The Lyme was a 52-gun third rate Speaker-class frigate built for the navy of the Commonwealth of England by Master Shipwright John Tippetts at Portsmouth Dockyard, and launched on 4 September 1654.

By 1665 she carried 58 guns, comprising 20 demi-cannon, 4 culverins and 32 demi-culverins, with 2 small falcons on the poop.

She was rebuilt and girdled (widened) by Master Shipwright Sir Phineas Pett at Chatham Dockyard in 1672-74 (an extra layer of timbers added to her sides) to improve her stability.

She underwent her second rebuild in 1698 by Master Shipwright Fisher Harding at Woolwich Dockyard, reduced to the Fourth rate as a 60-gun ship of the line.

After a Great Repair at Portsmouth in 1739-40, she was recommissioned for the West Indies in 1740 and took part in the operations at Cartagena in 1741 and at Porto Bello in 1742.