Welsh Journals

ADMIRAL SIR THOMAS FOLEY. 99 ment. An uncle of the subject of the present sketch, also Capt. Thomas Foley, was a post captain in the navy in 1754, and had been with Lord Anson in his voyage round the world. Turning to Sir Thomas Foley's maternal ancestry,the pedigree of the Herberts of Court Henry commences with Sir William Herbert, of Rhagland, or Raglan Castle. He had two sons. From the elder, William Earl of Pembroke, descended William Earl of Huntingdon, and Charles Somerset, Earl of Worcester, the paternal ancestor of the present Duke of Beaufort. From the younger son, Sir Richard Herbert of Coldbrook, who married Margaret, sister of Sir Rhys ap Thomas, Knight of the Garter, were descended two sons—the eldest Sir William Herbert of Coldbrook, Knt., ancestor of the Herberts of Coldbrook ; and the second being Sir Richard Herbert of Powys, Knt., the ancestor of I he Herberts of Parke, and grandfather of the John Herbert of Court Henry, whose second daughter was the mother of the subject of our sketch. Young Foley entered the navy as midshipman on board H.M.S. Otter in the year 1770, when only thirteen years of age. The Otter was employed on the Newfoundland and Labrador stations, but returned each winter to Spithead. In November, 1773, he was appointed to the Egmont, then guardship at Spithead, in which ship he remained till February, 1774. In this month he was appointed to the Antelope, the flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Clarke Gayton, Commander-in-Chief at Jamaica, where he remained until the latter part of 1775. In October of that year he was appointed to the Race Horse, which was employed cruising in the Windward Passage to protect the trade against American privateers till November, 1776, when he became acting lieutenant on board the Atalanta, on the coast of West Florida. During this appointment he sailed up the River Mississippi as high as New Orleans. In September, 1777, he was appointed to the Porpoise on the coast of Jamaica, but only remained in her till November in the same year, when he rejoined Admiral Gayton's flag-ship, the Antelope. From Admiral Grayton he received much kindness, and rifty years afterwards, when taking up his appointment as Commander-in- Chief at Portsmouth, he made Lieutenant Charles Grayton, a •descendant of the admiral, his flag lieutenant, for he never forgot a friend. Lieutenant Gay ton, an excellent and merito¬ rious officer, died only a few years since, himself then, in his turn, an admiral. In the Antelope he seems to have come home to Spithead in May, 1778, and on the 28th of that month he joined the America as lieutenant. The America formed part of the Channel fleet off Brest, and young Foley saw his first general action in her, in the engagement between that fleet, under the •command of the Honourable Admiral Keppel, and the French