The word originally referred to a drink made with water or "small beer" (a weak beer) and rum, which British Vice Admiral Edward Vernon introduced into the Royal Navy on 21 August 1740.
•
Although they did not know the reason at the time, Admiral Edward Vernon's sailors were healthier than the rest of the navy, due to the daily doses of vitamin C that prevented disease (mainly scurvy).
British Admiral Edward Vernon arrived with a force of eight warships and 4,000 soldiers with plans to march on Santiago de Cuba.
The English, under Admiral Edward Vernon, had created havoc in the Spanish trade with the Indies, taking Portobelo, Panama in 1739, and laying siege to Cartagena (Colombia), which they did not succeed in taking.
In 1742 a cottage was built on what is now the High Street (close to the junction with what is now Brighton Place) by a seaman by the name of George Hamilton, who had served under Admiral Edward Vernon during the 1739 capture of Porto Bello, Panama, meaning literally "beautiful port or harbour", and who named the cottage Portobello Hut in honour of that victory.
His short story, first published in 1844, recasts "Deacon Drowne" as a woodcarver who made trade signs and wooden figures for various shops and a notable statue of Admiral Edward Vernon in Boston.
He was the father of James Vernon (d1756) who settled in Suffolk and of Admiral Edward Vernon (1684–1757).
Mount Vernon | King Edward VII | Edward I of England | Edward III of England | Edward VIII | Edward VII | Prince Edward Island | Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex | Edward III | Edward | Edward Heath | Edward G. Robinson | Edward Albee | Edward Elgar | Edward I | Edward IV of England | Edward VI of England | King Edward's School, Birmingham | Edward Hopper | Edward Gibbon | Edward Burne-Jones | Prince Edward | Edward Bulwer-Lytton | Edward II of England | J. Vernon McGee | Edward Weston | Edward James Olmos | Vernon | Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby | Edward R. Murrow |
In 1741 as Rear Admiral of the Blue of British and American colonial army led by Admiral Edward Vernon he led the attack on three forts at Cartagena de Indias (now Colombia) during a disastrous campaign in the War of Jenkins' Ear.
William Leman gave him the rectory of Kettlebaston, Suffolk, in 1749, which he resigned in 1760 on being presented by Edward Vernon to the vicarage of Great Thurlow ; but he still continued to reside at Stradishall.