Viscount Dursley received his commission as a lieutenant in the Royal Navy on 10 March 1699[1] and was promoted to captain on 2 April 1701.

It is said that it was Dursley who gave his close friend Shovell the priceless emerald ring which features prominently in some of the legends still told about the disaster.

They had two children, his wife dying in childbirth: On 16 May 1717, he was made First Lord of the Admiralty,[1] He also became Vice-Admiral of Great Britain (a civil position with no executive command) and a member of the Privy Council.

He died on 17 August 1736 at the Château d'Aubigny [fr], near Coincy, France, and was buried on 31 October 1736 at Berkeley, Gloucestershire.

He was haughty and tyrannical, but honourable, gallant, observant of his word; equally incapable of flattering a prince, bending to a minister, or lying to anybody he had to deal with."