Memorial
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Inscription
Here lyeth Interred the Body of Sr. John
Kempthorne Knight who had ye Honour
to wear severall Flags in severall com
mands in his Majesties service, and hath
fought severall Battles at sea for his
King and Country: and dyed Commisio
ner of his Majesties Navy at Portsmouth
the 19th day of October 1679
being aged 59 yeares
Heare beneath this Stone doth lye
As much valour as could dye
Who in his life did vigour give
To as much Justice as could live
But Death (which ne'er could him dismay)
Unkindly snatcht him hence away
Further Information
Sir John Kempthorne was born around 1620, the second son of John Kempthorne, attorney, of Ugborough, Devon, and royalist cavalry officer in the civil wars. His mother was Agnes Simon and he married Joanna (d. 1691), a servant to Lady Bendish, the wife of the ambassador to Constantinople around 1649. John began his naval life as apprentice to the master of a Topsham vessel and rose to command Levant Company ships in the Mediterranean trade.
In 1664 Kempthorne obtained his first naval command during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. He was captain of the Kent and then the Dunkirk before on 26 November he transferred to the first-rate Royal James, which he commanded in the battle of Lowestoft on 3 June 1665 as flag captain to Prince Rupert of the Rhine. On 19 July he transferred to the Old James, whose captain, the Earl of Marlborough had been killed in the action. Kempthorne moved from her to the Royal Charles in February 1666, commanding her as flag captain to the Duke of Albemarle in the Four Days' Fight of 1–4 June before moving to the Defiance on 10 June, becoming rear-admiral of the Blue squadron in her in September. His ships convoyed the Mediterranean trade between February and May 1667 when the squadron sailed for Ireland, remaining there until the end of September. After leaving the Defiance in December 1667, he commanded the Warspite.
Kempthorne took command of the Mary Rose in 1669 escorting Lord Howard to Morocco as ambassador. After landing him at Tangier, Kempthorne and a convoy of merchantmen were attacked north of Cadiz on 18 December by seven Algerine corsairs. The fighting lasted that day and much of the next, with six of the Algerine force attacking Kempthorne's single warship. Despite severe damage to her masts and rigging, the Mary Rose managed to disable the enemy admiral's vessel, at which point the whole Algerine force withdrew. Kempthorne's squadron arrived safely in Cadiz Bay on the 20th. The action earned a knighthood for Kempthorne. In the Third Anglo-Dutch War he became rear-admiral of the blue once more, flying his flag in the St Andrew and fighting at the battle of Solebay on 28 May 1672. Kempthorne subsequently became rear-admiral of the red, and remained in the St Andrew for the 1673 campaign, serving under Sir Edward Spragge as vice-admiral of the blue.
From October 1673 Kempthorne drew a flag officer's pension of £200 per annum, and served both as master of Trinity House in 1674–5 and as the first steward of the club for naval captains set up in 1674. Early in 1675 he was appointed resident commissioner of the navy at Portsmouth, forming a close relationship with the governor there, Colonel George Legge, later Lord Dartmouth, a fellow naval veteran of the Dutch wars. During the naval mobilization which occurred in 1678, Kempthorne held his last seagoing command, in the post of vice-admiral of the narrow seas and flying his flag in the Royal Charles. In February 1679, through Legge's good offices, he was returned as one of the MPs for Portsmouth in the elections for a new parliament but his parliamentary career was short-lived as he died at Portsmouth on 19 October 1679. He was buried in St Thomas's Church.
[Adapted from the entry for Kempthorne written by J. D. Davies in the Dictionary of National Biography]
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