She engaged the American gun batteries at Red Hook during the Battle of Long Island in August 1776, and forced a passage up the Hudson River in October.

She served in this capacity during the French Revolutionary war and was with the British fleet under Vice-Admiral Sir John Jervis that captured Martinique, Guadeloupe and St Lucia in 1794.

Recommissioned as a troopship in July 1799, during the War of the Second Coalition, Roebuck joined the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland and was part of the fleet, under the command of Vice-Admiral Sir Andrew Mitchell, to which the Dutch surrendered in the Vlieter Incident.

When the War of the Third Coalition broke out in May 1803, she was brought back into service as a guardship at Leith, flying the flags of Vice-Admiral Richard Rodney Bligh and then Rear-Admiral James Vashon under whom she later transferred to Great Yarmouth.

[1][Note 1] She was designed by renowned naval architect Sir Thomas Slade in 1769 as an improvement on his Phoenix model, and ordered by the Admiralty on 30 November.

[1] First commissioned by Captain Andrew Snape Hamond in July 1775, Roebuck left for North America in September, joining Lord Howe's squadron and taking part in operations against New York the following year.

Because of Hamond's familiarity with the local waters, Roebuck, which had hitherto been involved in operations on the Delaware River, was withdrawn to mark out a channel through Chesapeake Bay for Howe's 267-strong flotilla.

Roebuck, with the 32-gun Apollo and four smaller vessels, escorted the troopships up the river on 25 August and provided cover while the army disembarked about six miles (9.7 km) from Turkey Point.

[9] After unsuccessful attempts to take the forts Mifflin and Mercer, the six British vessels were subjected to heavy fire when they engaged the American flotilla at the Battle of Red Bank.

Augusta ran aground and caught fire, and the sloop, Merlin, blew up; Roebuck and the remaining force broke off the attack and returned to Billingsport.

[10] Still requiring a supply route to Philadelphia but unable to open up the Delaware while Fort Mifflin was occupied, Howe took possession of Province Island in November and began erecting gun batteries.

Two days later Fort Mercer also fell, leaving the British free to work their way upriver in pursuit of the enemy fleet which was later scuttled at Gloucester.

On 29 July, the French fleet from Toulon, commanded by Charles Hector, comte d'Estaing, arrived in Narragansett Bay, and the next day they began raiding British positions on Conanicut and Goat Island.

[13] On 8 August, 4,000 French soldiers and sailors were landed to reinforce the 10,000 American troops who had just crossed from the mainland to attack the British garrison on Rhode Island.

[14] Howe's fleet arrived off Point Judith on 9 August and, fearing the British might soon be reinforced, d'Estaing sailed out the next morning while he still had superior numbers and guns.

[17] Roebuck captured an American privateer in February 1779, before setting sail for Woolwich where she underwent a refit and had her hull sheathed in copper.

Under the command of Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot, the ships left New York on 26 December and in January 1780, in need of repairs, called in at Savannah, captured by the British the previous month.

The troops marched the 30 miles (48 km) overland and occupied James Island, while the ships sailed to the entrance and effected a blockade of Charleston harbour.

The 64-gun and 74-gun ships-of-the-line, being too large to be of any use in the shallow waters around the harbour, left for New York in March 1780, leaving Renown, Romulus, Blonde, Raleigh, Perseus, Camilla, and Roebuck, to which Arbuthnot moved his flag.

An exchange of heavy fire while passing Fort Moultrie resulted in considerable damage to the masts and rigging of the British ships and the loss of 27 lives.

[19] An American naval force which included the frigates Providence, Boston and Queen of France, Bricole of 44 guns, a large polacca and two armed brigs were to oppose the British fleet at Fort Moultrie but instead retired to the Cooper River where some were scuttled.

[21][Note 3] This action later denied the British control of the river; on 7 May, they instead landed seamen and marines near Mount Pleasant, where they captured a battery and went on to force the surrender of Fort Moultrie.

He immediately dispatched HMS Charlestown (the captured and renamed USS Boston) to find Roebuck, Chatham and Romulus, which he knew to be somewhere off Carolina with some frigates, and ordered them to intercept.

In June 1790, Roebuck was recommissioned as a hospital ship and, following renewed hostilities with France in the War of the First Coalition, served in this capacity at the capture of Martinique in March 1794.

[39] Roebuck was serving in support of the war in the Leeward Islands, under Rear Admiral Henry Harvey, when on 6 July 1797, she captured Batave, a Dutch 10-gun privateer, just off Barbados.

[46] Believing Dutch public opinion was against the republic and in favour of restoring the monarchy, the British government began preparing an invasion force as early as June.

[53] Because Roebuck served in the navy's Egyptian campaign (8 March to 2 September 1801), her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal, which the Admiralty issued in 1847 to all surviving claimants.