He was admitted to Westminster School on 15 January 1783, and entered the navy in March 1789, on board HMS Adamant, flagship of Sir Richard Hughes on the Halifax station.
[2] When the Adamant was paid off in 1792, Warren was sent to HMS Lion with Captain Erasmus Gower, and in her made the voyage to China.
[2] In 1809 Warren commanded HMS Melpomene in the Baltic Sea for a few months, acting for Sir Peter Parker, 2nd Baronet, who was on sick leave.
At daybreak the wind freshened and the gunboats retired; but the Melpomene had lost thirty-four men, killed and wounded; both hull and masts had suffered much damage, and her rigging was cut to pieces.
[6] Warren married, in 1804, Mary, only daughter of Rear-Admiral David Laird of Strathmartine House, Dundee, and had issue.