He entered the service shortly after the start of the American War of Independence, and spent most of his early career serving with Captain and later Admiral Joshua Rowley.

Left without active employment by the following years of peace, Sutton briefly returned to service during the Spanish Armament in 1790, but the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793 brought him steady work.

After serving on a number of ships and being present at Cornwallis's Retreat in 1795, Sutton received command of a sloop, and with it the opportunity to render a service to a member of the French aristocracy, and the future Charles X of France.

Sutton was born in 1760 in Scarborough, North Yorkshire,[1] and entered the navy on 9 April 1777 as an able seaman and later a midshipman aboard the 74-gun HMS Monarch, which was under the command of Captain Joshua Rowley.

Sutton was posted to the 32-gun frigate HMS Iphigenia on 22 June 1790 as signal officer to Captain Patrick Sinclair, and served for a while with Lord Howe's fleet.

[4] The tensions leading up to the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars provided another opportunity for employment, and Sutton joined the 74-gun HMS Culloden on 3 January, which was serving in the Channel as the flagship of Sir Thomas Rich.

[4] Sutton transferred to the 74-gun HMS Mars under Captain Sir Charles Cotton in November 1794, and in June 1795 was involved in Admiral William Cornwallis's successful retreat from a superior French force led by Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse.

[4] He returned to sea on 3 September 1798 as flag captain to Sir Richard Onslow aboard the 74-gun HMS Monarch, the ship he had entered the service on twenty-one years earlier as an able seaman under Rowley.

[4][12][13] Nelson arrived at Portsmouth on 18 May and hoisted his flag aboard her, but Victory had been assigned to Admiral William Cornwallis in the Channel, and was not ready for sea.

Nelson struck his flag two days later, and immediately took passage for the Mediterranean aboard Thomas Hardy's HMS Amphion, leaving Sutton to finish preparing Victory and deliver her to Cornwallis.

Sutton and the Victory sailed to rendezvous with Nelson off Cape Sicie, and while doing so, came across the French frigate Embuscade on 28 May as the latter was entering the Bay of Biscay after a journey from the West Indies.

[19] Sutton and the Amphion remained with Nelson's fleet into 1805, and took part in the Trafalgar Campaign, chasing Villeneuve's forces to the West Indies and back.