John Cochet was born on 3 August 1760 in Rochester, Kent, and entered the Navy as an ordinary seaman in 1775. Between this date and his retirement, he served on fourteen ships in several theatres of war. He started by cruising along the North American coast, before moving on to the Apollo, where he became a midshipman in October 1798. In January 1799, he helped in the capture of the 26-gun frigate, L’Oiseau, after a bloody battle that lasted an hour and a half. On 15 June, he further contributed to the defeat of the 26-gun French ship Stanislaus off Ostend. From the following December, until his first commission, he served in American, Home and Mediterranean stations, variously on the Amphion, the Charleston, the Powerful, the Southampton, the Zebra and the Phaeton.
His most notable action was in 1794, when the Phaeton, captained by his friend Sir A.S. Douglas, and himself as first lieutenant, captured the French privateer, Le General Doumourier, which itself had captured the Spanish galleon, the St. Jago, carrying an immense fortune on board, valued today at £100 million. No doubt he was awarded some of the prize money. From here, he was posted to Earl Howe’s ship, the Queen Charlotte, where he served in the action of the Glorious First of June,1794.
Two years later, Captain John Cochet was in command of the HMS Abergavenny, which was responsible for the safe evacuation of French and English troops out of Port-au-Prince in Haiti, after the slave rebellion there under the leadership of Toussaint L’Ouverture.
He returned to England in 1799, but saw further action in 1813/14 at Bermuda. He was promoted to full admiral on 28 November 1841. He married, first, Miss Charlotte Jeffrys on 19 May 1796, and remarried, on 5 July 1811, Lydia, the widow of Capt. Long of the 89th Regiment,, who died on 9 September 1839.
During the years 1810 – 1825, Captain Cochet lived a life of some luxury in a Georgian town-house in Bath, now The Admirals Hotel, but at a later date, perhaps because he wanted to keep in touch with maritime affairs in his retirement, he moved to Bideford, where he lived in a house in Mill Street, where Wildens Tools Shop used to be. He died in Bideford in 1854.
Although most of the wills deposited at Exeter were destroyed during the Exeter Blitz, that of Admiral Cochet survives. He fell out with a neighbour just before he died, apparently because he
was not permitted to attend his neighbour’s wife’s funeral. There is a clause in his own will excluding the neighbour from his own funeral, a rather sad ending to a long and illustrious career. There is a memorial to him in St.Mary’s Church which reads: Sacred/to the memory of/ John Daniel Cochet Esq/An Admiral of Her Majesty’s/Red Squadron/ who served his country with zeal/ and assiduity for 70 years/and who died the 10 June 1851/In the 91st Year of His Age.
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