St Vincent, EARL, Admiral. John Jervis was born at Meaford Hall, Staffordshire, January 9, 1735. Running away to sea as a boy, he rose to a naval lieutenant in 1755, and so distinguished himself in the Quebec expedition in 1759 as to receive the rank of commander. As captain of the Foudroyant in 1778 he fought in the action off Brest, and in 1782 captured the Pégase of 74 guns, whereupon he was made K.C.B. In 1793 he commanded the naval part of the successful expedition against the French West India Islands. In 1795, now a full admiral, he received the command of the Mediterranean fleet. On the 14th February 1797, with only fifteen sail of the line and seven frigates, he fell in, off Cape St Vincent, with the Spanish fleet of twenty-seven sail. Jervis determined to engage the enemy, and the battle of St Vincent was fought; but it should be remembered that the genius of Nelson contributed greatly to the success of the day (see NELSON, Vol. VII. p. 432). For this victory the king created Jervis Earl St Vincent, and parliament settled upon him a pension of £3000 a year. After having, by great firmness, repressed a mutiny off Cadiz, which threatened the loss of the whole fleet, he was compelled by ill-health to return home. He was soon applied to by government to subdue the spirit of sedition which had openly manifested itself in the Channel fleet; and his endeavours were eminently successful. He held the appointment of First Lord of the Admiralty for the three years 1801-4, and reformed innumerable crying abuses; and having for a second time commanded the Channel fleet, he retired. He died 13th March 1823, and was buried at Stone, Staffordshire, with a monument in St Paul's Cathedral.
See his Life and Correspondence, by Captain E. P. Brenton (2 vols. 1838); the Memoirs of the Earl of St Vincent, by J. S. Tucker (2 vols. 1844); James's Naval History (new ed. 1878).