SIR

See also:

• WILLIAM
• WILLIAM (1143-1214)
• WILLIAM (1227-1256)
• WILLIAM (1J33-1584)
• WILLIAM (A.S. Wilhelm, O. Norse Vilhidlmr; O. H. Ger. Willahelm, Willahalm, M. H. Ger. Willehelm, Willehalm, Mod.Ger. Wilhelm; Du. Willem; O. Fr. Villalme, Mod. Fr. Guillaume; from " will," Goth. vilja, and " helm," Goth. hilms, Old Norse hidlmr, meaning
• WILLIAM (c. 1130-C. 1190)
• WILLIAM, 13TH

WILLIAM

See also:

• SIR WILLIAM MONSON (c. 1569-1643)

MONSON (c. 1569-1643)  , British admiral, was the third son of Sir John Monson of South Carlton in Lincoln-shire, where the family was of old standing . He matriculated at Balliol College, Oxford, in 1581, but ran away to sea in 1585, being then according to his own account sixteen . His first services were in a privateer in an action with a Spanish ship in the Bay of Biscay, of which he gives a somewhat Munchausenlike account in his Naval Tracts . In the Armada year he served as lieutenant of the " Charles," a small ship of the queen's . There being at that time no regular naval service, Monson is next found serving with the adventurous George Clifford, 3rd earl of Cumberland (1558-1605), whom he followed in his voyages of 1589, 1591 and 1593 . During the second of these ventures Monson had the ill-luck to be taken prisoner by the Spaniards in a recaptured prize, and was for a time detained at Lisbon in captivity . His cruises must have brought him some profit, for in 1595 he was able to marry, and he thought it worth while to take his M.A. degree . The earl offended him by showing favour to another follower, and Monson turned elsewhere . In the expedition to Cadiz in 1596, he commanded the " Repulse " (5o) . From this time till the conclusion of the war with Spain he was in constant employment . In 16oz he commanded the last squadron fitted out in the reign of Queen Elizabeth . In 1604 he was appointed admiral of the Narrow Seas, the equivalent of the Channel squadron of modern times: In 1614 he was sent to the coasts of Scotland and Ireland to repress the pirates who then swarmed on the coast .

Monson claimed to have extirpated these pests, but it is certain that they were numerous a

generation later . After 1614 he saw no further active service till 1635, when he went to sea as vice-admiral of the fleet fitted out by king Charles I. with the first ship-money . He spent the last years of his life in writing his Tracts, and died in February 1643 . His claim to be remembered is not based on his services as a naval officer, though they were undoubtedly honourable, but on his Tracts . These treatises consist in part of historical narratives, and in part of argumentative proposals for the reform of abuses, or the development of the naval resources of the country . They form by far the best account by a contemporary of the naval life and transactions of the reign of Queen Elizabeth and the beginning of the reign of King James . Monson takes care to do himself full justice, but he is not unfair to his con-temporaries . His style is thoroughly modern, and has hardly a trace of the poetry of the Elizabethans . He was the first naval officer in the modern sense of the word, a gentleman by birth and education who was trained to the sea, and not simply a soldier put in to fight, with a sailing-master to handle the ship for him, or a tarpaulin who was a sailor only . Monson's elder brother, Sir Thomas Monson (1564—1641), was one of James I.'s favourites, and was made a baronet in 1611 . He held a position of trust at the Tower of London, a circumstance which led to his arrest as one of the participators in the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury . He was, however, soon released and he died in May 1641 .

His eldest son was Sir John Monson,

Bart . (1600-1683), a member of parliament under Charles I., and another son was Sir William Monson (c . 1607—1678), who was created an Irish peer as Viscount Monson of Castlemaine in 1628 . Having been a member of the court which tried Charles I. the viscount was deprived of his honours and was sentenced to imprisonment for life in 1661 . Sir John Monson's descendant, another Sir John Monson, Bart . (1693-1748), was created Baron Monson in 1728 . His youngest son was George Monson (1730-1776), who served with the English troops in India from 1758 to 1763 . The baron's eldest son was John, the end baron (1727-1774), whose son William Monson (1760--1807) served in the Mahratta War under . General Lake . William's only son William John (1796—1862) became 6th Baron Monson in succession to his cousin Frederick John, the 5th baron, in October 1841 . His son William John, the 7th baron (1829—1898), was created Viscount Oxenbridge in 1886 . When he died without sons in 1898 the viscounty became extinct, but the barony descended to his brother Debonnaire John(1830-19oo), whose son Augustus Debonnaire John (b .

1868) became 9th Baron Monson in 1900 . Another of Viscount Oxenbridge's

brothers was Sir Edmund John Monson, Bart . (b . 1834), who, after filling many other diplomatic appointments, was British ambassador in Paris from 1896 to 1904 . The one authority for the life of Sir William Monson is his own Tracts, but a very good account of him is included by Southey in his Lives of the Admirals, vol. v . The Tracts were first printed in the third volume of Churchill's Voyages, but they have been edited for the Navy Record Society by Mr Oppenheim .