Admiral - Christow Devon

One of numerous memorials to the Pellew Viscounts Exmouth family in the chancel , this one signed E Gaffing Regent St London.

"In a vault beneath repose the remains of the Right Hon. EDWARD PELLEW, Viscount and Baron EXMOUTH, of Canonteign, a Baronet, and LL.D. Vice-Admiral of the United Kingdom, and Admiral of the Red Squadron of His Majesty's Fleet, Knight Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath, also of the Royal and distinguished Order of Charles the Third of Spain,

Of the Military Order of William of the Netherlands,

Of the Royal Sicilian Order of St. Ferdinand and Merit,

Of the Military Order of St. Maurice and St. Lazare of Sardinia, and Knight of the Most Honourable and Most Ancient Order of the Annunciation of the Royal House of Savoy,

High Steward of Great Yarmouth, and one of the elder Brethren of the Hon. Corporation of the Trinity House.

His eminent public services are recorded in the annals

and live in the memory of a grateful country.

This private and more humble monument records his Christian virtues: His active benevolence, which often risked his life to

rescue fellow-creatures from the deep, and to break the chains of Christian brethren, mourning in helpless captivity in a heathen land.

All human glory ceases in the grave: but far dearer is the memory of that devout faith which led him in deep humility to the cross of Christ,

the star which guided him to his desired haven,

the anchor of his hope, when, on the death-bed of the just,

he yielded up his soul to his Redeemer.

He departed in peace, on the 23rd day of January,

in the year of our Lord 1833, and in the 76th year of his age.

This monument is erected by his grateful and affectionate family, to the memory of the best of husbands and of parents"

 

Below is a long verse below recording Pellew's rescue of 500 people from the wreck of the 'Dutton' ;

"HOW rife of deep and thrilling interest

This simple incident in social life!

How pregnant with Reality’s romance

The thoughts and retrospections it awakens!

For thus, through Friendship’s genial impulses,

Are brought into close contact with each other

Two mighty and illustrious naval chiefs,

Though in Time’s circuit placed so wide apart.

As actors on the fields of human strife; –

Thus to the mind’s eye are made visible

At the same moment, in the expanse serene

Of peaceful life’s benign and joyous sky,

Two brilliant, potent, and beneficent orbs

Which had before, in widely separate ages.

Shone forth in War’s portentous firmament,

And shed effulgence on the British name; –

Stars, which had by the tutelary might

O’er Britain, and, through her, o’er all the world.

Wherewith their influence and career were fraught,

Swayed mightily the destiny of this realm,

And proved themselves Heaven’s chosen ministers

Of weal and blessing to the human race.

Felicitous encounter, this, betwixt

The mighty living and the mightier dead! –

If immortality-crowned mortals e’er

Can rightly with departed ones be numbered.

What spectacle could prove more spirit-stirring

To all reflecting and true Englishmen,

But chiefly to Devonians justly proud

Of those undying Worthies who have shed

Such peerless lustre on their native shire! –

How vividly suggestive, at this hour,

When Froude’s historic powers are stirring up,

In many a Briton’s breast, the slumbering embers

Of patriotic ardour, and thereto

Fresh fuel adding, as his graphic pen

Resuscitates, and re-displays to view,

The marvels of the Elizabethan age!

Drake and Pellew ! In one we recognize

This habitable globe’s first compasser!

Likewise the bold confronter and defeater

Of Spain’s, so-called| Invincible Armada!

In the heroic second we descry

The conqueror of Algeria’s savage lord!

Happy conjunction of redoubtable names,

And memories which make those names immortal,

Their scenes of action, bellicose exploits,

The foes colossal they had fought and conquered,

And the inestimable blessings linked

With all these, in the thoughtful British mind –

As earthly friendship’s gifts thus strikingly

Exhibit them to contemplation’s gaze!

How potent to awaken recollections

Of England’s glory in the eventful past;

Her many brilliant naval victories;

Her proud supremacy upon the sea;

And her deliverance from the Papal yoke!

Not in his actual person, it is true,

Did Drake thus visit his compatriot,

As if to show, that like some modern Tishbite,

He had defied Death’s devastating touch;

That in his race with Time he held his own

And kept abreast of it and its events –

Pellew’s contemporary thus becoming ; –

For Drake had had to wage, as well as others,

An unsuccessful contest with that foe;

Had been prostrated by its direful stroke.

And like all other mortals, great and small,

Save Enoch and Elijah, had succumbed

To that relentless enemy of man.

Yet Death had claimed but the corporeal substance

Of that illustrious departed one

Whereon to prey and work its ravages –

On it possessing an undoubted right

To inflict whatever havoc it might list –

But o’er the nobler portion of his being,

That which most worthy is to be called man,

It had not, nor could exercise, dominion,

Or morally disorganizing power.

He still was living, in life’s higher sense,

And to Reflection’s optics visible.

Yes! it was in his ‘Life ‘ that Drake appeared

To that brave follower in his footsteps –

Exmouth -His ‘Life,’ as History had emblazoned it.

He came, – that he might amicably greet

The scourger of barbarian cruelty,

And liberator of its hapless victims;

He came to thank him that he had redeemed

From Islamism’s fell and cruel thrall,

(As he himself had rescued in times past.

His countrymen from Rome’s dire tyranny)

Those votaries of Christianity

Whom piracy had placed within its grasp;

And that because, as the executor

Of heaven’s unerring and retributive justice,

He had inflicted on the barbarous author

Of their captivity and sufferings.

So richly merited a punishment.

And his strongholds so utterly o’erthrown.

His visit’s purport likewise was to render

Thanks, and encomiums pass on brave Pellew,

That he so oft triumphantly had waged

Contention with the naval might of France –

Our then most potent foe upon the main –

And England’s liberty and homes, thereby,

Defended, and their sanctity and peace,

So greatly aided to perpetuate –

Ev’n as he had himself, ages before,

On the same vast, unstable battle field,

Vanquished and humbled fierce and haughty Spain.

He came to vindicate and eulogize

A life then verging ‘twards its earthly close;

To loud pronounce the verdict of his judgment,

And tribute of his praise thereon award;

To say to the illustrious peer – ‘well done!’-

Anticipating thus the self-same verdict

Ordained to be, ere long, pronounced

On the great Sailor, in the court above,

By an unerring and far higher judge;

Foretokening righteous heaven’s entire approval

Of qualities in the brave warrior’s breast

Transcending mightily, in worth and glory.

Those which had so distinguished him ‘mongst men;

For although valour and philanthropy

Had signalized his brilliant course on earth,

As one of Britain’s champions and defenders

He had not vainly trusted in his own

Heroic and beneficent exploits

In succour of oppressed humanity,

Or in his many signal victories

O’er England’s mightiest maritime opponent,

And as her delegated instrument

To smite the oppressor and the enslaved set free;

In none of these achievements, nor the fame

He had acquired — though they had much conduced

To his country’s glory, peace, and happiness –

Had trusted, whereby to secure God’s favour,

And the salvation of his deathless soul.

But solely to the merits of that Saviour

Who on Gethsemane had agonized

And on the hill of Calvary had died –

The Just One for the unjust — that all those

Believing in Him might not perish, but

Obtain forgiveness, endless life, and joy –

For in this faith and hope Lord Exmouth died!!

 

 

He was the 2nd son of Samuel Pellew (1712–1764), commander of a Dover packet, & wife Constantia Langford

He m 1783 Susan daughter of James Frowde of Knoyle, Wiltshire

Children - 4 sons & 4 daughters

1. Emma Mary Pellew (18 January 1785 – March 1835) m 1803 Captain Lawrence Halsted in December 1803.

2. Pownoll Bastard Pellew, 2nd Viscount 1788 - 1833 www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/n1v3S5J8x0 m1 Eliza Harriet 1789 - 1833 eldest daughter of Sir George Barlow, 1st Baronet, the Governor of Madras, divorced in 1820. ; m2 1822 Georgina Janet 1800 - 1870 eldest daughter of Mungo Dick,

3. Julia Pellew (28 November 1787 – 26 December 1831)

4. Sir Fleetwood Broughton Reynolds Pellew 1789 - 1861 www.flickr.com/gp/52219527@N00/01v04WoffJ

5. George Pellew, Dean of Norwich (3 April 1793 – 13 October 1866) flic.kr/p/STNEDW m Frances daughter of Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth, PC and wife Ursula Mary

6,. Edward William Pellew, later a minister (3 November 1799 – 29 August 1869), whose daughter Frances Helen Pellew m Sir Louis Mallet[

 

This famous admiral, Edward Pellew, Viscount Exmouth (1757-1833). Like his contemporary Nelson, was a scourge of the French throughout the 22 year long struggle with them at sea

Captain Sir Edward Pellew, later Ist Viscount Exmouth, is best known for his bombardment of Algiers in 1816, which forced the release of over 1200 Christian slaves. The portrait shown may commemorate an event of 1797 when he was captain of the frigate ‘Indefatigable’ and drove the much larger French ship, ‘Droits de l’Homme’, aground on the Brittany coast. Pellew was already celebrated by this time, since when commanding the frigate 'Nymphe' in the Channel at the start of the French Revolutionary War, he fell in with the French frigate 'Cleoptatre' off Start Point on 18 June 1793 and captured her after a short by bloody fight. This was greeted in England with acclaim as the first such single-ship capture of the war and he was knighted on the 29th.

 

 

Also in the chancel is preserved an old flag, near which is tablet with the following inscription:—

The flag of Admiral Lord Exmouth at the battle of Algiers 27th August 1816. It was saved from the great fire at the Arsenal

Devonport 1840, and restored to the family of Mr A Lunesdale, R.N.M. attendant of the dockyard and who was master of the the Flagship in the battle. Placed in this church Sept 27th 1842".

"The funeral of Lord Exmouth took place on the 6th of February at Christowe, in which parish the mansion and estate of Canonteign are situated. His Lordship had expressed a wish that his funeral should be conducted with the utmost privacy; but the desire to show respect to this brave sailor and excellent nobleman was so strong that a very numerous cortege, composed of the carriages of the neighbouring nobility and gentry, attended.

"The flags at Teignmouth on board the ships, and on all the flag-staffs, were struck half-mast, the shops were closed, and every possible demonstration of respect was exhibited. The British ensign, under which his Lordship had served and fought in every quarter of the globe, was used in lieu of a pall; and on the coffin was placed the flag (blue at the main) which flew at the mast head of the Queen Charlotte during the arduous conflict at Algiers; several shots had passed through this honourable emblem of the departed nobleman's great achievement; the sword his Lordship wore on that occasion, hung with crape, was also placed on the coffin.

"His Lordship's four sons, his son-in-law Captain Harwood, and other near relations of his family, attended on the occasion, as did also Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Ekins, Captain the Hon. T. W. Aylmer, and Captain Parson, all of whom served under his Lordship at Algiers; Rear-Admiral Sir Charles Dashwood, Captain Bastard, Captain Hill, Captain Reynolds, and other of the Royal Navy; Mr. Bentinck, Rev. Mr. Carrington, Mr. Munro, Mr. Chichester, and many other gentlemen. On the conclusion of the solemnity, a young oak tree was planted, and named the Exmouth Oak, opposite the door of the vault."

- Church of St. James, Christow Devon

books.google.co.uk/books?id=2_ZstVBZSfIC&lpg=PP1&...

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Pellew,_1st_Viscount_Exmouth

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Pellew

www.findagrave.com/memorial/118239590/edward-pellew

doverhistorian.com/2013/10/08/admiral-edward-pellew-1st-v...

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