John Markham

Admiral John Markham (13 June 1761 – 13 February 1827) was a Royal Navy officer. As a junior officer he served in the American Revolutionary War. He commanded the third-rate HMS Hannibal in the action of 10 April 1795 and then the third-rate HMS Centaur, capturing a French frigate squadron in the action of 18 June 1799, during the French Revolutionary Wars. He went on to be a Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty and First Naval Lord under Earl St Vincent. He also served as MP for Portsmouth.

Naval career Markham was born in 1761 at Westminster, second son to William Markham, the Archbishop of York, and Sarah Goddard. One of his seven sisters, Frederica, later became Countess of Mansfield. He was educated at Westminster School. In March 1775, he joined the Royal Navy at the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. He served under George Elphinstone in HMS Romney and HMS Perseus. He then served in Centaur off Ireland, in the Mediterranean and off the French coast, capturing a French frigate squadron in the action of 18 June 1799, until in February 1801 he was appointed to the Board of Admiralty by Earl St Vincent, with whom he had served in the Mediterranean. Promoted to rear admiral on 23 April 1804, he remained at the admiralty until May 1804, and resumed a position there, as First Naval Lord from January 1806, before retiring completely in March 1807.

Although Markham remained in the Navy and was eventually promoted to full admiral on 12 August 1819, he did not serve in a command capacity again. He had however been elected to Parliament in 1801 on the death of Lord Hugh Seymour, sitting for the constituency of Portsmouth from 1801 to 1818 and then again from 1820 to 1826. He retired from all public life in 1826 due to ill health, and died in Naples early on 13 February 1827.

Family In 1796, he married Maria Rice, daughter of George Rice. He had three sons, one of whom, Frederick Markham became a noted army officer in British India. In 1828, immediately John Markham's death, his family acquired Morland House near Penrith in Cumbria where a room in the house commemorates his life.