John Colpoys

Admiral Sir John Colpoys, ( – 4 April 1821) was a Royal Navy officer who served in three wars but is most notable for being one of the catalysts of the Spithead Mutiny in 1797 after ordering his marines to fire on a deputation of mutinous sailors. Although this event resulted in his removal from active duty, Colpoys was a capable administrator who remained heavily involved in staff duties ashore during the Napoleonic Wars and was later a Lord of the Admiralty, Knight Companion of the Order of the Bath (later a Knight Grand Cross) and Governor of Greenwich Naval Hospital.

Early career Colpoys was the son of John Colpoys, a Dublin attorney and Registrar to Chief Justice William Yorke. His mother was a Miss Madden whose mother was Anne, daughter of Edward Singleton, an alderman of Drogheda in Ireland. Singleton's son, Henry, was Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in Ireland from 1740 to 1753, while his granddaughter Charity, daughter of his son Rowland, was the wife of William Yorke, who succeeded Henry Singleton as Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in Ireland in 1753. Nothing is known of Colpoys' birth or childhood, except that he was born in approximately 1742. He is believed to have entered the Royal Navy in 1756 at the outbreak of the Seven Years' War and certainly served in the Siege of Louisbourg in 1758 and the British expedition against Martinique four years later. His service in these campaigns was not especially notable, but they were to be almost his only experience of action with the enemy. While serving at Martinique, Colpoys was promoted to lieutenant and in 1770 received his first command, the small frigate HMS Lynx. Promoted commander the same year, he was again promoted in 1773, becoming a post captain in command of the ship of the line HMS Northumberland.

At the outbreak of the American War of Independence, Colpoys took command of the frigate HMS Seaford, which he commanded in European waters without seeing any significant action. In 1778, shortly after leaving the frigate, Colpoys was called to an Admiralty court as a judge in the court-martial of Sir Hugh Palliser in the acrimonious aftermath of the First Battle of Ushant. As instructed, the court found Palliser innocent of any wrongdoing and Colpoys returned to sea as commander of HMS Orpheus on the North American Station. In the preceding year at the reformation of the orders of chivalry, Colpoys had become a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath.

In 1821, Colpoys died at the Greenwich Hospital aged 79, and was buried on the site. He is listed on the south face of the Officers Monument there.