HMS Winchelsea was a 20-gun sixth-rate launched in 1740 and in service during the War of the Austrian Succession in Mediterranean, Atlantic and home waters.

[1] In 1741 Winchelsea, commanded by Captain Essex Holcombe, sailed with Commodore Richard Lestock's squadron to join Admiral Haddock's Mediterranean fleet.

[2] While on station, pretending to be a merchant ship, she lured two Spanish privateers to chase her; when they realised their mistake they took off in opposite directions, but Winchelsea captured one of them, a small brig with a crew of 46, which she carried to Gibraltar.

[7] In 1749, under the command of Thomas Cornish, Winchelsea transported passengers with Edward Cornwallis's expedition to establish Halifax, Nova Scotia.

[8] In March 1756, Winchelsea transported South Carolina's governor Henry William Littleton across the Atlantic from Portsmouth to his colony.