You may recall that I found it difficult to pinpoint Capt Robert Alexander Lambert's career after 1780. I think I have now resolved that, and the story might be of some use to others.
The only clue I had was from his wife's obituary, which referred to him as "a Commissioner in the Navy." But I could find no confirmation in the several source and academic documents that list Commissioners. He was not senior enough to be a Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty. There were also senior men of commissioner rank who supervised dockyards on home postings, and who were engaged in other naval bodies such as the Victualling Board. He is not cited among any of them.
Latterly I have been in touch with the College of Arms concerning the Lambert heraldry (dating from his grandfather Sir John Lambert, Bt 1711, of the South Sea Company), and their records too have him as "A Commissioner in the Navy."
His wife's (incomplete) diaries, which I am toiling through in the Surrey History Centre, show that on 11 September 1782 he sailed from Spithead in the Proserpine. Other sources do not list him as in command of that vessel and he must have been on passage. The 1783 diary is missing, but that from 1784 records her receiving several letters from "Dear Capt. L" who is in Jamaica (Jamaica and its plantations being a recurrent theme with Lambert and his wife Catherine who was from the Byndloss plantocracy). He returns to London from Jamaica on 19 April 1784.
I have lately discovered the various volumes of
Biographia Navalis (Charnock, 1798) which are downloadable free online. In Vol VI there is an entry for Robert Lambert. It seems to contain a number of errors/omissions concerning his ships (this conclusion is based on other records including the Admiralty service record of his eldest son who was with him on two of them from the age of eight ). The online
'seadogs' project also notes of the
Biographia that it is "known to be prone to factual error and contradictions"
However the last part of the entry for Robert [Alexander] Lambert reads:
"In 1782 he was appointed a commissioner of the navy resident at Jamaica, it being thought necessary, in consequence of the very extensive naval armament then employed in that quarter, to establish a civil department to superintend the partial repairs, and refitment of ships, in order to lessen, in some degree, the care and labour of the commander-in-chief. Peace taking place very soon after this time, the newly erected office just-mentioned, was suppressed, and Capt. Lambert retired on a pension of £250. per annum, as a superannuated commissioner of the Navy." This seems to resolve the mystery; fits with the diary; and as the post was in Jamaica accounts perhaps for his omission from academic material concerning commissioners in the UK.
There were other ports e.g. Mahon where I believe there were navy commissioners i/c the dockyard. So if you happen to be mystified about one of them not being listed here,......
I know from the diaries that on return to London, Capt. L visited the Admiralty Board several times in 1784 and I will be toiling through later diaries with interest.