SETTLEMENT OF THE BRENTON FAMILY IN AMERICA,—AND DESCENT.—BIRTH OF THE SUBJECT OF THE MEMOIR.—BREAKING OUT OF THE WAR AND REMOVAL TO ENGLAND.—EDUCATION AND INTRODUCTION TO NAVAL SERVICE, IN THE DIDO.—PASSES FOR LIEUTENANT, AND ACCEPTS AN INVITATION TO SERVE IN THE SWEDISH FLEET.—ADVENTURES ON WAY TO JOIN, AND CONCLUSION OF SERVICE.—APPOINTED AS LIEUTENANT TO THE ASSURANCE.—TRANSFERRED TO THE SPEEDY, AND SENT ON COMMAND OF THE TREPASSEY TO NEWFOUNDLAND.—RETURN TO ENGLAND AND APPOINTED TO THE SYBIL.—VOYAGE HOMEWARDS IN THE CLEOPATRA, AND IN A SPANISH MAN OF WAR FROM CADIZ.
Sir Jahleel Brenton was the eldest son of Rear Admiral Brenton, a native of Rhode Island. The family appear to have emigrated to America in the early part of the reign of Charles the First, probably from apprehension of the coming troubles of the times. William Brenton, who settled as a merchant at Boston, in Massachusets, about the year 1634, came from Hammersmith, in England. He must have been a person of some wealth and consideration, as he became a freeman, and a select man of the Colony, the same year; and in the following year, 1635, was chosen a deputy of the general court. He afterwards removed to Rhode Island, and then returned to England, from whence he finally removed from Hammersmith, with his whole family, consisting of three sons, Jahleel, William, and John, and settled at Newport, in Rhode Island. In 1663 he became Deputy Governor of the Colony of Rhode Island, and Providence Plantations in New England, under the charter granted to that Colony by Charles the Second, in the fourteenth year of his reign. In 1667-8 he became Governor of the Colony, and died in the year 1674.
Jahleel, his eldest son, resided in Newport, Rhode Island. A great part of his father’s property was bequeathed to him; and in the year 1691 he was appointed by commission, in the second year of William and Mary, Collector, Surveyor, and Searcher of the Customs within the Colonies of New England.
William, the second son, great grandfather to the subject of the present memoir, took up his residence either at Taunton in Massachusets, or at Bristol in Rhode Island, though some doubts exist as to which of these places became his home. He married Martha Church, by whom he had three sons, Jahleel (grandfather to the Baronet), Ebenezer, and Benjamin.
Of John Brenton, the third son of William, nothing farther is known except that he went to a settlement called Bellevoir, in New England; and was not afterwards heard of.
Jahleel, the collector, died at Newport unmarried, about the year 1732, and bequeathed the greater part of his large estates in New England to his nephew Jahleel, who had married in the year 1714-15, Frances, daughter of Samuel Cranstoun, who was Governor of the Colony, and who died in 1727, aged 68 years. He was the son of John Cranstoun, the former Governor of the Colony, who was lineally descended from the Scottish Baron, James Lord Cranstoun, as appears by the inscription on his tombstone in the churchyard at Newport, in Rhode Island.
Of the brothers of this Jahleel, Ebenezer and Benjamin, nothing has been recorded, though Jahleel, the Collector above-mentioned, made several bequests to them. Where they resided, or whether they left any descendants does not appear. Jahleel, the grandfather of the Baronet, had by his first wife, Frances Cranstoun, fifteen children—eight sons and seven daughters. Jahleel, his fourth son, the father of our present subject, was born October 22nd, (O.S.) 1729, died 29th January, 1802. He married in December 29th, 1765, Henrietta Cowley, daughter and coheiress of Joseph Cowley, Esq. formerly of Worcestershire, in England, and Penelope his wife, who was the daughter of —— Pelham of Laughton, Esq.; whose ancestors had removed to Rhode Island during the civil wars in the reign of Charles the First.
Jahleel, the subject of this memoir, and the eldest son of Jahleel and Henrietta, was born the 22nd of August, 1770. There were besides four sons and five daughters; of the latter, all are still living; of the former two died in their infancy; the other two, with their eldest brother, followed the profession of their father, who had very early in life entered the British Navy. Edward Pelham was born the 29th of July, 1774. Of his active and useful life a sketch has already been given to the public, from the pen of his affectionate surviving brother. James Wallis lived to be a Lieutenant in the British Navy, and was killed in action when First Lieutenant of H.M.S. Peterel, in the command of a boat expedition in chase of an enemy’s vessel near Barcelona.
The seven elder children, were born in America, on the patrimonial property at Rhode Island; but the circumstance that the father of Sir Jahleel belonged to the service of Great Britain obliged him to relinquish his home, and the place of his nativity, at the time of the civil war, which ended in the separation of the colonies from the mother country. Urgent entreaties were used on the part of the Americans to induce Mr. Brenton to join their cause. He was even offered the highest naval rank which the Republic could bestow; though he was at that time only a Lieutenant in His Majesty’s service; but that inflexible loyalty, which was always a strong feature in his character, rendered him alike insensible to bribery and persecution. That he might take an active part in the cause of his king, he was obliged to escape clandestinely from Rhode Island, where he left his wife and infant family, exposed to considerable hardships and difficulties; from which they were however soon happily relieved by the efforts of the British cruisers stationed on the coast.
The whole family were removed to England in the year 1780, when the young Jahleel was placed in a school at Enfield, in Middlesex. In the year 1781 he embarked as a Midshipman in the Queen, armed ship, commanded by his father, who had been promoted to the rank of Commander; and whom he shortly after followed into the Termagant, then a post ship; from which it may be reasonably inferred that the additional rank of Post Captain had been bestowed upon this loyal subject as soon as possible.