He commissioned several frigates during the brief interlude of peace prior to the outbreak of the American War of Independence, before taking command of the ship of the line HMS Invincible.

A bout of illness after his arrival in the West Indies forced him to relinquish command for a time, but he went on to recover and to see action with Sir Samuel Hood's squadron at the Battle of the Chesapeake in 1781.

A period of unemployment followed the end of hostilities, but in 1787 tensions with France brought Saxton a place on a commission into the impress service, and he spent the rest of his career as an administrator.

[4] Saxton was promoted to post captain on 28 January 1762, and appointed to command the 74-gun HMS Magnanime, flying the broad pennant of Commodore Lord Howe, and subsequently forming part of the fleet under Sir Edward Hawke.

[1][5][6] The commission was apparently an uneventful one, the French having been decisively defeated by Hawke at the Battle of Quiberon Bay in 1759, and after the Seven Years' War had concluded, Saxton paid off the Magnanime.

[1][5] Saxton remained in active employment after the war, commissioning the 32-gun HMS Pearl in March 1763 and taking her out to the Newfoundland station in May.

He appears to have held no further commands until October 1770, when he commissioned the 40-gun HMS Phoenix during the period of the Falklands Crisis, when it was feared that war might break out with Spain.

[1][9] He seems to have been present at the capture of Sint Eustatius on 3 February 1781, but a bout of ill-health compelled him to leave his ship for some months, and Invincible was under the temporary command of Captain Richard Bickerton at the Battle of Fort Royal on 29/30 April 1781.

[10] Hood then despatched Invincible to Jamaica to be refitted, after which Saxton sailed in July 1782 to join Admiral Hugh Pigot off the American coast.

[1] A contemporary biographer noted that "he continued to fill [the office] with the highest reputation, as well on account of his ability, as to the attentive diligence to the duties of his situation, and his unblemished integrity.

^ John Charnock's Biographia Navalis suggests that Saxton commissioned Invincible in 1778, J. K. Laughton in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography instead has 1779.

[1][5] Rif Winfield's British Warships in the Age of Sail lists a number of other commanders during this period, from Anthony Parrey in 1778, John Laforey in 1779, Samuel Cornish in July 1779, and then George Falconer from April 1780.