John Moutray

Coat of Arms

Moutray of Markinch,Rosecobie and Seafield

Azure, on a chevron between three escallops Argent a boar’s head couped Sable between two spur-rowells Gules

Heraldic Interpretation

Armour: A person with qualities of Leadership

Azure (Blue): Truth and loyalty

Gules (Red): Warrior or martyr; Military strength and magnanimity

Star (Estoile) Celestial goodness; Noble person

Boar: Bravery; fights to the death, symbol of endurance and courage

Mermaid: Eloquence

Escallop (Sea Shell) Naval Commander

Ramilles (1780)Moutrays Convoy

On July 29th, a convoy of sixty-three valuable ships, bound for the East and West Indies, left Great Britain under the care of Captain John Moutray in the Ramillies, 74, with the frigates Thetis and Southampton, both of 36 guns.'

On August 8th, in lat. 36^ 40' N., long. 15' W., strange sails were seen, and Captain Moutray signalled his ships to alter course and follow him close to the wind.

They paid no attention to his orders, and by daylight of the 9th the bulk of the convoy found themselves close to the enormous combined Franco-Spanish fleet.

The warships, with eight of the convoy, alone escaped ; the other fifty-five merchantmen, with 2805 prisoners, and cargo worth a million and a half, were captured. It was a ten-ible blow to British commerce, and especially to the forces in the West Indies, which lost a vast quantity of military stores.

The merchants at home were so enraged that Captain Moutray had to be made a scapegoat.

He was tried by court-martial and dismissed his ship, but was again employed before long.

Early in July, the outward- bound Quebec fleet was attacked on the Newfoundland Banks by privateers, and about fourteen of its richest ships were carried off.^

MOUTRAY'S CONVOY. 55

References

http://www.archive.org/stream/royalnavy04clow/royalnavy04clow_djvu.txt

THE ROYAL NAVY : A History From the Earliest Times to the Present

By Wm. Laird Clowes

Fellow of King's College, London ; Hon. Member of the Royal United Service Institution

Assisted by:

Sir Clements Markham. K.C.B., P.R.G.S.; Captain A. T. Mahan, U.S.N. ; Mr. H. W. Wilson ; Col. Theodore Roosevelt, Governor of New York ; Mr. L. Carr Laughton

In Six Volumes Vol.. IV.

Commissioner John Moutray and Lord Nelson (then Captain Nelson)

In 1784-87, “Lord Nelson” was Captain Horatio Nelson, R.N. (William Laird Clowes, The Royal Navy, A History, III, 327), lists the Commissioner of H.M. Dockyard in the Leeward Islands from April 1784 to 1785 as Commissioner John Moutray .

Nelson and Collingwood exchanged portraits when, as young captains and probably in late 1784, they met on Antigua at Commissioner Moutray’s house.

Memorial location: Bath Abbey, Bath, England

Transcript: ‘Under this place are deposited the remains of John Moutray Esq of Roscobie in Fifeshire in the Kingdom of Scotland twenty eight years a post captain and late a Commissioner of His Majesty’s Navy in Antigua.

In his public character he was valuable to his country for his long and faithful services and universally beloved for the integrity of his principles and the distinguished sincerity of his heart. He died Nov 22nd 1785 in the 63rd year of his age .

References

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nelson/gallery3/prince.htm

http://www.nelson-society.com/html/Antigua.html

Monument

If you stroll around Bath, you will see plaques on buildings commemorating the presence of various famous people, but the biggest collection of names is in Bath Abbey, an imposing Perpendicular structure that was begun in 1499. The abbey is full of monuments, many of which commemorate people who went to Bath hoping that the spa waters would cure their illness but who died there instead.

One of the more interesting memorials is that of John Moutray, who was a captain in the Royal Navy. He was from Roscobie in Fife, Scotland, and is mainly known today for his association with Nelson.

In February 1783 Captain Moutray was appointed Commissioner of Antigua in the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean, and Captain Horatio Nelson arrived there in HMS Boreas in June 1784.

In December, Admiral Sir Richard Hughes, who was the commanding officer of the station, ordered Moutray to act as the senior officer when he himself was not present. Since Moutray held the civil post of Commissioner, this was technically against regulations. When Nelson returned to Antigua in February 1785, he objected to the situation. Because Moutray did not have a higher naval rank (they were both post-captains), Nelson refused to take orders from him. A legal dispute with Hughes and the Admiralty followed, although Nelson was good friends with both Moutray and his wife, Mary, who was also in Antigua.

Moutray’s health was already failing, and he and his wife returned to England. He died at Bath on 22nd November 1785, at the age of sixty-two, and he was buried at Bath Abbey four days later. Although he left his estate to his wife and their children, his will also refers to two illegitimate children he had by a woman called Elspeth London.

Memorial to John Moutray

There is no doubt that Nelson was attracted to Mary Moutray, and he wrote in September 1784 that ‘was it not for Mrs Moutray, who is very very good to me, I should almost hang myself at this infernal hole’. When he knew that she was returning to England he wrote to his brother about her, saying, ‘My dear, sweet friend is going home ... Her equal I never saw in any country or in any situation ... What an acquisition to any female to be acquainted with: what an example to take pattern from ... What a treasure of a woman. God bless her.’

It has been plausibly suggested that if John Moutray had died in Antigua, and not in Bath, Nelson might have married Mary Moutray, but instead he married another widow, Frances Nisbet. Whether Mary would actually have married Nelson in such circumstances is open to question, because Nelson’s friend Cuthbert Collingwood was also close to Mary, and she may have preferred him. Despite having a pension of £150 per annum from Roscobie and four other Scottish properties, it was not enough to provide adequately for Mary Moutray and her two young children. She applied to the Admiralty for an allowance, but was refused. Somehow the family survived, and Nelson helped the career of Mary’s son John, who became a naval lieutenant.

Siege of Calvi, 1794

When he died of fever at the siege of Calvi, Corsica, in 1794, Nelson erected a monument to him. Mary’s daughter Catherine married in 1806, but died some ten years later. Mary outlived them all. She retired to Ireland and died there in 1841 at the age of ninety.

http://www.adkinshistory.com/newsletter14.aspx

Captain David Moodie

http://www.archive.org/stream/moodiebookbeinga00ruvi/moodiebookbeinga00ruvi_djvu.txt

Mr Moodie maried, about 1710, Elizabeth, daughter ,(and in her issue heiress or co-heiress) of James Moutray, fourth of Roscobie and twelth of SeaField, by his wife Margaret, onl}^ daughter and eventual heiress of Jauies Kynninmond of that ilk an<l of Craighall, by ^Margaret, eldest daughter of Sir Henry Wardlaw of Pitreavie, third Bart. [S.], by whom he had issue .

David Moodie, Captain R.N.,

baptized at Beath, 2Gth August 1755; 

entered the Navy on board the Emerald, then commanded by his great-uncle, Captain John Moutray of Roscobie, at Leith, 2Gth August 1769 ; was aj)pointed Lieutenant in command of the Port Antonio at Port Royal, 31st March 1782 ;

First-Lieutenant in the Defiance, Captain Sir Geoige Home, 29th Novendjer 1793 ; and Commander, 27th April 1801,

He appears afterwards to have been made a Post-Captain, as he is so styled at the time of his death. He married, 1792, Antoinette, elder daughter of Colonel David Douglas of Morton, 94'th Regiment, and had issue .