Matthew Aylmer, 1st Baron Aylmer

Matthew Aylmer, 1st Baron Aylmer
Attributed to Jonathan Richardson, c.1692 (NMM)
Born	ca. 1650
Died	18 August 1720 (1720-08-19)
Allegiance	England (to 1707)  Great Britain
Service/branch	Royal Navy
Years of service	1678–1699, 1709–1720
Rank	Rear Admiral, and Commander-in-Chief of the Fleet
Commands held	HMS Swallow, HMS Royal Katherine
Battles/wars	Beachy Head, Barfleur
Awards	1st Baron Aylmer
Other work	Ranger of Greenwich Park, and Governor of Greenwich Hospital

Matthew Aylmer, 1st Baron Aylmer (ca. 1650 – 18 August 1720) was an Irish Admiral of the Royal Navy.

Lord Aylmer, Admiral and Commander-in-Chief, was the second son of Sir Christopher Aylmer of Balrath, County Meath, and entered the Royal Navy under the protection of the Duke of Buckingham, as a Lieutenant, in 1678. Early in the following year he was advanced to the rank of Captain, and he appears to have served almost constantly during the next ten years on the coast of Algiers and in the Mediterranean.

In October 1688 he was appointed captain of HMS Swallow in the Thames, but at once gave in his allegiance to the cause of the Revolution. In 1690 he commanded the Royal Katherine, and, in the battle off Beachy Head, was one of the seconds to Sir Ralph Delaval who commanded the blue squadron. In 1692, still in the Royal Katherine, he was one of the seconds of the Commander-in-Chief at Barfleur. In February 1693 he was advanced to the rank of Rear Admiral, and to that of Vice Admiral in 1694, when he accompanied Admiral Russell to the Mediterranean, and was also appointed a Lord of the Admiralty. After the Treaty of Ryswick he was sent, in 1698, as Commander-in-Chief, again into the Mediterranean, principally to confirm the treaties with the regencies of Tripoli, Tunis, and Algiers. He returned home towards the end of the following year.

In November 1699, being, it is said, dissatisfied at the appointment of Admiral Churchill to the Admiralty, he retired from active service, though he continued to act as one of the Commissioners of the Navy till July 1702. He took no part whatever in naval affairs beyond sitting in Parliament as Baron or Member for Dover, till after the death of Prince George, and the retirement of Churchill in November 1709, when he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the fleet. In the following July, whilst cruising in the Soundings, he fell in with a French squadron and convoy, of which only one merchantman and the Superbe, of 56 guns, were captured. The rest escaped, owing, it was alleged, to the haziness of the weather. The want of success served the new ministry as an excuse to supersede him, which they did in January 1711.

He held no further command till the Accession of George I, when he was again appointed Commander-in-Chief, Ranger of Greenwich Park, and the second Governor of Greenwich Hospital. This office he held till his death, and during that time succeeded in establishing the hospital school for the sons of seamen, which gradually developed into a magnificent institution. In April 1717 he became one of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, but he resigned the appointment early the next year, when he was promoted to Rear Admiral of the United Kingdom, and at the same time raised to the peerage of Ireland as Lord Aylmer of Balrath. He had been elected Whig M.P. for Portsmouth in 1695, and for Dover in 1697, 1713, and 1715.

A portrait, half-length, presented by his descendant, the fifth Lord Aylmer, is in the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich.

Family tree

 Sir Christopher Aylmer, Baron Balrath = Margaret, Lady Plunkett, dau. of Matthew, 5th Earl of Louth, and Mary Fitzwilliam
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 Sir Gerald Aylmer   Matthew Aylmer   Catherine = Michael Warren of Warrenstown
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                                      Peter Warren

See also

• HMS Aylmer, named after Matthew Aylmer, 1st Baron Aylmer.

Source

• The Peerage.com
• "White Savage: William Johnson and the Invention of America", Fintan O Toole, 2005.

Honorary titles
Preceded by Vacant	Rear-Admiral of Great Britain 1719–1720	Succeeded by Viscount Torrington

Persondata
Name	Aylmer, Matthew Aylmer, 1st Baron
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	ca. 1650
Place of birth
Date of death	18 August 1720
Place of death