John Lindsay (Royal Navy officer)

Rear Admiral Sir John Lindsay (1737 – 4 June 1788) was a British naval officer of the 18th century, who achieved the rank of rear admiral late in his career. Joining the Navy during the Seven Years' War, he served off France, followed by service for several years as captain of a warship stationed in the West Indies. After war's end, he returned to Britain, serving as an MP for Aberdeen Burghs from 1767 to 1768. From August 1769 to March 1772 Lindsay was promoted to commodore and assigned as commander-in-chief of the East Indies Station. He resigned from the Navy for a period following the Battle of Ushant (1778) off the coast of France, during the American War of Independence. In 1784 he was assigned as commodore and commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean. In the last year of his life, he was promoted to rear admiral as an honorary position, as his failing health prevented him from taking a command.

He and his wife had no children together, but he was known to have three illegitimate children, including two daughters and a son, each by different women. One was Dido Elizabeth Belle, a mixed-race daughter born into slavery in 1761 in the West Indies. He entrusted the girl to his maternal uncle William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield to raise free in England. Murray served as Lord Chief Justice, ruling on cases important to the abolition of slavery. Belle was educated, married, and inherited money from Murray.

Early life
He was born John Lindsay in 1737 to Sir Alexander Lindsay, 3rd Baronet of Evelix (near Dornoch in Easter Ross) and Amelia Murray, daughter of David Murray, 5th Viscount of Stormont. His mother was sister to William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield.

His sister Margaret Lindsay was tutored in painting by Allan Ramsay. In 1752 she eloped and married him as his second wife. Her parents became alienated from her by the marriage, which they disapproved. Her brother John remained loyal to her until her death in 1782.

Naval career
Lindsay joined the navy during the Seven Years' War between Great Britain and France. He was made a lieutenant in 1756 commanding the fireship Pluto. He participated in Sir Edward Hawke's 1757 expedition to attack Rochefort.

West Indies
On 29 September 1757, Lindsay was made captain of the 28-gun frigate HMS Trent, serving from 1757 to 1763. He served in both the West Indies and in home waters during the war. Trent was among ships used to try to capture Spanish ships in the Caribbean.

Trent was part of Sir George Pocock's fleet at the taking of Havana from the Spanish in 1762. During that action, Lindsay took over command of the 80-gun HMS Cambridge on 1 July when her commander William Goostrey was killed by rifle fire from the Morro Castle, which he was trying to capture.

For this and "many strong proofs of his valour" shown in the battle, he was rewarded with a permanent command of HMS Cambridge, the 70-gun HMS Marlborough or the 74-gun HMS Dragon (it is unknown which he chose, and he was still on the Trent in December 1763). After his return to England following the conclusion of the war, Lindsay received a knighthood on 10 February 1764.

Lindsay returned to the West Indies, in command of the Tartar. His ship carried one of John Harrison's chronometers for tests and Thomas Erskine was serving as one of his midshipmen.

He returned to Britain in 1765, following the conclusion of the war. Lindsay was MP for Aberdeen Burghs from 1767 to 1768.

Personal life and Marriage
While in the West Indies, Lindsay got an enslaved 14-year-old child named Maria Belle pregnant, she subsequently gave birth to a daughter in 1761 when she was about 15. Lindsay then returned to England in 1765 presumably with Maria Belle and their daughter.

After, the daughter was baptized as Dido Elizabeth Belle by her mother Maria Belle in November 1766 at St George’s Church Bloomsbury, Lindsay was absent from the baptism and record, Dido wasn't publicly acknowledged by her father hence she was given her mother's last name. Lindsay wasn't in England around this time, as he appeared in Jamaican baptism record of his other daughter named Elizabeth Lindsay in December 1766.

Under colonial law, Dido Belle was born into slavery and after her baptism, she was taken to Kenwood to be raised by Lindsay's uncle William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, who educated and cared for her alongside her cousin, Lady Elizabeth Murray. She lived with them for 30 years (later Murray's will bequeathed her a sum and an annuity in 1793).

Lindsay had at least five illegitimate children by five different women from 1761-1767 in Jamaica:


 * 1) Dido Elizabeth Belle (June 1761–1804), by Maria Bell "negro slave"
 * 2) John Edward Lindsay (Feb 1762–1762), by Mary Vellet "mulatto"
 * 3) Ann (November 1766), by Sarah Gandwell "free negro"
 * 4) Elizabeth Lindsay "Palmer" (Dec 1766–1842) by Martha G
 * 5) John Lindsay (Nov 1767–1821), by Francis Edwards "free mulatto"

On 19 September 1768, Lindsay married Mary Milner (1740-1799), daughter of Sir William Milner. They had no children.

Despite being married, Lindsay still kept Maria Belle in England with him until 1774, when Lindsay having made her free and paid for her manumission, also transferred a piece of property in Pensacola to Maria, where she was to live and required her to build a house within 10 years, "the manumission transaction for the sum of two hundred Spanish milled dollars paid by Maria Belle a Negro Woman Slave about 28 years of age" dated 22 August 1774.

His younger children, John and Elizabeth Lindsay weren't brought to Kenwood House, but both ended up being raised in Edinburgh, Scotland. They were known to correspond with each other, later his son John became a colonel and when he died, he left his estate to his mother Francis and his sister Elizabeth. When Elizabeth married to a merchant Peter Hill, she continued to reference her father as Sir John Lindsay (Dido made no such reference). It was said that Elizabeth didn't approve on social ground of her husband's friendship with poet Robert Burns.

By the end of his life, Lindsay was known to reside in Scotland, he only acknowledged two child in his will, leaving £1,000 to "John and Elizabeth, my reputed son and daughter".

East Indies
From August 1769 to March 1772 Lindsay was promoted to commodore and assigned as commander-in-chief of the East Indies Station, flying his broad pennant flown from the frigate Stag. While in India, he was awarded the Order of the Bath (28 June 1770), though he was still a relatively junior sea officer. He was ordered to investigate dealings between the British East India Company and the Indian nawabs. This made him unpopular with the company and he was soon recalled.

Ushant
From March to May 1778, he was the first captain of the first-rate HMS Victory. He was assigned as captain of the 90-gun HMS Prince George when Admiral Keppel decided to raise his flag in Victory (with John Campbell as his flag captain) after the ship's commissioning in May 1778. Lindsay commanded the Prince George in the disastrous Battle of Ushant on 27 July 1778. After giving evidence against Sir Hugh Palliser to the ensuing courts martial, he resigned straight after Keppel. He refused to accept any command during Lord Sandwich's administration of the Admiralty, thus missing the American War of Independence.

Later life and death
His successors appreciated Lindsay's ability, and he was appointed as Admiralty Commissioner between April and December 1783. He next was assigned as commodore and commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, with HMS Trusty as his flagship. At Naples 24 June 1784, he entertained the king and queen of Sicily on board his ship.

Soon afterward, his health began to fail and he had to return to England. He was promoted to "rear admiral of the red" on 24 September 1787. For health reasons he held it as an honorary role rather than an active one. He died at Marlborough, on his way from a health trip to Bath, on 4 June 1788, aged fifty-one. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.