The Honourable John Byron (1723-1786), British vice admiral, second son of the 4th Baron Byron, and grandfather of the poet, was born on the 8th of November 1723. While still very young, he accompanied George Anson in his voyage of discovery round the world. During many successive years he saw a great deal of hard service, and so constantly had he to contend, on his various expeditions, with adverse gales and dangerous storms, that he was nicknamed by the sailors, "Foul-Weather Jack." It is to this that Lord Byron alludes in his Epistle to Augusta:
"A strange doom is thy father's son's, and past
Recalling as it lies beyond redress,
Reversed for him our grandsire's fate of yore,
He had no rest at sea, nor I on shore."
Among his other expeditions was that to
Louisburg,
Cape Breton Island,
Nova Scotia, in
1760, where he was sent in command of a squadron to destroy the fortifications. And in
1764 in the
HMS Dolphin he went for a prolonged cruise in the
South Seas. In
1768 he published
The Narrative of the Honourable John Byron of some of his early adventures with Anson, which was to some extent utilized by his grandson in
Don Juan. In
1769 he was appointed governor of
Newfoundland. In
1775 he attained
rear admiral of the blue, and in
1778 became a
vice admiral of the blue. In the same year he was dispatched with a fleet to watch the movements of the
Count d'Estaing, and in July
1779 fought an indecisive engagement with him off
Grenada. He soon after returned to
England, was promoted to vice admiral of the white in
1780, retired into private life with poor health, and died on the
10th of April 1786. (At least one source claims he died on the
1st of April 1786).
The Encyclopaedia Britannica
11th Edition
"Bulgaria" to "Calgary"
edited