1808. Sir John Carter, knt. died at Portsmouth, his native town, aged
sixty-seven. He was an alderman, and nine times mayor of the borough;
and a magistrate of the county, for which he also served the office of
sheriff in 1784. His name is here introduced to commemorate an essential
service that he rendered to his country, by his mild and judicious
conduct during the mutiny at Spithead, in the spring of 1797. The
sailors having lost three of their body in consequence of the resistance
made to their going on board the London, then bearing the flag of
admiral Colpoys, wished to bury them in Kingston churchyard, and to
carry them in procession through the town of Portsmouth. This request
was most positively refused them by the governor. They then applied to
sir John Carter to grant their request, who endeavoured to convince the
governor of the propriety and necessity of complying with it, declaring
that he would be answerable for the peace of the town, and the orderly
conduct of the sailors. The governor would not be prevailed on, and
prepared for resistance; and resistance on both sides would most
probably have been resorted to, had not the calmness, perseverance, and
forbearance of sir John Carter at length compromised the affair, by
obtaining permission for the sailors to pass through the garrison of
Portsmouth in procession, and the bodies to be landed at the Common Hard
in Portsea, where the procession was to join them.
So great was sir John Carter’s influence over the sailors, that they
most scrupulously adhered to the terms he prescribed to them in their
procession to the grave. Two of their comrades having become “a little
groggy” after they came on shore, they were carefully locked up in a
room by themselves, lest they should become quarrelsome, or be unable to
conduct themselves with propriety. It was a most interesting spectacle.
Sir John accompanied them himself through the garrison, to prevent any
insult being offered to them. At the Common Hard he was joined by Mr.
Godwin, the friend and associate of his youth, and also a most worthy
magistrate of this borough. They attended the procession till it had
passed the fortifications at Portsea: every thing was conducted with the
greatest decorum. When the sailors returned, and were sent off to their
respective ships, two or three of the managing delegates came to sir
John, to inform him that the men were all gone on board, and to thank
him for his great goodness to them. Sir John seized the opportunity of
inquiring after their admiral, as these delegates belonged to the
London. “Do you know him, your honour?” “Yes; I have a great respect for
him, and I hope you will not do him any harm.” “No, by G--d, your
honour, he shall not be hurt.” It was at that time imagined admiral
Colpoys would be hung at the yard-arm, and he had prepared for this
event by arranging his affairs and making his will. In this will he had
left to the widows of the three men who were so unfortunately killed an
annuity of 20_l._ each. The next morning, however, the admiral was
privately, unexpectedly, and safely brought on shore, though pursued by
a boat from the Mars, as soon as they suspected what was transacting.
The delegates brought him to sir John Carter, and delivered him to his
care: they then desired to have a receipt for him, as a proof to their
comrades that they had safely delivered him into the hands of the civil
power; and this receipt he gave. The admiral himself, in his first
appearance at court afterwards, acknowledged to the king that he owed
his life to sir John Carter, and assured his majesty that his principles
were misinterpreted and his conduct misrepresented, and that he had not
a more faithful and worthy subject in his dominions. Notwithstanding
this, the duke of Portland, then secretary of state for the home
department, received a very strong letter against him, which letter his
grace sent to sir John, assuring him at the same time that the
government placed the utmost confidence in his honour, integrity, and
patriotism, and concluded by proposing to offer a large reward for the
discovery of the writer: this, with a dignified consciousness of the
purity of his conduct, sir John declined; though, from some well-founded
conjectures, the discovery might possibly have been easily made. This
inestimable consciousness enabled him to meet with the greatest
composure every effort of party rage to sully his reputation and destroy
his influence. So pure were his principles, that when in the year 1806
he was offered a baronetage by Mr. Fox, he declined it on the ground
that he believed the offer to have been made for his undeviating
attachment to Mr. Fox’s politics; and that, to accept it, would be a
manifest departure from his principles. In every public and domestic
relationship he was uniformly mild, impartial, and upright; nor was he
ever deterred by persona, difficulties or inconveniences from a
faithful, and even minute attendance on his widely extended duties. The
poor in him ever found a friend, and the unfortunate a protector. The
peace, comfort, and happiness of others, and not his own interest, were
the unwearied objects of his pursuit. Never was there a character in
which there was less of self than in his.