Edward Pelham Brenton

Captain Edward Pelham Brenton (20 July 1774 – 13 April 1839) was a Royal Navy officer and historian who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Brenton's military career was relatively unremarkable apart from his involvement in the British capture of Martinique in 1809. He became famous after the conflict when he published the Naval History of Great Britain from the Year 1783 to 1822 in 1823. The book was popular, but Brenton was criticised at the time and since for his failure to distinguish between fact and rumour as well as his partisan political leanings. In Brenton's later years, he was involved in charitable enterprises in the poorer areas of London with mixed success.

Naval career Brenton was born in 1774 in Rhode Island to Admiral Jahleel Brenton and his wife Henrietta. His elder brother, also named Jahleel, later became a celebrated naval commander and admiral. The Brentons were American loyalists and emigrated to Britain during the American War of Independence, where Edward joined the Royal Navy in 1788 aged 14. In the Navy, Brenton spent time serving in the East Indies and the Channel Fleet, being promoted to lieutenant in 1795 and serving in the North Sea and off Newfoundland until 1802, when he was promoted to commander. In 1802 he was captain of the 18-gun ship-sloop Lark, taking her from Jamaica to the Channel. In 1803 he married Margaret Cox (daughter of General Thomas Cox) and had many children. neither of which achieved their aims and provoked criticism of Brenton's methods. This experience left him bitter in the years approaching his death in April 1839 at his home in York Street, London. He was buried at St Marylebone Parish Church, with his wife and 100 boys of the Children's Friend Society among the mourners.

The year before his death, he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the 1838 Coronation Honours.

Works Naval History of Great Britain from the Year 1783 to 1836 Life and Correspondence of John, Earl of St. Vincent