Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Naval General Service 1793-1840, 2 clasps, Guadaloupe, The Potomac 17 Aug 1814 (Thomas Jennings, Purser.) very minor edge bruising, otherwise good very fine £5000-6000

Approximately 104 clasps issued for ‘Potomac’, including 35 to officers, three of whom were pursers.

Thomas Jennings served as Purser in H.M.S. Melampus at the taking of Guadaloupe, January-February 1810; and in the same appointment in H.M.S. Seahorse, flag ship of Captain J. A. Gordon, in the expedition against New Orleans, and in the expeditions in the Potomac, including the taking of Alexandria, August 1814.

Jennings was born in April 1770 but his early service in the Royal Navy as a Clerk is unknown. He joined H.M.S. Bermuda as her Acting Purser on 17 December 1805, his ultimate seniority as Purser being confirmed on 29 January 1806. The Bermuda proceeded to Newfoundland, and then on to the West Indies Station, where she was wrecked in the Bahamas on 22 April 1808. Appointed Purser in H.M.S. Savage, 14 December 1809, he transferred later the same month to H.M.S. Melampus, in which vessel he served until 15 February 1812, and after a spell of leave ashore he joined H.M.S. Seahorse on 27 May 1813 as her Purser, taking part in Captain Gordon’s epic expedition up the Potomac River, 17-29 August 1814, which resulted in the capture of 21 sail and the taking of Fort Washington and town of Alexandria. He was paid off from Seahorse at Plymouth on 12 September 1815, and did not return to sea in one of H.Ms. vessels for the next 17 years.

On 16 October 1832, now aged 62, he was appointed to H.M.S. Malabar for her new Commission in the Mediterranean, and was re-appointed by Warrant as Purser for her second Commission on 25 July 1834. In all he served 6 years aboard the Malabar before she was paid off at Plymouth on 5 January 1838. On 20 October 1843 he was appointed Purser in H.M.S. Camperdown, the local Flag Officer’s ship at Sheerness. H.M.S. Queen took over Flag-Ship duties in July 1844, and then H.M.S. Trafalgar became Flag-Ship in January 1845. Jennings continued to serve as Purser in all three ships until superceded on 7 March 1847, finally retiring aged 77 years. Thomas Jennings died in 1854, aged 84 years.