Digby Dent (Royal Navy officer, born 1713)
Captain Digby Dent (17 January 1713 – 5 June 1761) was a Royal Navy officer who served as Commander-in-Chief of the Jamaica Station. Naval careerBorn 17 January 1713 and baptised 4 February 1713 at St Nicholas Chiswick Middlesex,[1] the son of Captain Digby Dent and his wife Ursula. Dent joined the Royal Navy on 20 October 1726 and was commissioned as a lieutenant in January 1734. In August 1737 he was given command of the small 8-gunner HMS Drake.[2] He was promoted to post captain on 9 June 1738 on appointment to the command of the fifth-rate HMS Kinsale.[2] He transferred to the command of the third-rate HMS Hampton Court in 1739 and saw action in operations against Santiago de Cuba during the War of Jenkins' Ear.[2] After several short commands he became captain of HMS Plymouth a 60-gunner which was involved in a large battle with the French fleet on 3 August 1746 near Jamaica which was part of the War of Austrian Succession.[2] He was appointed a commodore, and became Commander-in-Chief of the Jamaica Station in 1747.[3] In March 1747 he became overall Commander of the British Fleet in the West Indies and oversaw the Battle of Santiago de Cuba.[2] He was court-martialled im 1749 over his choices in the 1741 Battle of Santiago de Cuba but found not guilty.[2][4] He was appointed Comptroller of the Navy in 1756.[5] He died at his house in Dover Street St George Hanover Square on 5 June 1761.[2][6] FamilyOn 28 June 1731, aged 18, Dent, of St George Hanover Square, married Mary Tredway Rule at St Katherine by the Tower by licence.[7] His second marriage took place in September 1750 when he married 17-year-old Sophia Pitt Drake at St Mary's Church in Twickenham[8] Following Dent's death Sophia married Admiral George Pocock who was a long-term friend of her father.[9] His brother Captain Cotton Dent RN was father to Sir Digby Dent.[10] References
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