The Honourable Samuel Barrington, the younger son of an Irish Peer, was sent into the Navy in his extreme youth, and at an early age was made a post-captain. He was one of those very few persons who have many friends and scarcely one enemy. He was not brilliant in understanding, and his appearance was plain, but his heart was excellent. He loved his friends, was charitable and humane to an extensive circle, and constantly kind and liberal to his family.
He was a good officer, and of the right school. Not ambitious, neither was he eager after fame. He wished to do his duty, and he did it well. If he had ambition in any the slightest degree, it was to get on in the service without making use of the powerful interest of his brother, who was for many years in the Ministry; and for this purpose he endeavoured to have his ship better manned, to get under weigh sooner, be sooner out of dock, &c. &c., than other people. It is not impossible that his rank in life was often of service to him on these occasions, but it was not his intention to avail himself of that advantage. He was a father to his officers and seamen, and was so generally liked in the Navy, that it was remarked that no company of sea-officers ever met without drinking his health.
When he was an Admiral he never desired to be a commander-in-chief, for he did not like responsibility, and he was envious of no man. He spent his fortune in hospitality and acts of charity, avoiding all ostentation, not only because he had no taste for it, but because he would not hurt the feelings of his brother officers by living in a manner which those of more limited incomes could not have imitated without distressing themselves.[127] He was never violent in politics, and hatred seemed banished from his nature. I believe Admiral Barrington to have been a sincere Christian.
His conduct at Santa Lucia, both in taking the island and afterwards in defending it against the infinitely superior force of D’Estaing, was greatly applauded. In answer to the haughty letter in which the French commander exhorted him to give up a place which he could not defend against such inequality of force, he only returned him his letter, crossed over with two long scratches of his pen, and defeated him completely.