Sir Charles Saxton, 1st Baronet

Charles Saxton was born in 1732, the youngest son of Edward Saxton, a merchant of London and Abingdon, and his wife Mary, née Bush. The family's country estate was Circourt Manor at Denchworth in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire). Saxton entered the navy in January 1745, becoming a captain's servant aboard the 50-gun , under the command of Captain Charles Saunders. Saxton spent the next three years aboard the Gloucester, before joining the 58-gun under Captain Richard Collins, while the Eagle was the guard ship at Plymouth. From her he moved to the 60-gun where he served on the Guinea coast with Captain John Byron. Saxton returned to England in 1760 and was briefly assigned as lieutenant to the 64-gun early that year, though on 11 October 1760 Saxton received a promotion to commander. The commission was apparently an uneventful one, the French having been decisively defeated by Hawke at the Battle of Quiberon Bay in 1759, and after the Seven Years' War had concluded, Saxton paid off the Magnanime. ==Interwar years==

Saxton remained in active employment after the war, commissioning the 32-gun in March 1763 and taking her out to the Newfoundland station in May. In 1764 he was sent by Commodore Hugh Palliser to reconnoitre French activities in the Gulf of St Lawrence, and to deter any claims they might make there. In July 1771 he married Mary Bush. ==American War of Independence==

Another period without active employment then passed for Saxton, before the outbreak of the American War of Independence. He commissioned the 74-gun and in 1780 was part of the Channel Fleet under Francis Geary, and later George Darby. Saxton sailed to the West Indies in November 1780 and there became part of Sir Samuel Hood's squadron. Hood then despatched Invincible to Jamaica to be refitted, after which Saxton sailed in July 1782 to join Admiral Hugh Pigot off the American coast. ==Post-war and administrative career==

Saxton returned to England in mid-1783 and paid Invincible off. Again left without a ship, it was not until 1787 that he received another post. Tensions mounted with France that year, and Saxton was appointed to a commission with the purpose of examining the working of the impress system, with Saxton responsible for London. Again the crisis passed without breaking into open war, and in 1789 Saxton became commissioner of the navy at Portsmouth. It was an important posting at an important time, Portsmouth being the navy's principal dockyard, and Saxton oversaw operations during the expansion of the navy. == Notes ==