After Martinique, Rodney rose rapidly through flag rank, became a baronet, governed Greenwich Hospital, and later commanded the Jamaica Station, where he improved dockyard support for the fleet. An expensive Northampton election and the cost of maintaining elite status nevertheless pushed him close to bankruptcy. Even the prestigious office of Rear Admiral of Great Britain did not reliably pay its salary. The Navy tended to employ expensive senior admirals only for important deployments. Rodney settled in Paris until wartime command offered income and protection from debt collectors, with the Leeward Islands station especially attractive because captured merchant shipping promised rich prize money.
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High rank, Jamaica, and financial exile in Paris
Promotions and prestigious posts could not offset Rodney's election costs and expensive social ambitions, leaving a senior admiral living abroad to escape creditors.