She assisted in major naval operations in the Caribbean and North America, including the British capture of Quebec City and Montreal, the Siege of Havana and the Battle of St Kitts.

Removed from active service in 1794, Lizard was eventually refitted as a hospital ship and assigned to a berth near Burntwick Island where she received merchant seamen suspected of suffering from diseases including yellow fever and bubonic plague.

As with others in her class she was loosely modeled on the design and external dimensions of HMS Tartar, launched in 1756 and responsible for capturing five French privateers in her first twelve months at sea.

[1] The Admiralty Order to build the Coventry-class vessels was made after the outbreak of the Seven Years' War, and at a time in which the Royal Dockyards were fully engaged in constructing or fitting-out the Navy's ships of the line.

[3][4][a] Private shipyards were not subject to rigorous naval oversight, and the Admiralty therefore granted authority for "such alterations withinboard as shall be judged necessary" in order to cater for the preferences or ability of individual shipwrights, and for experimentation with internal design.

[5][6] With few exceptions the remainder of the class were named after figures from classical antiquity, following a more modern trend initiated in 1748 by John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich in his capacity as First Lord of the Admiralty.

[1] In sailing qualities Lizard was broadly comparable with French frigates of equivalent size, but with a shorter and sturdier hull and greater weight in her broadside guns.

[9][11] She was built with broad and heavy masts which balanced the weight of her hull, improved stability in rough weather and allowed her to carry a greater quantity of sail.

[1][e] Private shipyards such as Henry Bird's used thinner hull planking than did the Royal Dockyards, producing less robust vessels which further decreased in seaworthiness after every major repair.

[13] Privately built vessels during the Seven Years' War were also hampered by the unavailability of seasoned oak, as the Royal Navy's supply was preferentially allocated to ships of the line.

Smaller vessels such as Lizard were therefore routinely repaired with unseasoned timber which could warp as it dried, causing cracks in decks and gun ports and leaks along the hull.

This was completed by 1 June and Lizard immediately put to sea to join a small squadron under the command of Admiral Samuel Cornish off the southwest coast of Cornwall.

[1][18] Anson had directed that the 74-gun ship of the line HMS Shrewsbury maintain a position close to the Brest shoreline in order to observe the French fleet.

On 12 September the three Royal Navy vessels were in position when their crews observed an approaching convoy of French coasters, escorted by the frigates Calypso and Thetis.

[1][18] Captain Doake took command in mid-October, bringing Admiralty orders reassigning Lizard to North American waters as part of a fleet supporting a planned invasion of Québec in 1759.

The winter idled by as the invasion force was assembled, until on 17 February 1759 the Lizard departed Spithead for Halifax, Nova Scotia, accompanied by other Royal Navy vessels.

[22] The British had set their sights on the French Caribbean stronghold of Martinique, with Secretary of State for the Southern Department, Sir William Pitt, directing that all available resources be committed to its invasion.

[27] No longer required for Falklands duty, Lizard made an uneventful return voyage to Gibraltar in June 1771, and then remained at Portsmouth until September when she was assigned to patrol and privateer-hunting along the North American coastline.

Mackenzie was replaced in command by Captain Francis Parry, and Lizard was thereafter assigned to service in the English Channel where, on 18 May 1780, she captured the enemy cutter Jackal.

While en route to Saint Kitts at the head of Hood's fleet, Lizard encountered and captured the 16-gun French cutter l'Espion, laden with a cargo of artillery shells and other ammunition.

Civil unrest in France in early 1790 encouraged Admiralty to increase the number of vessels in active service, and Lizard was among those selected for a return to sea.

On returning to Spithead in June 1791 she was joined to a squadron of six ships of the line under the overall command of Admiral Hood, which was sailing for Jamaica with two regiments of the Coldstream Guards.

In March 1793 she secured three successive victories, capturing the French privateers Les Trois Amis, Las Vaillant Custine and the 8-gun Le Sans-Cullotte, each of which was sent back to British ports as prize vessels.

Despite these successes, the forty-year-old vessel was reaching the end of her seagoing career; after one final year in the North Sea she was returned to Portsmouth in May 1794 and permanently removed from active military roles.

[40] On completion of the fitout in 1800 Lizard was sailed to Stangate Creek, near Burntwick Island in Kent, to care for sick seafarers discharged from quarantined merchantmen.

[43] Valiant was returned to sea in 1803, but Lizard and Duke remained at Stangate Creek for the next 28 years, catering for patients transferred from vessels under quarantine at other ports.