She served during the War of the English Succession fighting in the Battles of Beachy Head and Barfleur.

[3] HMS Grafton was awarded the Battle Honours Barfleur 1692[4] Vigo 1702,[5] Gibraltar 1704,[6] and Velez-Malaga 1704.

[7] She was ordered in April 1677 to be built at Woolwich Dockyard under the guidance of Master Shipwright Phineas Pett (until February 1678) then completed by Thomas Shish.

[10][9] She was commissioned on 16 July 1679 under the command of Captain John Perryman for delivery to Chatham.

On 4 August she became the Flagship of Admiral George Legge, the Earl of Dartmouth and then sailed from Plymouth for the evacuation of Tangier, Morocco.

She partook in the Battle of Beachy Head[11] in Centre (Red) Squadron on 30 June 1690.

[12] She participated in the attack on Cork, Ireland on 29 September 1690 during which Captain Fitzroy was mortally wounded, dying 9 October 1690.

In 1694 she was under Captain Richard Fitzpatrick sailing with Russel's Fleet in the English Channel then on to the Mediterranean in October 1694.

With the outbreak of the War of Spanish Succession in May 1702, she sailed with Admiral Sir George Rooke's Fleet on 19 July for operations at Cadiz, Spain.

At Lagos, Portugal they learned that the Spanish Treasure Fleet and its French escort was at Vigo Bay .

[17] On August 13, 1704, she fought in the Battle of Velez Malaga[7] as a member of the Center Squadron, suffering 31 killed Including Captain Leake and 66 wounded.