The young man was properly advanced as occasions offered themselves; and from the period of his commanding a ship, his whole career was one of glory and of deserved success. Besides engagements with single ships, and their capture, his achievements are recorded at Porto Bello, Carthagena, Cape Finisterre, the East Indies, the Coast of Spain, and above all at Louisbourgh Harbour, in Cape Breton, where he effected a conquest most gallant in itself, and essential to the subjugation of Canada by General Wolfe; and what may equal the spolia opima of Rome, he three times made M. Hoquart, the French commander, a prisoner in the course of one war.
Admiral Boscawen was beloved throughout the navy for his care and attention to the health, the comfort, and the happiness of every one under his command, to as high a degree as he was admired for skill, for prudence, and for valour; throughout Cornwall he was adored. So that, notwithstanding the rule observed in that county, of considering
every gentleman who obtains a seat in the Upper House of Parliament, as relinquishing for himself of course, and also for his family, in favour of other gentlemen, all claim to the county representation, Admiral Boscawen, standing completely on his own personal merits, and founding a new branch from an ancient family, was invited to accept the situation of member for Cornwall. The general election arising from the accession of George the Third was approaching, when a fever closed the life of this great man, on the 10th of January 1761, in the 50th year of his age.
Admiral Boscawen married Frances, daughter of William Evelyn Glanville, a lady possessed of every quality that could adorn the highest station, or that could render her amiable in domestic life.
They had several children:
The eldest, called after his father’s name, died at Spa in Germany, in early life, on the 17th of July 1774.
The second son, William Glanville Boscawen, having engaged in the sea service, anxious to emulate the splendid example given by his father, and having become a Lieutenant, was most unfortunately drowned in Jamaica, on the 21st of April 1769. On this melancholy occasion the following elegy was composed by Doctor John Walcot.
This gentleman was bred to the medical profession under an uncle at Fowey, where he afterwards practised, but standing high in the estimation of Sir William Trelawny, appointed Governor of Jamaica, Doctor Walcot, provided with a medical degree, went out with him as his physician; and in times when propriety and decorum were less attended to than at present, he was also admitted into holy orders, and thus became qualified for holding a living in the Island, one of which he actually obtained; but having returned to England after the Governor’s decease, he relinquished the preferment, which could not be held without residence, and abandoned the character of a clergyman.
No one can read this poem, somewhat perhaps too nearly resembling an ode of Collins, nor many other of his more
elegant productions, his sonnets set to music by Jackson, &c. without regretting the change of style and of subject which he afterwards adopted under the assumed name —— Pindar.