Admiral Sir Thomas Pasley, 1st Baronet (2 March 1734 – 29 November 1808) was a senior and highly experienced British Royal Navy officer of the eighteenth century, who served with distinction at numerous actions of the Seven Years' War, American Revolutionary War and French Revolutionary Wars. In his youth he was renowned as an efficient and able frigate officer and in later life became a highly respected squadron commander in the Channel Fleet. It was during the latter service when he was awarded his baronetcy after losing a leg at the Glorious First of June, aged 60.
Early career
Thomas Pasley was born in 1734 to James Pasley (1695–1773), of Craig, Dumfries and his wife Magdalene, daughter of Robert Elliott, of Middlehomehill, Roxburghshire. Thomas was the fifth of the eleven Pasley children, a family of minor landowners in the village of Craig, near Langholm, Dumfriesshire. He was the brother of Gilbert Pasley (1733–1781), Surgeon-General of Madras, and Margaret, mother of Sir John Malcolm. Gilbert's daughter, Eliza, married Sir Robert Campbell (1771–1858) 1st Bt., of Carrick Buoy, County Donegal, a director of the East India Company and a commissioner for the lieutenancy of London.
Thomas entered the Royal Navy in 1751 aged 16, and served as a midshipman aboard the sixth-rate frigate HMS Garland. Pasley's first captain was Maurice Suckling, who commanded him in the sloop HMS Weazel off Jamaica. Pasley later moved to the ship of the line HMS Dreadnought under Robert Digby, who was impressed enough with the young officer to bring him along when Digby was transferred to HMS Bideford in 1757.
Seven Years' War
On Bideford, Pasley served as temporary lieutenant on a bullion convoy operation from the West Indies to Britain. As the Seven Years' War had broken out the year before, the mission to carry £3,000 across the Atlantic was dangerous, but Bideford crossed safely and Pasley personally escorted the gold to London, being officially promoted to lieutenant shortly afterwards. Pasley continued to serve with Digby after his promotion, joining the ship of the line HMS Dunkirk on the Siege of Rochefort, when a British combined naval and land force failed disastrously to capture the strategic French port.
Pasley took his first solo command later in the year with the small fireship HMS Roman Emperor, but he soon requested service on a bigger ship, joining his cousin John Elliot, who was captain of the frigate HMS Hussar. In November, Elliot used his small ship to destroy the 50-gun French fourth-rate Alcyon, and in early 1758 he captured the French privateer Vengeance. The two officers later moved to the larger frigate HMS Aeolus and in 1759 captured the corvette Mignonne from within Brest Roads.
In 1760, Aeolus was blown off course during blockade duties off France and put in to reprovision at Kinsale. There Elliot heard a rumour of a French invasion force landing at Carrickfergus and put to sea in the hope of intercepting the enemy squadron. Aeolus was joined by HMS Brilliant and HMS Pallas and the three frigates attacked the French squadron under François Thurot off the Isle of Man. In a sharp encounter, all three French ships were lost, Pasley leading the charge aboard Thurot's flagship Marischal de Belle Isle which captured the vessel and during which Thurot was killed. Pasley became first lieutenant as a result of this action and spent the remained of the war on Aeolus in the English Channel and subsequently off the Spanish coast on commerce raiding activities. The action of 28 February was depicted in a painting by Liverpool marine artist, Richard Wright.
In 1762, with the war coming to a close, Pasley was made commander and given the small ship HMS Albany with which to convoy merchant ships across the Irish Sea. At the pace in 1763 he retained this duty in the 8-gun HMS Ranger and was also employed in seizing smugglers between the islands. In 1769, Pasley joined HMS Weazel which was tasked with transporting structural engineers to the Guinea coast. Arriving in the worst of the wet season, Weazel soon became infested with malaria and all four engineers and the majority of the crew succumbed and died in a short period. So depleted was Weazel's crew that Pasley was forced to impress sailors from West African merchant ships in order to return to Britain safely.