An American, Laforey was born in Virginia in 1767 to influential parents. His father, Admiral Sir John Laforey (1729–96) was descended from a Huguenot family that came to Britain in the company of William III in 1688, and was a baronet in his own right. Lady Laforey’s father was a member of the Council of Antigua, and so the careers of both John and Francis were closely linked to the West Indies.

So, for example, in 1791, under the orders of his father, Francis, then aged twenty-four, was in command of the Fairy sloop on the Leeward Island station. The first action taken by Sir John Laforey when news of the war with France arrived in Antigua, in 1793, was to mount an attack upon the island of Tobago, and then to send his son to England with the dispatches of his success. As a result, four days after arriving in London, Francis was made post captain – the usual reward for those bringing victory dispatches. Laforey was soon appointed to the Carysfort, a 34-gun frigate with a crew of 197 men. On 29 May 1794, she fell in with the Castor, a French frigate that had been formerly a British frigate of that name commanded by Sir Thomas Troubridge and captured when Admiral Nielly’s squadron overtook a large convoy that the Castor was shepherding to England from Newfoundland.

The action took just over an hour and whereas the Carysfort suffered one man killed and a few wounded and very little damage to their ship, the French were left with sixteen dead and nine wounded. James points out that Laforey had under him an entirely new crew and that the French were faced with fighting a ship rigged English-fashion, where every line and sail were new to them, so it must have been a somewhat confused fight.

In 1795, Captain Laforey was given command of L’Aimable (32), a fine French frigate, and in her transported his father back to Antigua where Sir John resumed his appointment as commander-in-chief of the Leeward Islands. Early the next year, Laforey took command of the Scipio (64) and under the orders of Commodore Parr, assited in the capture of the Dutch islands of Demerara, Essiquibo and Berbice.

In 1796, Sir John was relieved of his command of the Leeward Islands, and on his return journey to England, succumbed to yellow fever. In 1797, Francis succeeded to the baronetcy and took command of the Hydra frigate and cruised off the French coast. In 1799 and 1800, the Hydra was employed in the Leeward Islands and upon Sir Francis’s return to England, he was given the command of hms Powerful (74) and was ordered to the Baltic and then to Gibraltar and, lastly, to the West Indies.

With the renewal of the war in 1803, Laforey was given command of the Spartiate (74), and was in the West Indies when Nelson’s squadron arrived there in June 1805, in pursuit of the combined squadrons of France and Spain. The Spartiate then joined Nelson’s squadron for the return to Europe and, ultimately, the Battle of Trafalgar.

The 21 October was a frustrating day for him, since his ship was the last ship in Nelson’s line. With light wind, it took most of the afternoon for the Spartiate and Minotaur to get into action, but when they did, they had their moment. Bearing down upon these two British 74s were five ships of the combined fleet’s van under Rear Admiral Dumanoir: the Formidable, Duguay-Trouin, Scipion, Mont Blanc and Neptuno. Captains Laforey and Mansfield, of the Minotaur, poured broadside after broadside into the leading ship Formidable. Faced with this, Dumanoir avoided action with three of his ships following him, but leaving the Spanish Neptuno (84) to face the two British 74s alone. After an hour it was all over and the Spartiate’s losses were three killed and twenty wounded.

Following Trafalgar, the Spartiate returned to England and Sir Francis participated in Lord Nelson’s funeral as the bearer of the Standard. He stayed with the Spartiate and was employed in the Mediterranean until 1810 when he was advanced to rear admiral. His first appointment as an admiral was as commander-in-chief of the Leeward Islands, where he remained until 1814. Returning to England, he never saw active service again, although he advanced up the ranks to full admiral, and died in Brighton in 1835.

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