A half-length portrait to the right showing Bingham in his captain’s full dress uniform, over three years, of the 1795–1812 pattern.
Joseph Bingham entered the Navy in 1781, serving as a midshipman in the ‘Dublin’ and seeing action at the relief of Gibraltar. He was promoted lieutenant on 2 November 1790 in the ‘Jupiter’. While in the 74-gun ‘Audacious’, as senior lieutenant, he was involved in the action on 28 May 1794 against the French 110-gun three-decker ‘La Révolutionaire’, being unfortunate not to capture her as a major prize. Requiring repairs, the ‘Audacious’ returned to Plymouth, which meant that Bingham missed Howe’s victory on 1 June. He was, however, commended to the Admiralty and promoted commander on 6 July that year. After commanding the sloop ‘Cormorant’ in the Caribbean, he was made captain on 20 April 1796. Further commands followed before he was made flag captain to Admiral Sir William Parker in 1798. (He went on to marry Parker’s daughter, Sarah.) Bingham was court martialled in 1800 when the ‘America’, Parker’s flagship, was stranded on the rocks of the Formigas off the Azores. He was acquitted, but although the ship was saved, it was unfit for further service.
Between 1801 and 1808, he served in the East Indies and then, between 1809 and the end of the war, he was in home waters and the Baltic. He was promoted rear-admiral on 12 August 1819. Bingham was then made commander-in-chief of the East Indies station but died before he could take up the post.