…The girls were now hunting for the Laconia; and Captain Wentworth could not deny himself the pleasure of taking the precious volume into his own hands to save them the trouble, and once more read aloud the little statement of her name and rate, and present non-commissioned class, observing over it that she too had been one of the best friends man ever had.

"Ah! those were pleasant days when I had the Laconia! How fast I made money in her. A friend of mine and I had such a lovely cruise together off the Western Islands. Poor Harville, sister! You know how much he wanted money: worse than myself. He had a wife. Excellent fellow. I shall never forget his happiness. He felt it all, so much for her sake. I wished for him again the next summer, when I had still the same luck in the Mediterranean."…

An excerpt from PERSUASION by Jane Austen

Two of Jane Austen’s brothers were in the navy and when she wrote of the navy she knew what she was writing about and the career of the naval officer who occupied the Admiral’s House and gave it its name was very similar to that of her brother’s

The hot springs in Bath have been used for health and leisure purposes since Roman times, but the Bath we know today is the result of the industrial revolution, which increased the wealth of more and more people who began to have the time and money to spend on travelling and began to have new- found concerns about nurturing their health. Visiting a spa catered both for health and holidays and Bath was quick to exploit this. The first grand ‘Georgian’ buildings were built in the early 18^th century. The great crescents and terraces followed thereafter and as development crept up the hill to the north, the vineyard that, probably occupied the whole block bound by The Paragon, Belmont, Guinea Lane and Hay Hill became ripe for development.

Throughout the 18^th century Bath was the most fashionable place to be after London, all those wishing to be in fashion had to be seen in Bath, but by the end of the century visits to the seaside had begun to replace visits to a spa. The Prince Regent (Later George IV) was building his grand pavilion at Brighton and that town had replaced Bath as the most fashionable town for health and leisure. By 1790 Bath was losing its fashionable pre-eminence and was becoming a town, for retired people and pensioners, especially retired military (and naval) officers and gentry wishing to live in polite society on reduced incomes (like Sir Walter Elliot, in Persuasion)

The man, who in 1765, bought the Vineyards to develop it as housing was called Thomas Omer, and it was he who was responsible for building the house. Very little is known about Thomas Omer, although as his name occurs a number of times in the list of Listed Buildings in Bath, as well as being associated with a surveyor active in the London/Colchester area, he was clearly an active house and land developer in Bath and possibly elsewhere.

It is Listed Grade 2* and the listing describes it as an exceptionally ambitious edge-of-town villa, designed in a highly fashionable neo-Palladian idiom. It is a large house, an opulent house, built to be lived in by someone with a lot of money – and Captain John Cochet was a wealthy man.

From 1810 to 1825 Captain, later Admiral, John Cochet, one of the many naval and military officers retiring to Bath, was listed as the rate payer for this property. He probably rented the house rather than owned it. House ownership was not common in the early 19^th century, unless you were a landowner.

John Cochet was born in Rochester in 1760. His father was Paul Cochet, a French teacher, as The Gentleman’s Magazine of 1788 records the marriage, in Chatham, of Mr Chesny, a French teacher to Miss Cochet, daughter of Mr Paul Cochet ‘for many years a French teacher in that town’. Captain John Cochet is later described as ‘uncle of Lieut. John Christian Chesnaye, R.N.’ presumably the son of this marriage, as the name is the same, though spelt differently thus making him Miss Cochet’s brother.

But why was Paul Cochet, presumably a Frenchman, living in Rochester/Chatham? Here we must go back a century to 1675 and the flight of the Huguenots (French people who were Protestants rather than catholics) from France to England. Their freedom to practice their religion was revoked in that year and over the subsequent 10 or 20 years about 200,000 Huguenots fled France, 50,000 to England and enough came to Rochester for the only Huguenot Museum in Britain to be in that town. Paul Cochet, and therefore John Cochet were probably the near descendants of one or more of these Huguenot refugees.

For a boy to go to sea and become a naval officer he needed a patron, a Captain who was willing to take him on board as a midshipman and enable him to start his naval career. John Cochet’s patron was Captain Philomon Pownell, a man who had received nearly £9 million in modern values in prize money from the capture of one ship and unknown amounts from the capture of other prizes. How Captain Pownall knew the Cochets is unknown. He was a Devon man and after he acquired his fortune, he bought an estate in Devon and built a grand house. He did not go to sea between 1762 and 1775 and John Cochet sailed on Pownall’s first command when he returned to active service.

Like Pownall, John Cochet also made his money as a result of the prize money he acquired during his naval career. In particular, as one of the officers on a frigate that, in the same operation, captured a Spanish galleon, the St Jago, with an immensely valuable cargo and a French privateer, the General Dumourier, also with a valuable cargo. The value of these 2 prizes and their contents was worth £1.3 million (in modern monetary values, more than £100 million). Five ships were involved in the action and the money from the sale of these prizes was shared out between the crews of all the ships involved in the following proportions.

1/4th for the Captains and Flag Officers
1/8th for Lieutenants, Surgeons, Masters and Royal Marine Captains
1/8th for the Senior Warrant Officers etc.
1/2 for the rest

These five ships would probably, all told, have had 2,500 – 3,000 men manning them, the majority of whom would have been seamen. So with the proceeds of other prizes he had been involved in capturing, John Cochet would soon have become a wealthy man. In total he probably got prize money from over 20 ships. Jane Austen’s brother, Charles was credited with the capture of 40 ships of various kinds.

In the 16th and 17th centuries in order to encourage crews to fight and capture enemy ships, but at no cost to the Exchequer, the value of any captured ships and their contents was shared out between the crews of the ships involved. All ships in sight of a capture shared in the prize money, as their presence was thought to encourage the enemy to surrender without fighting until sunk. In 1708 The Cruisers and Convoy Act formalised the system. An Admiralty Prize Court was established to regulate the system and approve,

officially, how the money was to be shared out

If the prize was an enemy merchantman, the prize money came from the sale of both ship and cargo. If it was a warship, and repairable, usually the Crown bought it at a fair price; additionally, the Crown added "head money" of £5 per enemy sailor aboard the captured warship. Prizes were keenly sought, for the value of a captured ship was often such that a crew could make a year's pay for a few hours' fighting. So boarding and capturing an enemy ship remained common in the British navy long after naval cannons were capable of sinking it from a safe distance.

Not every ship and crew had an equal chance of prize money. Ships guarding the coast or docks, or in overseas stations, like the north Atlantic, would have little or no chance of getting any prize money and many a naval officer or crew member could serve a whole career in the navy and not win a penny in prize money.

To make money through the prize system, you had to be on duty in a station where there was a chance of capturing enemy ships, and, more importantly this meant you usually needed to be part of the crew of a frigate. Their captains tended to be the boldest and bravest of the Navies young officers and everyone wanted a posting to one early in their career.

Frigates were smaller and faster than ships-of-the-line (the kind that fought and won battles). They operated as patrol ships on trade routes, carrying news and dispatches fast between ports, or functioned as long-distance raiders, and this last role was the one where prize money could be won. To be appointed to an up to date purpose-built frigate, was what every young naval officer wanted. They tended to get into far more fights than bigger ships and capture more prizes. They were often well away from the rest of the fleet when they captured their prizes, meaning that they did not need to share their prize money with other ships. Crews on frigates, could, therefore make very substantial fortunes. However, how rich an officer became depended not just on opportunity but also, on luck, where he was posted, what kind of ship and how much success they had capturing prizes and getting them home.

Despite seeming to be constantly at sea, John Cochet met and married Charlotte Jeffries in his home town of Rochester in 1796. In 1799 he went on half-pay, meaning he was no longer at sea and nothing more is known of him until 1805, so he may have been shore based throughout this time. He had two daughters from this marriage, who were probably born before he was known to be back at sea in 1805. Sometime before 1811 his first wife died, we know this because in that year he married Mrs Lydia Long, the widow of an army captain. He could have taken the tenancy of the Admiral’s House then in preparation for this marriage. With two young daughters and a career that meant he was away from home more often than present, a second marriage was almost essential to provide a secure home background for his daughters and also opportunities for an appropriate education at the many girl’s schools in the town and, of course, social opportunities, when they were old enough, to meet potential spouses. Living in The Admiral’s House would have ensured his wife and daughters, even in his absence, high status in a status conscious town like Bath. At the time John Cochet first rented The Admiral’s House, he was still a serving Captain. He finally came ashore in 1815 and did not go to sea again. However, this did not stop him being promoted to and through the ranks of Admirals. He was appointed a Rear-Admiral in 1819; a Vice-Admiral in 1830; and a full Admiral in 1841, when he was 81.

Naval officers then did not retire, just went on half pay and, as the senior ranks went on seniority, promotions like this were not uncommon. One of Jane Austen’s brothers was on half pay and not at sea for more than 30 years, but continued to be promoted as those above him died, before being recalled to the flag and appointed Commander-in-Chief, North America and West Indies Station, when he was 70.

John Cochet ceased to be listed as a rate payer for The Admiral’s House in 1825, when he left the house to move to Bideford in Devon. He lived in Mill Street, Bideford from 1826 to 1851 when he died, aged 91.

So, to return to the quotation from Persuasion at the top of this document, Captain Wentworth and his friends. Captains Harville and Benwick, clearly have different levels of wealth. Captain Wentworth is the wealthiest with, as we are told elsewhere, a fortune of £25,000, about £2 million in current values. Captain Harville is clearly not as well off, he had one successful trip with Wentworth, but the next year when Wentworth made more money, his cruise was somewhere less productive, or possibly, he was injured. and Captain Benwick has prize money that sets him somewhere in the middle. Enough for the squire, Mr Musgrove, to be happy for him to marry one of his daughters, but not sufficient for him not to wish that he had had a bit more money.

This excerpt shows how much prize money depended on chance.

John Cochet was a very lucky man.