John Lawson (Royal Navy officer)

However, soon released, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the fleet by rump-parliament in 1659 to counter General at sea Edward Montagu.

In June 1661, with his flag in the Swiftsure, Lawson accompanied Montagu, now earl of Sandwich, to the Mediterranean to stem the burgeoning corsair activity.

[5] When Sandwich went to Lisbon to conduct the new Queen Catherine of Braganza to England, Lawson remained in command of a strong squadron with instructions to coerce Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli into observing treaties not to molest English shipping.

After capturing several corsair ships, releasing some two hundred captives and selling about the same number of Moors into slavery, he compelled them to renew the treaties.

Commissioned as the vice-admiral of the red squadron for the Second Anglo-Dutch War in 1665, he died of a wound received at the Battle of Lowestoft.