Vice-Admiral Sir William Monson (1569 – February 1643) was a Royal Navy officer and politician who sat in the House of Commons of England in 1601.
Life
Monson was the third son of Sir John Monson of South Carlton, Lincolnshire. He matriculated at Balliol College, Oxford, on 2 May 1581 at the age of 14.
Career
Monson ran away to sea in 1585, being then according to his own account sixteen. His first services were in a privateer in an action with a Spanish ship in the Bay of Biscay, of which he gives an account in his Naval Tracts. In the Armada year he served as Lieutenant of the "Charles," a small ship of the Queen's. There being at that time no regular naval service, Monson is next found serving with the adventurous Earl of Cumberland (1558–1605), whom he followed as a young twenty old as second in command of the Azores Voyage of 1589. His success there led him to join Cumberland's other ventures in 1591 and 1593. The voyage in 1592 however was the most spectacular and led to the capture of the rich carrack Madre de Deus. After this, in another venture Monson was taken prisoner by the Spaniards in a recaptured prize after an engagement off Berlengas Islands, and was for a time detained at Lisbon in captivity. He was awarded MA at Oxford on 9 July 1594 and was also a student of Gray's Inn in 1594. From this time until the conclusion of the war with Spain he was in constant employment. In 1602 he commanded the last squadron fitted out in the reign of Queen Elizabeth by defeating a Spanish and Portuguese fleet at Sesimbra Bay near Lisbon capturing a rich large carrack. He also took prisoner the same man who captured Monson at Berlengas nearly ten years earlier.
Monson was elected Member of Parliament for Malmesbury in 1601. In 1604 he was appointed Admiral of the Narrow Seas, the equivalent of the Channel Fleet of modern times. Like several Jacobean courtiers and officials, Mansell received gifts of money from Spanish diplomats between 1604 and 1625. In 1613, the diplomat Sir John Digby was surprised to discover records of these payments. According to the historian Garrett Mattingly, in exchange for his Spanish pension he willingly provided the Spanish Ambassador with information on the latest strength of the English Navy, or the movements of Dutch and English ships in the Narrow Seas.
In 1614 he was sent to the coasts of Scotland and Ireland to repress the pirates who then swarmed on the coast. Monson claimed to have extirpated these pests, but it is certain that they were numerous a generation later. After 1614 he saw no further active service till 1635. In 1635 he went to sea as vice-admiral of the fleet fitted out by King Charles I with the first ship money. He spent the last years of his life in writing his Tracts.
Monson died in February 1643 and was buried at St Martin in the Fields.