Memorial Service in Newport, R.I. for French Admiral Knight of Malta

Charles-Henri-Louis d'Arsac, Marquis de Ternay

(27 Jan 1723 - 15 Dec 1780)

On May 2, 1780 a French fleet departed France carrying General Rochambeau and part of the French expeditionary force to aid General Washington and the continental army in the War of American Independence.  The fleet of seven ships of the line (the largest warships)and four frigates accompanying 33 transports was under the command of Rear Admiral Charles Henri Louis d’Arsac Marquis de Ternay, a Knight of Malta.  Some 6,200 officers and men, and 400 servants, disembarked upon arrival at Newport, R.I.

In December, while on his flagship, the Duc de Bourgogne, anchored in the roads of Newport, the admiral became ill from typhus.  He was taken ashore to Hunter House, which was serving as the French Navy's shore office, where he died on December 15 in an upstairs bedroom. 

There was no Catholic church in town, so with the gracious permission of Trinity Anglican Church, nine French navy chaplain priests held the funeral Mass there. With further special permission, the admiral was buried in a consecrated plot in the northeast corner of the church cemetery.  French troops lined the streets from Hunter House all the way to Trinity for the burial. As the casket came into view of each warship in the harbor, each fired an individual salute.  [There are at least two other French officers buried at Trinity in unmarked graves, including an aide de camp to Lafayette.]  

Originally the admiral’s grave was marked by a wooden memorial. The original marker was replaced by a marble marker given by King Louis XVI.  In 1856 this marker was replaced by a huge gravestone from the French navy.

The admiral had received his naval training while serving in the navy of the Order of Malta.  Such service was used by many countries as their training school for their naval officers.   In his youth in 1737 the future admiral served as a page and in the navy of the Order of Malta, and he became a Knight of Malta, although not with final vows at the time of his death.  His grave marker included the Cross of Malta. 

On July 8, 2015 there will be a special memorial service in honor of Admiral de Ternay in Trinity Church in Newport as part of the visit of the Frigate Hermione.  The frigate is a replica of the ship by that name which in April 1980 carried Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette to the colonies to inform General Washington that France was sending military and naval forces to assist in the war.

The painting depicts a secret expedition Admiral de Ternay led against British-controlled Newfoundland in 1762, late in the Seven Years' War.