SAUMAREZ, JAMES SAUMAREZ [or SAUSMAREZ], BARON DE (1757-1836), English admiral, was born at St. Peter Port, Guernsey, on March II, 1757. He entered the navy as midshipman at the age of thirteen. For his bravery at the attack of Charleston in 1776, on board the "Bristol" he was raised to the rank of lieutenant, and he was promoted commander for his gal lant services off the Dogger Bank, Aug. 5, 1781, when he was wounded. In command of the "Russell" (7o), he contributed to Rodney's victory over De Grasse (April 12, 1782). For the capture of "La Reunion," a French frigate, in 1793, he was knighted. He took part in the defeat of the French fleet off Lorient, (June 22), distinguished himself in the battle of Cape St. Vincent in Feb. '797, and was present at the blockade of Cadiz (Feb. April 1798), and at the battle of the Nile, where he was wounded.
On his return from Egypt he received the command of the "Caesar" (84), with orders to watch the French fleet off Brest during the winters of 1799 and i800. Between July 6 and 12, 1801, he routed a superior combined force of French and Spanish ships at Algeciras. On the outbreak of the war with Russia in 1809 he was given command of the Baltic fleet. He held it during the wars preceding the fall of Napoleon, and his tact was con spicuously shown towards the government of Sweden at the crisis of the invasion of Russia. At the peace of 1814 he attained the rank of admiral; Charles XIII. (Bernadotte) bestowed on him the grand cross of the military order of the Sword. He was raised to the peerage in 1831, and died at Guernsey on Oct. 9, 1836.
See Memoirs of Admiral Lord de Saumarez, by Sir John Ross (2 vols., 1838).