| Date of Appointment. | Name. | Authority. |
|---|---|---|
| circ. 1514 | John Hopton. | Cal. of Letters, &c., Henry VIII. |
| Hopton certainly held the office of Comptrollerin 1514, but I have been unable to ascertain thedate of his appointment. He died about 1524. | ||
| circ. 1542 | John Osburne. | Byng MSS. vol. x.[407] Admiralty Library (Pepys’s Naval Collections). |
| circ. 1546 | William Brock. | Harleian MS. 249, No. 1. |
| 1562 | William Holstock. | Cal. St. Pap. |
| circ. 1585 | William Holstock and William Borough, joint. | Lansdowne MS. 43, No. 33. |
| At this period (1585) W. Borough was Clerkand Comptroller of the Ships, but as Holstockcertainly retained the office of Comptroller till1589, I presume they must have held it jointly. | ||
| circ. 1590 | William Borough, alone. | Cal. St. Pap. |
| After 1589 Holstock’s name appears no moreat the foot of certificates or other papers connectedwith the navy recorded in the Calendarsof State Papers, and it is probable that he died orretired then, leaving Borough sole Comptroller.The latter died about the end of 1598. (Cal. St. Pap.) | ||
| 1598 | Sir Henry Palmer. | Cal. St. Pap. |
| 1611 | Sir Guilford Slingsby. | Cal. St. Pap. |
| 1631 | Sir Henry Palmer, junior. | Cal. St. Pap. |
| 1639 | Sir Hen. Palmer, jun., and Capt. George Carteret,[408] joint. | Cal. St. Pap. |
| 1642 | In abeyance. | Addit. MSS. vol. 9311, fo. 188. |
| In 1642 the Parliament abolished the offices ofComptroller, Surveyor, and Clerk of the Acts, andconstituted instead of them a Board of equal Commissioners.The Treasurer remained, but was nolonger a member of the Navy Board. | ||
| 1660 | *Sir Robert Slingsby. | Cal. St. Pap.; Pepys’s Diary. |
| The Navy Board in its old form was re-establishedat the Restoration. | ||
| 1661 | Sir John Minnes. | Pepys’s Diary. |
| 1671 | Sir Thomas Allen. | Duke of York’s Instructions (MS. Admiralty Library). |
| Died in 1685. (Luttrell, i. p. 358.) | ||
| 1685 | Sir Richard Haddock. | Addit. MS. 9322. |
| 1686 | In abeyance. | Pepys’s Memoir. |
| The principal officers (except the Treasurer)were suspended, and the office placed temporarilyunder the charge of a body of equal Commissioners,as described in Pepys’s “Memoir.” | ||
| 1688 | Sir Richard Haddock, restored. | Pepys’s Memoir. |
| Special Commission revoked, and former officersrestored. | ||
| 1715 | Sir Charles Wager. | Byng MSS. vol. 13 (Admiralty Library). |
FOOTNOTES:
- [407] This volume contains a transcript of part of Pepys’s Naval Collections in the Library of Magdalene College, Cambridge. It comprises some extracts from Lord Clarendon’s copy of the Council Books of King Henry VIII. from 1541 to 1543, one of which records a letter being written to Mr. Stanhopp and John Osburne, “Comptroller of the King’s H.’s Ships.” I cannot find the date of his first appointment.
- [408] Afterwards Sir George Carteret, Treasurer of the Navy.
SURVEYORS OF THE NAVY,
To the commencement of the 18th century.
| Date of Appointment. | Name. | Authority. |
|---|---|---|
| circ. 1546 | Benjamin Gonson. | Harleian MS. 249. ([See Robert Legg, Treasurer.]) |
| Gonson was appointed Treasurer of the Navy in1549. | ||
| 1549 | *Sir William Winter. | Addit. MS. 5752, fo. 6b. |
| Letters Patent of Philip and Mary, dated 2ndNov. 1557, recite a patent of Edward VI. appointingWilliam Wynter to be “Surveyor of our Ships,”and go on to appoint him “Master of our Ordnanceof our Ships,” in addition to the Surveyorship.He continued to hold the joint offices formany years—certainly till 1589, perhaps later. Thedate of his death is uncertain. | ||
| 1598 | *Sir John Trevor. | Cal. St. Pap. |
| 1611 | *Sir Richard Bingley. | Phineas Pett’s Autobiography. |
| 1616 | *Sir Thomas Aylesbury. | Cal. St. Pap. |
| 1632 | Kenrick Edisbury. | Cal. St. Pap. |
| This is the “Old Edgborough,” whose ghostwas supposed to haunt the Hill House at Chatham.(Pepys’s Diary, 8th April, 1661.) Hedied in 1638. | ||
| 1638 | William Batten. | Cal. St. Pap. |
| Afterwards Sir William. ([See 1660 below.]) | ||
| 1642 | In abeyance. | Addit. MSS. vol. 9311 fo. 188. |
| A body of Commissioners appointed by Parliamentinstead of the principal officers. | ||
| [1660] | Sir William Batten, restored. | Cal. St. Pap., and Pepys’s Diary. |
| Died in 1667. | ||
| 1667 | Colonel Thomas Middleton. | Pepys’s Diary, 10th Dec. 1667. |
| See Middleton in List of Commissioners at Chatham,1672. | ||
| 1672 | *Sir John Tippetts. | Duke of York’s Instructions (MS. in Admiralty Library). |
| 1686 | In abeyance. | Pepys’s Memoir. |
| 1688 | Sir John Tippetts, restored. | Pepys’s Memoir. |
| 1692 | Edmund Dummer. | Luttrell, ii. 522. |
| In the British Museum (King’s MS. 40) thereis an interesting account by Dummer of a tourmade by him in the Mediterranean on boardH.M.S. “Woolwich” in 1682–84. The volumecontains many plans and drawings. In the reignof William III., Dummer contrived a simple andingenious method of pumping water from dry docksbelow the level of low tide, which enabled Portsmouthfor the first time to possess a dry dockcapable of taking in a first-rate man-of-war, previouslyregarded as impracticable, owing to thesmall rise of tide there as compared with that atWoolwich, Deptford, Chatham, and Plymouth.He also designed and constructed the first docksat Plymouth. (See Harl. MS. 4318; LansdowneMS. 847; King’s MSS. 40, 43.) | ||
| 1699 | Daniel Furzer. | Luttrell, iv. 556. |
| 1715 | Jacob Acworth. | Byng Collection, vol. xiii. (MS. in Admiralty Library). |