“At a Court-Martial, assembled on board his Majesty’s ship St. George, in Portsmouth harbour, upon the 28th of December, 1756, and held everyday afterwards (Sundays excepted), till the 27th of January inclusive--
Thomas Smith, Esq., Vice-Admiral of the Red, President; Francis Holburne, Esq., Rear-Admiral of the Red; Harry Norris, Esq., Rear-Admiral of the White; Thomas Brodrick, Esq., Rear-Admiral of the Blue;
Captains, Charles Holmes, Francis Geary, William Boys, John Moore, John Simcoe, James Douglas, John Bentley, Hon. Augustus Keppel. Peter Denis,
The Court, pursuant to an order from the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to Vice-Admiral Smith, dated December 14, 1756, proceeded to inquire into the conduct of the Hon. John Byng, Admiral of the Blue squadron of his Majesty’s Fleet, and to try him upon a charge, that during the engagement between his Majesty’s Fleet, under his command, and the Fleet of the French King, on the 20th of May last, he did withdraw or keep back, and did not do his utmost to take, seize, and destroy, the ships of the French King, which it was his duty to have engaged, and to assist such of his Majesty’s ships as were engaged in fight with the French ships, which it was his duty to have assisted; and for that he did not do his utmost to relieve St. Philip’s Castle, in his Majesty’s island of Minorca, then besieged by the forces of the French King, but acted contrary to, and in breach of, his Majesty’s command; and having heard the evidence and the prisoner’s defence, and very maturely and thoroughly considered the same, they are unanimously of opinion, that he did not do his utmost to relieve St. Philip’s Castle, and also that during the engagement between his Majesty’s Fleet under his command and the Fleet of the French King on the 20th of May last, he did not do his utmost to take, seize, and destroy, the ships of the French King, which it was his duty to have engaged, and to assist such of his Majesty’s ships as were engaged, in fight with the French ships, which it was his duty to have assisted; and do therefore unanimously agree that he falls under part of the twelfth article of an Act of Parliament of the twenty-second year of his present Majesty, for amending, explaining, and reducing into one Act of Parliament the laws relating to the government of his Majesty’s ships, vessels, and forces by sea; and as that article positively prescribes death, without any alternative left to the discretion of the Court, under any variation of circumstances, the Court do therefore hereby unanimously adjudge the said Admiral John Byng to be shot to death, at such time, and on board such ship, as the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty shall direct.