Peter Simple and The Three Cutters, Vol. 1 | Page 2

Trinity College, Cambridge ... was sent to aid the Huguenots in their wars in France ... escaped the massacre of St Bartholemew and, in 1610, returned to England." Here he married "Mary, the daughter and heiress of Daniel Luke, of the Covent Garden (a rank Puritan family in Hudibras), and again settled in his paternal county of Suffolk." Less partial biographers neglect to trace the Marryats beyond this Huguenot officer, who is described by them as a refugee.
Whatever may be the truth of these matters, it is certain that during the 17th and 18th centuries the Maryats were a respectable, middle-class Puritan family--ministers, doctors, and business men. In the days of the merry monarch a John Marryat became distinguished as a "painful preacher," and was twice expelled from his livings for non-conformity. Captain Marryat's grandfather was a good doctor, and his father, Joseph Marryat of Wimbledon House, was an M.P., chairman for the committee of Lloyd's, and colonial agent for the island of Grenada--a substantial man, who refused a baronetcy, and was honoured by an elegy from Campbell. He married Charlotte Geyer, or Von Geyer, a Hessian of good descent.
Frederick, born July 10, 1792, was one of fifteen sons and daughters, "of whom ten attained maturity, and several have entered the lists of literature." His eldest brother, Joseph, was a famous collector of china, and author of Pottery and Porcelain; the youngest, Horace, wrote One Year in Sweden, Jutland and the Danish Isles; and his sister, Mrs Bury Palliser, was the author of Nature and Art (not to be confounded with Mrs Inchbald's novel of that name), The History of Lace, and Historic Devices, Badges and War Cries. His father and grandfather published political and medical works, respectively, while the generation below was equally prolific. Marryat's youngest son, Frank, described his travels in Borneo and the Eastern Archipelago and Mountains and Molehills, or Recollections of a Burnt Journal; and his daughter Florence, Mrs Lean, the author of his Life and Letters, has written a great many popular novels.
We can record little of Marryat's boyhood beyond a general impression of his discontent with school-masters and parents. Mr Hannay is probably right in regarding his hard pictures of home and school life as reflections of his own experience.
It is said that on one occasion he was found to be engaged in the pursuit of knowledge while standing on his head; and that he accounted for the circumstance with a humorous philosophy almost worthy of Jack Easy--"Well! I've been trying for three hours to learn it on my feet, but I couldn't, so I thought I would try whether it would be easier to learn it on my head." Another anecdote, of a contest with his school-fellow Babbage, is interesting and characteristic. It appears that the inventor of the calculating machine, unlike Marryat, was a very diligent lad; and that he accordingly arranged, with some kindred spirits, to begin work at three in the morning. The restless Marryat wished to join the party, but his motives were suspected and the conspirators adopted the simple expedient of not waking him. Marryat rolled his bed across the door, and Babbage pushed it away. Marryat tied a string from his wrist to the door handle, and Babbage unfastened it. A thicker string was cut, a chain was unlinked by pliers, but at last the future captain forged a chain that was too stout for the future mathematician. Babbage, however, secured his revenge; as soon as his comrade was safely asleep he slipped a piece of pack thread through the chain and, carrying the other end to his own bed, was enabled by a few rapid jerks to waken Marryat whenever he chose. Apparently satisfied with his victory in the gentle art of tormenting, Babbage yielded voluntarily upon the original point of dispute. Marryat and others joined the reading party, transformed it to a scene of carnival, and were discovered by the authorities.
Meanwhile Marryat was constantly running away--to sea; according to his own account because he was obliged to wear his elder brother's old clothes. On one occasion his father injudiciously sent him back in a carriage with some money in his pocket. The wise youth slipped out, and finding his way home by some quiet approach, carried off his younger brothers to the theatre. He finally ran away from a private tutor, and Mr Marryat recognised the wisdom of compliance. Being then fourteen, that is of age to hold a commission, Frederick was allowed to enter the navy, and on the 23rd of September 1806, he started on his first voyage on board H.M.S. Imp��rieuse, Captain Lord Cochrane, for the Mediterranean.
He could scarcely have entered upon his career under better auspices. In a line-of-battle ship he would have had no chance of service at this stage