John Borlase Warren
(1753-1822)

Vice-Admiral Warren was the Commander-in-chief of the North American and West Indian Stations during the years 1807-1810, then again in 1812.1 Warren, not like too many of his kind, attended Cambridge and received both a B.A. (1773) and a M.A. (1776). Since 1771, all along, Warren was in the navy; though apparently he did not have to spend too much time with his naval brothers. His family was that connected, that, in 1774, John Borlase was elected to parliament and "sat for several constituencies between then and 1807."2 In 1775, he became a baronet; inherited through his family line.

Warren became familiar with American waters during the Revolutionary War. He was then serving on British ships as a young officer. During the war with revolutionary France beginning in 1793, he was conspicuous in a number of actions in the English Channel. For instance, in concert with the British squadrons, in 1796, there was "captured 220 sail, including 37 naval vessels." After climbing the naval ladder, in 1810, be became an admiral in the British navy. It was in 1807, as already mentioned, that he was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the Halifax station.

The American admiral, Alfred Thayer Mahan, wrote that Warren was "a man of courtly manners," "an officer of good fighting record, but from his previous career esteemed less a seaman than a gallant man."

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