‘Young gentlemen who walk the quarterdeck’

The professional lives of the captains of the Seven Years' War began decades earlier, when they were taken to sea as ‘young gentlemen’ by serving captains of rated ships to begin their time at sea. Taking to sea the son of a gentleman was one link in the chain of patronage, and in some cases it is possible to discern the levers which made this first step possible. About a third of the cohort benefited from naval connections: Commodore Henry Harrison, later Admiral, took his son Thomas to sea aboard the Mary Galley in 1740; Henry John Phillips was taken to sea by his uncle, later Commissioner Towry; Richard Hughes was taken to sea in the Feversham by his father, also one of a dynasty of naval commissioners. Political patronage at the highest level ensured that John Lindsay was taken to sea: his uncle was Lord Mansfield, Attorney General and later Lord Chief Justice. Royal patronage supported John Bentinck: his grandfather had been William III's court favourite, Lord Portland. Charles Medows was heir to the Duke of Kingston. The Hon. Robert Boyle's father was the first Earl of Shannon. John Elliot began his naval career earlier than most at the age of 8 as a ‘captain's servant’ in the Augusta. His father Sir Gilbert Elliot's connections with the Duke of Argyll would have provided the ‘interest’ necessary to persuade Captain Hamilton to take on the boy.