View source for Constantine Phipps, 2nd Baron Mulgrave

{{short description|Royal Navy officer, explorer and politician}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Infobox military person
 |width_style        = person
 |honorific_prefix   = [[Captain (Royal Navy)|Captain]] [[The Right Honourable]]
 |name               = The Lord Mulgrave
 |honorific_suffix   = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|PC|FRS|size=100%}}
 |image              = Constantine John Phipps.jpg
 |caption            = 1779 portrait of Phipps by [[Ozias Humphry]]
 |birth_name         = Constantine John Phipps
 |birth_date         = {{birth date|1744|05|30|df=y}}
 |birth_place        = [[Whitby]], [[Yorkshire]], England
 |death_date         = {{death date and age|1792|10|10|1744|05|19|df=y}}
 |death_place        = {{nowr|[[Liège]], [[Prince-Bishopric of Liège|Liège Prince-Bishopric]]}}
 |allegiance         = [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]]
 |branch             = [[Royal Navy]]
 |serviceyears_label = Service&nbsp;years
 |serviceyears       = 1759–1792
 |rank               = [[Captain (Royal Navy)|Captain]]
 |commands           = {{plainlist|
* {{HMS|Diligence|1756|6}}
* {{HMS|Terpsichore|1760|6}}
* {{HMS|Boreas|1757|6}}
* {{HMS|Racehorse|1757|6}}
* {{HMS|Ardent|1764|6}}
* [[Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty]]
* {{HMS|Courageux|1761|6}}
* {{HMS|Leviathan|1790|6}}}}
 |battles_label      = Battles
 |battles            = {{Tree list}}
*[[Seven Years' War]]
**[[Capture of Belle Île]]
**[[Invasion of Martinique (1762)|Invasion of Martinique]]
**[[Siege of Havana]]
*[[American Revolutionary War]]
**[[Battle of Ushant (1778)|First Battle of Ushant]]
**[[Battle of Ushant (1781)|Second Battle of Ushant]]
*[[Affair of Fielding and Bylandt]]
{{tree list/end}}
 |relations          = [[Constantine Phipps, 1st Baron Mulgrave|Constantine Phipps]] (father)
}}

[[Captain (Royal Navy)|Captain]] '''Constantine John Phipps, 2nd Baron Mulgrave''', {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|sep=,|PC|FRS}} (30 May 1744&nbsp;– 10 October 1792) was a [[Royal Navy]] officer, explorer and politician. He served during the [[Seven Years' War]] and the [[American War of Independence]], seeing action in a number of battles and engagements. Inheriting a title, he also went on to have a successful career in Parliament and occupied a number of political offices during his later years.

==Family and early life==
Phipps was born on 30 May 1744,<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w4GToaL1EJkC&q=constantine+john+phipps+may+1744 |title=The Peerage of England, Scotland, and Ireland; Or, The Ancient and Present State of the Nobility. Containing a Genealogical Account of the Respective Peers, Etc |date=1790 |publisher=W. Owen |pages=344 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Vincent |first=Benjamin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l9TbDwAAQBAJ&dq=constantine+john+phipps+may+1744&pg=PA397 |title=Haydn ́s Dictionary of Dates |date=2020-04-07 |publisher=BoD – Books on Demand |isbn=978-3-8460-4795-8 |language=en|page=397}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=PHIPPS, Hon. Constantine John (1744-92), of Mulgrave Castle, Yorks.  |url=https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/phipps-hon-constantine-john-1744-92 |access-date=2021-07-04 |website=historyofparliamentonline.org}}</ref> the eldest son of [[Constantine Phipps, 1st Baron Mulgrave]] and his wife, Lepel Hervey, the eldest daughter of John 2nd Baron Hervey of Ickworth and Mary 'Molly' Lepel.<ref name="DNB231">{{cite book |chapter=[[s:Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Phipps, Constantine John|Phipps, Constantine John]]|title=[[Dictionary of National Biography]]|year=1896|page=231}}</ref> Phipps attended [[Eton College]], where he befriended [[Joseph Banks]], the English naturalist, botanist, and later patron of the natural sciences.

==Seven Years' War==
In January 1759, he joined the 70-gun {{HMS|Monmouth|1667|6}} as a cadet under his uncle Captain [[Augustus Hervey, 3rd Earl of Bristol|Augustus Hervey]] during Hervey's 21-week watch on the French fleet in 1759. Phipps remained with his uncle on the latter's appointment to the 74-gun {{HMS|Dragon|1760|6}} in 1761, and was present at the [[British expedition against Martinique]]. His good service led to his promotion to lieutenant on 17 March 1762 by Sir [[George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney|George Rodney]], and Phipps went on to serve in the [[Battle of Havana (1762)|siege of Havana]].<ref name="DNB231"/>

He was further promoted on 24 November 1763 to command the 12-gun sloop {{HMS|Diligence|1756|6}}, moving to the 24-gun [[sixth rate]] ''Terpsichore'' on 20 June 1765.<ref name="DNB231"/> In 1766, he sailed to [[Newfoundland (island)|Newfoundland]] as lieutenant on {{HMS|Niger|1759|6}} under Captain Sir [[Sir Thomas Adams, 6th Baronet|Thomas Adams]]. [[Joseph Banks]] accompanied him as ship's naturalist. From 1767 to 1768, Phipps commanded {{HMS|Boreas|1757|6}} in the [[English Channel]].<ref name="DNB231"/>

==Political career and command==
Phipps was elected to Parliament in the [[1768 British general election|1768 general election]] as Member for the [[Lincoln (UK Parliament constituency)|constituency of Lincoln]].<ref name="DNB231"/> On 4 June 1773, Phipps set off from [[Deptford]] on a [[1773 Phipps expedition towards the North Pole|voyage towards the North Pole]]. He had two ships, the {{HMS|Racehorse|1757|2}} and the {{HMS|Carcass|1759|2}}. Phipps took with him Dr [[Charles Irving (surgeon)|Charles Irving]] as naturalist and doctor accompanied by [[Olaudah Equiano]], and [[Israel Lyons]] (1739–1775) as astronomer. The ''Carcass'' was commanded by [[Skeffington Lutwidge]], while one of her midshipmen was a young [[Horatio Nelson]].

They sailed beyond [[Svalbard]] to the [[Sjuøyane|Seven Islands]], but were forced back by the ice and returned to [[Orford Ness]] on 17 September. During the voyage, Phipps was the first modern European to describe the polar bear and the [[ivory gull]], which were included in his ''A Voyage towards the North Pole undertaken ... 1773'' (1774).

[[File:Constantine_John_Baron_Mulgrave.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Commemorative plaque for Constantine Phipps at [[Church of St Oswald, Lythe|St Oswald's Church, Lythe]], [[North Yorkshire]]. It records his date of birth as 9 May 1744, at variance with other sources.]]
On 13 September 1775, he succeeded his father as [[Baron Mulgrave]] in the [[Peerage of Ireland]]. He became MP for [[Huntingdon (UK Parliament constituency)|Huntingdon]] in 1777, and was also appointed as one of the [[Lords of the Admiralty]]. Continuing an active naval career, he commissioned the 74-gun {{HMS|Courageux|1761|6}} in 1778, and played a leading role in the [[Battle of Ushant (1778)|Battle of Ushant]] on 27 July that year. Phipps led the attack on the 90-gun {{ship|French ship|Ville de Paris|1764|2}}, but the indecisive nature of the engagement meant that the French ship was able to escape.

Phipps returned to Britain and gave evidence at the subsequent court-martial, his evidence favouring [[Hugh Palliser]].<ref name="DNB231"/> The ''Courageux'' remained under his command until 1781, with Phipps serving mostly in the Channel under Admirals [[Charles Hardy]], [[Sir Francis Geary, 1st Baronet|Francis Geary]], [[George Darby]] and [[Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe|Richard Howe]].

In the [[action of 4 January 1781]], he captured the 32-gun French frigate ''Minerve'' in heavy weather off [[Brest, France|Brest]]. The ''Courageux'' was paid off at the end of the [[American War of Independence]], and Phipps went ashore, never to serve at sea again.<ref name="DNB231"/>

==Later life==
Phipps remained as MP for Huntingdon until 1784, when he became MP for [[Newark (UK Parliament constituency)|Newark]]. In April that year, he became [[Paymaster of the Forces]] and on 18 May, he was appointed a commissioner for the affairs of India, and one of the [[Lords of Trade and Plantations]], until being forced to resign in 1791 due to ill health.<ref name="DNB231"/>

In 1790, he was made [[Baron Mulgrave]] of Mulgrave in the County of York in the [[Peerage of Great Britain]], thus entering the [[House of Lords]]. He also was a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]] and of the [[Society of Antiquaries of London|Society of Antiquaries]].<ref name="DNB231"/> He once entertained his miners underground in the [[Blue John Cavern]]s in [[Castleton, Derbyshire|Castleton]], [[Derbyshire]]. The particular cavern where they all dined as his guests is now named after him.

He died at [[Liège]] on 10 October 1792.<ref name="DNB231"/> The title of Baron Mulgrave in the British peerage then became extinct, though his brother [[Henry Phipps, 1st Earl of Mulgrave|Henry Phipps]] succeeded him in the Irish barony.

==See also==
*[[Phippsøya]], the largest island in the [[Sjuøyane]] group, is named after him

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

== References ==
{{sister project links|commonscat=y|species_author=y|display=Constantine John Phipps|auto=1}}
* {{BHL author}}
* {{OL author}}
* {{Internet Archive author}}

{{Polar exploration}}
{{Royal Navy Arctic exploration}}
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{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mulgrave, Constantine Phipps, 2nd Baron}}
[[Category:1744 births]]
[[Category:1792 deaths]]
[[Category:Barons in the Peerage of Great Britain]]
[[Category:Barons in the Peerage of Ireland]]
[[Category:Royal Navy captains]]
[[Category:Royal Navy personnel of the Seven Years' War]]
[[Category:British MPs 1768–1774]]
[[Category:British MPs 1774–1780]]
[[Category:British MPs 1780–1784]]
[[Category:British MPs 1784–1790]]
[[Category:English explorers]]
[[Category:English ornithologists]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Lords of the Admiralty]]
[[Category:Hereditary peers elected to the House of Commons]]
[[Category:Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies]]
[[Category:Members of the Privy Council of Great Britain]]
[[Category:Peers of Great Britain created by George III]]
[[Category:People educated at Eton College]]
[[Category:Phipps family (English aristocracy)|Constantine]]
[[Category:Politics of Lincoln, England]]
[[Category:People from Whitby]]