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Viscount George Keith-Elphinstone

Sir John Leake (1656-1720), admiral of the fleet, second and only surviving son of Richard Leake, was born at Rotherhithe in 1C5Ö. He was serving with his father, on board the Royal Prince, in the action of 10 August 1673, when his elder brother, Henry, was killed. After the peace he went into the merchant service, and is said to have commanded a ship for two or three voyages up the Mediterranean. He is also said to have succeeded his father as gunner of the Neptune, that is, in May 1677, which, as he was then barely twenty-one, seems improbable. It is much more likely that his appointment as gunner was some years later.

On 24 September 1688 he was promoted to command the Firedrake, which was attached to the fleet under the Earl of Dartmouth, and was in the following year with Admiral Herbert in the action off Bantry Bay, 1 May 1689, when Leake distinguished himself by setting fire to the Diamant, a French ship of 54 guns, by means of the 'cushee-piece,' which his father had invented. The Diamant's poop was blown up, and with it many officers and men ; her captain, the Chevalier Coetlogon, was dangerously wounded; and though the ship was eventually saved, Herbert was so well pleased with the attempt that two days later he posted Leake to the command of the Dartmouth of 40 guns. In September 1688, in fitting the shells for this cushee-piece at Woolwich, one of them had exploded, and killed Leake's younger brother, Edward. Whether from this accident, or from his more extended acquaintance with the gun, Leake seems to have formed an unfavourable opinion of it, and neither to have used it nor recommended it for further service, a neglect which is said to have caused some coolness between him and his father.

On 1 June he was reappointed to the Association, but in July was moved to the Exeter, and sent out as governor and commander-in-chief at Newfoundland,where, before the end of October, he completely broke up and ruined the French fishery, destroying the fishing-boats and stages, and capturing upwards of thirty of their ships. He returned to England in November, and on 10 Dec. was promoted to be rear-admiral of the blue. On 1 March 1702-3 he was advanced to be vice-admiral of the blue, and in the summer, with his flag in the Prince George, he followed Sir Clowdisley Shovell to the Mediterranean, returning to ugland and anchoring in the Downs just before the great storm of 27 Nov. 1703, when, of all the ships in the Downs, the Prince George was the only one that rode out the gale.

In February 1704 Leake was knighted, and a few days afterwards he sailed for Lisbon with a large convoy of transports. At Lisbon he joined Sir George Rooke, with whom he continued during the year, taking part in the reduction of Gibraltar on 23 July, and the battle of Malaga on 13 Aug. On the return of the fleet to Gibraltar, Leake, having shifted his flag to the Nottingham, was left in command of a small squadron for its protection. He was at Lisbon refitting when he had news that Gibraltar was attacked by the French under M. de Pointis. He put to sea at once, but after relieving and strengthening the garrison, he went back to Lisbon for stores and provisions, and coming again into Gibraltar Bay on 25 Oct., surprised there an enemy's squadron of three frigates and five smaller vessels, which he captured or destroyed. Then having intelligence that the French fleet was on the point of returning in force, and being apprehensive for the safety of a fleet of transports destined for Gibraltar, he put to sea in order to convoy it in ; but learning that it had got safely to Gibraltar, he went on to Lisbon. He was there reinforced by Sir Thomas Dilkes, and by a number of Dutch and Portuguese ships, so that in March 1704-5 he put to sea with a fleet of thirty-five sail.

Leake sailed for England, arriving at Portsmouth on 17 Oct. Both publicly and officially his reception was very flattering; the queen made him a present of 1,000£., and the prince gave him a gold-hilted sword and a diamond ring valued at 400£. During 1707 he is said to have commanded in the Channel, but it does not appear that he was at sea; the French fitted out no fleet, and were carrying on the war with predatory squadrons. Consequent on the death of Sir Clowdisley Shovell, Leake was promoted, on 8 Jan. 1707-8, to be admiral of the white, and on 15 Jan. to be admiral and commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, with the union flag at the main. On the passage out he fell in with and captured a large fleet of the enemy's victuallers, which he took to Barcelona, then threatened with famine as a result of the French victory at Almanza. When Leake landed to pay his respects to the king, he was received with almost royal honours. He then, at the king's request, went to Vado and brought back the newly married queen and a large reinforcement of troops.

On landing at Barcelona, the queen presented Leake with a diamond ring of the value of 300£. The fleet afterwards co-operated with the troops in the reduction of Sardinia and Minorca, and in the end of October Leake returned to England. On 25 Dec. 1708 he received a new commission as admiral and commander-in-chief from the Earl of Pembroke, and on 20 May 1709 was appointed by patent rear-admiral of Great Britain. No fleet worthy of his rank was, however, fitted out; and after one or two suggested expeditions had been given up, Leake was sent to cruise in the Channel, in command of a squadron of only five ships. It is said that on his return he complained of this as derogatory to his rank ; and that, in consequence, the Earl of Pembroke was removed from the post of lord high admiral. But there is no real reason for supposing that a trivial mistake of this kind had anything to do with Pembroke's retirement ; on which, in November 1709, Leake was appointed one of the lords of the admiralty. On the resignation of the Earl of Orford in the following year, the queen nominated Leake to succeed him as first lord; Leake, however, declined the appointment, but accepted the extraordinary and, till then, unknown one of chairman of the board. In September 1712 the Earl of Strafford was appointed first lord of the admiralty, but the change was merely nominal, for Strafford was detained abroad as plenipotentiary at Utrecht, and Leake continued, as before, to act as chairman. Meantime, in 1711, he had for some months command of the fleet in the Channel ; and in July 1712 was sent to take possession of Dunkirk, according to the treaty. Though still commander-in-chief, it does not seem that he actually hoisted his flag in 1713. From 1708 to 1714 he represented the city of Rochester in three successive parliaments.

Leake's appointment as chairman of the board of admiralty and the patent as rear- admiral of Great Britain died with the queen, and they were not renewed by George I. Leake, though nominally a whig, had Kept himself clear from the bitterness of faction. But the advisers of the king held that at that time there could be no neutrality ; and Leake, with many others, was practically shelved. He was granted a pension of 600/., which, in view of the high offices he had held, lie considered paltry ; but he refused to allow his claims to be represented to the king, and retiring to a house which he had built near Greenwich, he died there on 21 Aug. 1720. He was buried in Stepney Church, under a monument which he had erected some years before, on the death of his wife.

He married Christian, daughter of Captain Richard Hill, and by her had one son, Richard, a captain in the navy, who died in March 1720, at the age of thirty-eight. His wife's sister, Elizabeth, married Stephen Martin, who served with Leake ns midshipman of the Firedrake at Bantry Bay, as lieutenant of the Eagle at La Hogue, and as captain during the greater part of Leake's career as admiral. Martin is always spoken of as Leake's brother-in-law ; and his son, Stephen Martin Leake, was Leake's adopted son and heir. He has described his uncle and father by adoption as 'of middle stature, well-set and strong, a little inclining to corpulency,' with a florid complexion, open countenance, and sharp, piercing eyes ; ' though he took his bottle freely, as was the custom in his time in the fleet, yet he was never disguised, or impaired his health by it;' 'a virtuous, humane, generous, and gallant man.'