John Pascoe Grenfell

John Pascoe Grenfell (20 September 1800 – 20 March 1869) was a British officer of the Empire of Brazil. He spent most of his service in South America campaigns, initially under the leadership of Lord Cochrane and then Commodore Norton. He was the nephew of British politician Pascoe Grenfell and grandfather to General Sir John Grenfell Maxwell. In Brazil, he rose to the rank of admiral and for his achievements was made a knight grand cross of the Imperial Order of the Rose and a knight of the Imperial Order of the Southern Cross. Personal history Early life John Pascoe Grenfell was born in Battersea, Surrey on 20 September 1800 to John Maugham Grenfell and his wife Sophia Turner. In 1811 he entered the service of the British East India Company, and in 1819 he joined the Chilean Navy under Lord Cochrane. He took part in most of the conflicts undertaken by Lord Cochrane during the War of Chilean Independence, and rose to the rank of lieutenant. On 5 November 1820 Grenfell took part in the cutting out of the frigate Esmeralda and the following year in the pursuit of the Venganza and Prueba, the last major Spanish warships in the South Pacific. In 1823, he followed Lord Cochrane to Brazil, to fight in the Brazilian War of Independence. In August 1823, Grenfell now a Commander in the small brig Dom Miguel sailed to Belem do Pará and using a similar tactic used by Lord Cochrane at Maranham, persuaded the Portuguese forces to surrender by making them think a larger fleet was in the offing. The Portuguese capitulated, but pro-Brazilian soldiers carried out large-scale protests and looting. In retaliation, Grenfell had five random imprisoned soldiers shot in the Largo do Palácio, a broad public square, on October 17, 1823. João Goncalves Batista Campos, the new pro-Imperial president, was tied to the mouth of a cannon to extract a confession on the theft and looting; Batista Campos survived through the intervention of a friend. Grenfell is most noted for the "tragedy of the Palhaço brig", where 256 prisoners were detained in the hold of a prison vessel, the São José Diligente of the cost of the city; by the next morning there were only four survivors. Grenfell's direct orders are unknown, but news of the massacre solidified anti-Imperial sentiment across North Brazil.