Samuel Graves

In 1756 Graves rose to command Duke.[2] Two years later, Graves returned to the command of Duke, serving again under Hawke in the Battle of Quiberon Bay on 20 November 1759.[2] He continued in command of Duke until his promotion to rear admiral in October 1762.[2]

That same year, Graves faced several lawsuits when the conduct of a press-gang sent out by him to was deemed excessively brutal by the townspeople of Bristol. Seeing as a by-election was held at the same time, the local Tories suspected him to have purposefully and unlawfully impressed eligible voters in order to influence the election on behalf of the Whigs.[3]

In October 1770 Graves rose to vice admiral,[2] and in July 1774 assumed command of the North American Station.[2] Graves's orders were vague, his resources overstretched, and his task, in the words of the Dictionary of National Biography, "perhaps the most ungracious duty that has ever fallen to the lot of a naval officer." According to his instructions, Graves was charged with supporting customs officials enforcing the various revenue and trade acts governing North American colonial trade within the empire, especially the Boston Port Act.[2] With only 26 ships and over one-thousand miles of coastline from Nova Scotia to Florida to patrol, Graves's task was Sisyphean.

Manning problems made the Royal Navy's problems even more acute, thus forcing it to resort to press gangs in order to supplement the ships' slender crews. Compounding the problem was the attitude and behavior of navy officers who did not recognize local authority and were more often contemptuous of local officials and sensitivities.

Headquartered in Boston, Graves was at the center of the Revolutionary turmoil in New England. His sailors manned the boats that ferried British soldiers across the Charles River en route to Concord on the night of 18 April 1775. Two months later, on 17 June 1775, his sailors again helped ferry troops, this time to the Charlestown Peninsula, while several of his ships provided fire support for the pyrrhic victory at Bunker Hill. During the Siege of Boston, Admiral Graves, on 6 October 1775, ordered Lieutenant Henry Mowatt, commanding the armed vessel HMS Canceaux, to destroy seaports that were supporting the rebellion. Mowatt burned Falmouth (today's Portland, Maine) on 18 October.[4]

Graves' position in Boston was tenuous; his relationship with General Gage was characterised by a strong mutual dislike which at the time was rumoured to at least partially result from a dispute between their wives Margaret Graves and Margaret Kemble Gage, who reportedly had fallen out over the question whether dancing should be allowed at a card-party or not. The trifling nature of their dispute aside, both women were staunch partisans of their husbands to the point that contemporaries mused both were "led", and thus presumably influenced in their capacities as military commanders, by their wives.[5]

Shortly before the Burning of Falmouth, in August 1775, Graves was involved in a public fistfight with Commissioner of Customs Benjamin Hallowell, the climax of an ongoing dispute between the two concerning the hay to be harvested on a small island off Boston. There are at least two accounts of the affair, one written by Hallowell himself addressed to General Gage and one by an anonymous eyewitness, published in a British newspaper. According to the eyewitness' account, Hallowell confronted Graves on the street, demanding to know why the latter had not replied to his letters. From there, the situation escalated fairly quickly. Despite being a good deal older than Hallowell, Graves apparently beat Hallowell so badly, bystanders interceded to separate the two men in order to prevent any more serious harm from being done.[6] This episode supported Graves' image as "somewhat severe, of few words, and rough in his manner",[7] inspired satirical poetry and brought him into further disrepute as some of his nephews took it upon themselves to punish Hallowell for having assailed their uncle by subjecting him to a beating and challenging him to a duel.[8]

On 27 January 1776, Molyneux Shuldham succeeded Graves as commander-in-chief of the North American station. Graves returned to England without a command.[2] In September 1777 he declined command of Plymouth, but indicated a desire to return to active duty. Graves advanced to admiral of the blue on 29 January 1778, admiral of the white on 8 April 1782, and died at his estate near Hembury Fort, Honiton, Devon on 8 March 1787.[2] He is buried in Dunkeswell in Devon with a monument designed by "Miss Burgess" and sculpted by John Bacon.[9]