When she was paid off (decommissioned), Lestock went to half pay for five years, before he finally received command of HMS Panther in the Baltic in 1717.
He moved the next year to join HMS Royal Oak, and served aboard her in the Mediterranean in 1731 under Sir Charles Wager.
He took up his next command, that of HMS Kingston on 21 February 1732 and received orders on 6 April to wear a red broad pennant and prepare to sail to the West Indies to take up the post of commander-in-chief of the Jamaica Station.
Three weeks later Sir Chaloner Ogle was appointed commander-in-chief at Jamaica instead, and a letter was written ordering Lestock to strike his flag and return to Britain.
Lestock was dismayed by this snub, writing in a letter from Port Royal on 21 November:My affair being without precedent I cannot say much, but such a fate as I have met with is far worse than death, many particulars of which I doubt not will be heard from me when I shall be able to present myself to my lords of the admiralty.
He was made captain of HMS Boyne in August 1739, and accompanied Sir Chaloner Ogle to the West Indies the following year.
He then took over the command of HMS Neptune and was appointed Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean Fleet and sent out with a large contingent of reinforcements in November 1741.
[6] Bad weather contrived to delay the sailing for several weeks, and he was unable to join Vice-Admiral Nicholas Haddock's fleet until the end of January 1742.
Haddock was forced to return to England a couple of months later due to ill health, leaving Lestock as acting commander-in-chief.
Lestock hoped to have the appointment confirmed from England, but was bitterly disappointed to learn that Vice-Admiral Thomas Mathews had been dispatched to take over command.
Despite sending complaints back home, Lestock was promoted to vice-admiral of the white on 29 November 1743 and remained as Mathews' second.
The British fleet attempted to engage a Spanish convoy, with Lestock taking command of the rear division.
The British had been following the Spanish the previous day, but on the evening of 10 February Lestock halted the rear before it had reached its proper position in line abreast.
[3] Mathews had been making signals all morning, and had twice sent a lieutenant in a boat to urge Lestock to bring his ships into the battle.
He did not however order his faster ones forwards, nor did he follow Mathews' signal to engage, allowing four lagging Spanish ships to slip away from him.
Anti-Mathews speeches were made by Henry Fox and George Grenville, whilst Lestock himself impressed the MPs with his cool, calm demeanour.
Public opinion remained divided, but a song written in the earlier nineteenth century about the heroism of Richard Avery Hornsby, entitled Brave Captain Hornsby references Lestock, depicting him as betraying his friends: There is an old proverb I've lately thought on, When you think of a friend you're sure to find none; For when that I thought to see Lestock come by, He was five miles a distance, and would not come nigh;[9] On 5 June 1746, just two days after his acquittal he was promoted admiral of the blue[10] and given command of a large squadron.
The original plan called for the launching of an assault on Quebec, but an attack on the French port of Lorient was decided instead.
He hoped to receive an appointment to command a spring expedition to North America, but his health suddenly declined, and he died of a stomach ailment on 13 December 1746.
They may have had a son, as a boy named Richard Lestock was baptised at Chigwell on 14 July 1723, but if so he presumably died young as no more is heard about him.