David Carnegie Andrew Agnew

“ Happening to visit Boston, he met there a young lady, whom he married in 1788, Charlotte, third daughter of Frederick Geyer, Esq., known as an American “loyalist.” This step led to his return home, and he settled in London in 1789 as a West Indian merchant. He was Agent for the islands of Grenada and Trinidad. Such was his eminence, that he rose to be Chairman of Lloyd’s; he was also the head of the banking house of Marryat, Kaye, Price, & Co. He entered the House of Commons in 1812 at the ripe age of fifty-six ”

“ But he also gained much credit in more serious studies. He was a Fellow of the Royal and of the Linnean Societies. In 1837 he published “The Universal Code of Signals for the Mercantile Marine of all Nations,” for which valuable work Louis Philippe, King of the French, made him a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, and sent him the Gold Cross of that Order of Knighthood. (There is an edition published in 1869, edited by G. B. Richardson.) ”

“ The last edition issued in his lifetime was the tenth, the preface being dated Bristol, July 1, 1791. [I have before me the fourteenth edition, Bristol, 1798.] He was the father of Joseph Marryat, M.P., and of Samuel Marryat, a successful barrister, who rose to be a King’s Counsel.
Dr. Marryat’s eldest son, Joseph, was born in London in 1756. His father’s circumstances were never affluent, and the young man was the architect of the fortune at which he arrived. ”