Captain: The Life of Boston Loyalist Sir Benjamin Hallowell (2008) ISBN 0-88780-751-8; ISBN 978-0-88780-751-0
  • Laughton, J. K., ‘Carew, Sir Benjamin Hallowell (1760–1834)’, rev. Roger Morriss, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press
    Oxford University Press
    Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...

    , 2004; online edition, May 2007,

External links

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