Admiral of the Fleet Sir Charles Edmund Nugent was an illegitimate son of Lieutenant-Colonel Edmund Nugent (1731-1771), an army officer and politician. Charles Nugent joined the Royal Navy in 1771. In 1775 he was sent to serve on the Bristol in the American Revolutionary War. In 1778 he went to the West Indies where he was captured by the Spanish but managed to avoid execution by breaking out of jail, following which he and his men went on to seize 3 million Spanish dollars. He returned to Britain in 1782 and became M.P. for Buckingham. In 1790 he married Deborah Charlotte Johnstone, née Dee, widow of the politician George Johnstone, and they had one daughter. In 1793 he returned to the West Indies and was involved in the capture of Guadeloupe. He was promoted to Rear-Admiral in 1797; Vice-Admiral in 1801; Full-Admiral in 1808 and Admiral of the Fleet in 1833. In 1834 he was awarded the grand cross of the Royal Guelphic Order.