Admiral of the Fleet John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent (9 January 1735 – 13 March 1823) was a Royal Navy officer and politician. Jervis served throughout the latter half of the 18th century and into the 19th, and was an active commander during the Seven Years' War, American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He is best known for his victory at the 1797 Battle of Cape St. Vincent, from which he earned his titles, and as a patron of Horatio Nelson.
Jervis was also recognised by both political and military contemporaries as a fine administrator and naval reformer. As Commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean, between 1795 and 1799 he introduced a series of severe standing orders to avert mutiny. He applied those orders to both seamen and officers alike, a policy that made him a controversial figure. He took his disciplinarian system of command with him when he took command of the Channel Fleet in 1799. In 1801, as First Lord of the Admiralty, he introduced a number of reforms that, though unpopular at the time, made the Navy more efficient and self-sufficient. He introduced innovations, including block making machinery at Portsmouth Dockyard. St Vincent was known for his generosity to officers he considered worthy of reward, and his swift and often harsh punishment of those he felt deserved it.
Jervis' entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography by P. K. Crimmin describes his contribution to history: "His importance lies in his being the organiser of victories; the creator of well-equipped, highly efficient fleets; and in training a school of officers as professional, energetic, and devoted to the service as himself."
John Jervis was born in Meaford Hall, Staffordshire, on 9 January 1735, the second son of Swynfen and Elizabeth Jervis. His father was a barrister, counsellor to the Admiralty Board and auditor of Greenwich Hospital. Swynfen Jervis intended that his son should follow him to the bar. The young Jervis was educated at Burton Grammar School and subsequently at Reverend Swinden's Academy in Greenwich, London.
Their family name Jervis is pronounced JUR-vis.
At the age of thirteen, Jervis ran away and joined the navy at Woolwich, London. After a short time he returned home as he had heard his family were very upset at his disappearance. Lady Jane Hamilton (mother of Sir William Hamilton) and Lady Burlington became aware of Jervis' desire to join the navy and lobbied his family on his behalf. Eventually, they introduced the Jervis family to Admiral George Townshend, who agreed to take the boy aboard one of his ships.
On 4 January 1749, Jervis entered the navy as an able seaman aboard the 50-gun Gloucester on her way to Jamaica. On arrival in the West Indies, Jervis was assigned to the sloop Ferret on the Mosquito Coast, where he saw constant service against Spanish guarda-costas and privateers.
When Townshend quit the West Indies, he discharged Jervis into the Severn under Admiral Thomas Cotes. Cotes' flag captain Henry Dennis rated Jervis as a midshipman. On 31 July 1754, Jervis was transferred to the 24-gun Sphinx. Jervis commented in a letter to his sister: "my chief employ when from my duty is reading studying navigation and perusing my old letters, of which I have almost enough to make an octavo volume."
While in Jamaica, the young Jervis drew funds against his father's account with a local banker. When the reply came from England that the withdrawal could not be honoured, the midshipman found himself in debt. Jervis was forced to quit his officer's mess and live as a common sailor until enough money was collected to pay off the loan. The event deeply affected the young Jervis, who swore never to "draw another bill without the certainty of it being paid".
Sphinx was paid off at Spithead on 7 November 1754. Jervis was assigned to the 20-gun HMS Seaford in December of the same year, and then from the end of December until February 1755 underwent further instruction onboard HM Yacht William and Mary under the navigational expert Captain John Campbell.
Jervis passed his lieutenant's examination on 2 January 1755 and was assigned as sixth lieutenant to the first-rate Royal George of 100 guns. By March, he had moved to third lieutenant of the 60-gun Nottingham. While serving on Nottingham, he participated in an attempt by the fleet of Admiral Edward Boscawen to prevent French reinforcements from reaching New France.
On 31 March 1756, Jervis moved to the 74-gun HMS Devonshire and on 22 June he was promoted to be fourth lieutenant of the 90-gun Prince under Captain Charles Saunders in the Mediterranean. When the captain was promoted to admiral, Jervis was assigned as one of his officers aboard the 74-gun Culloden in November 1756. By that time the Seven Years' War between Great Britain and France had begun.
In January 1757 Jervis was promoted to temporary command of HMS Experiment after her captain was incapacitated by sickness. As commander, he fought a larger French privateer in an indecisive action off Cape Gata. When the captain of the Experiment regained his health, Jervis moved back to Culloden.
In June 1757, he followed Saunders to the 90-gun HMS St George. Jervis returned to England in temporary command of the 80-gun Foudroyant, a ship that had been captured by Henry Osborn's fleet at the Battle of Cartagena. He followed Saunders once more when the admiral was promoted to command the North American station; Jervis was promoted to first lieutenant of HMS Prince.
Quebec and promotion to captain
The fleet, part of an expedition to capture the French possessions in North America, left England in February 1759. They stopped first at Louisbourg, which had been captured from the French the previous year. By June, the ice along the Saint Lawrence River had broken up and the fleet along with the military transports headed up river to the assault of Quebec City. On 15 May 1759, Jervis had been promoted acting commander of the sloop HMS Porcupine. In this command Jervis impressed General James Wolfe in the preparations that led to the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. Porcupine and the frigate Halifax led the armed transports past Quebec to land up river. One biographer, Jedediah Tucker, notes that as the approach was so critical, both Wolfe and James Cook boarded Porcupine to ensure the success of the mission.
For his efforts Jervis was promoted commander and took command of HMS Scorpion. Jervis returned to England in September but immediately returned to North America in command of the Albany. In May 1760 Jervis was attached to Admiral Sir George Rodney's Channel squadron. In October 1760 he was made post-captain in command of the 44-gun Gosport. Gosport had on board a young midshipman, George Elphinstone, later Viscount Keith, who took over Jervis' command in the Mediterranean after Jervis' departure in 1799. In 1762, HMS Gosport, HMS Danae and HMS Superb under Captain Joshua Rowley, convoyed the East and West Indian trade to the westward, and successfully protected it from the squadron of Commodore de Ternay.
By the end of 1763, with the end of the Seven Years' War, Gosport had been paid off and Jervis remained unemployed until February 1769, when he was appointed to the 32-gun HMS Alarm, the first coppered warship in the Royal Navy. He was tasked with delivering bullion to British merchants in Genoa. During his time in Genoa, two Ottoman galley slaves escaped from a Genoese navy galley and hid aboard one of Alarm's boats. They were forcibly removed by Genoese authorities, to which Jervis made an official protest and promised retaliation if they were not handed over. Both were produced and Jervis took custody of them.