Yorke was promoted to lieutenant on 16 June 1789, and moved aboard the 50-gun HMS Adamant to serve under Admiral Sir Richard Hughes.[1] He later served as lieutenant aboard HMS Thisbe and HMS Victory and in February 1791 he was appointed master and commander of the sloopHMS Rattlesnake. He remained aboard her, carrying out cruises into the English Channel until the outbreak of war with France in 1793. He was promoted to Post-Captain on 4 February 1793 and given command of the frigateHMS Circe, then part of a squadron under Admiral Richard Howe. He patrolled off the French port of Brest, and captured the corvetteL'Espiegle.[1]
Yorke moved to HMS Stag in July 1794, and continued to serve in the Channel, occasionally ranging into the North Sea. On 22 August 1795 the Stag and a small British squadron chased two large ships and a cutter, eventually bringing the sternmost one to battle. An hour-long fight ensued, after which the enemy, subsequently found to be the Batavian frigate Alliance, was forced to surrender.[1] Yorke moved to command the newly built HMS Jason in March 1800, and by 1801 was in command of the 74-gun third rateHMS Canada. He commanded her until the Treaty of Amiens in 1802 brought a period of temporary peace.[1] On the resumption of the war in 1803 Yorke was appointed to the 98-gun HMS Prince George, followed by HMS Barfleur and then HMS Christian VII, an 80-gun former Danish ship captured at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1807.[1][2][3]
Joseph Yorke was promoted to Rear-Admiral of the Blue on 31 July 1810 and hoisted his flag in the 74-gun HMS Vengeance in January 1811.[1] He sailed to the Tagus carrying reinforcements for Arthur Wellesley's army, fighting in the Peninsular War.[1] After carrying this out he escorted a fleet returning to Britain from the East Indies. Yorke was promoted to Rear-Admiral of the White on 12 August 1812,[6] Rear-Admiral of the Red on 4 December 1813[7] and Vice-Admiral of the Blue on 14 June 1814.[8] He served as First Naval Lord in the Liverpool ministry from October 1813 until May 1816[9] but remained on the Admiralty Board until April 1818.[10] He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the restructuring of that order in January 1815,[11] promoted Vice-Admiral of the White on 12 August 1819,[12] and promoted to Admiral of the Blue on 22 July 1830.[13]
Parliamentary career
Yorke stood as a candidate for the constituency of Reigate in 1790, and was returned as its member.[1][14] He represented the borough[15] until 1806, when he was elected as member for St Germans.[16] He stood aside, "taking the Chiltern Hundreds" in 1810 so that his brother, Charles Philip Yorke, could be elected.[17] In the 1812 general election Joseph Yorke stood as a candidate for Sandwich and was returned as its member.[1] He represented the borough until 1818 when he was re-elected to the Reigate constituency, which he represented until his death.[18] Yorke's business interests include the chairmanship of the Waterloo Bridge Company.[1]
Family and personal life
On 29 March 1798, Yorke married Elizabeth Weake Rattray, the daughter of James Rattray, in Ireland. Elizabeth died on 20 January 1812.[1] They had the following children:
Charles Philip Yorke (1799–1873), Admiral in the Navy, succeeded as 4th Earl of Hardwicke
On 5 May 1831 Yorke was returning from visiting Henry Hotham's flagship, HMS St Vincent, then moored at Spithead. He was making his way back to shore aboard the yacht Catherine, in company with Captains Matthew Barton Bradby and Thomas Young, and a seaman named John Chandler, when the boat was struck by lightning in Stokes Bay, causing it to capsize.[1][20] All aboard were drowned. The bodies were later recovered and an inquest returned a verdict of accidental death.[1] Yorke was buried at the family tomb in the parish church at Wimpole, close to Wimpole Hall, the seat of the Earls of Hardwicke.[1][21]
^James, William (1824). "Vol. 5". The Naval History of Great Britain: From the Declaration of War by France in February 1793, to the accession of George IV in January 1820; with an account of the origin and progressive increase of the British Navy. London: Baldwin, Cradock and Joy. pp. 333–335.