A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Mansell, Thomas

by William Richard O'Byrne

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MANSELL, Kt, K.C.H., K.S.S. (Captain, 1814. f-p., 20; h-p., 34.)

Sir Thomas Mansell, born 9 Feb. 1777, is third son of the late Thos. Mansell, Esq., of Guernsey; and brother of Retired Commander Bonamy Mansell, R.N.

This officer entered the Navy, 20 Jan. 1793, as Midshipman, on board the Crescent, Capt. Jas. Saumarez, of 42 guns and 257 men, and on 20 of the following Oct. assisted at the capture, after a close action of two hours, of the French frigate La Réunion, of 36 guns and 320 men, 120 of whom were either killed or wounded, without any casualty whatever to the British.^[1] He afterwards accompanied an expedition sent under the orders of Earl Moira and Rear-Admiral M‘Bride to cooperate with the French Royalists on the coasts of Normandy and Brittany; and on 8 June, 1794, he was present when the Crescent, by a bold and masterly manoeuvre, effected her escape from a French squadron, consisting of two cut-down 74’s, each mounting 54 guns, two frigates, and a brig. Following Sir Jas. Saumarez, in March, 1795, into the Orion 74, Mr. Mansell was afforded an opportunity of sharing in that ship in Lord Bridport’s action, as Master’s Mate in the battle fought off Cape St. Vincent (where he was wounded^[2]), and in a similar capacity in the victory of the Nile. On 22 Oct. 1798, owing to the strong manner in which he was recommended by his Captain to Lord Nelson, he found himself nominated Acting-Lieutenant of L’Aquilon 74, Capt. Thos. Bowen. He was confirmed a Lieutenant 17 April, 1799, and was subsequently appointed – 12 Aug. following, to the Impregnable 98, Capt. Jonathan Faulknor, under whom he was wrecked between Langstone and Chichester 19 Oct. in the same year – 11 Dec. 1799 and 5 Feb. 1801, to the London 98 and Royal George 100, in the former of which ships (they were both commanded by Capt. John Child Purvis) he accompanied the expedition to Ferrol in Aug. 1800 – 5 April, 1803, after nearly 12 months of half-pay, to the Cerberus 32, Capt. Wm. Selby, on the Guernsey station, where, during an attack made in the month of Sept. on the town of Granville, he took command of the carronade launch, and elicited the applause of his Admiral for the manner in which he assisted in silencing the fire of nine gun-vessels by whom the Cerberus had been assailed when for three hours aground on a sand-bank^[3] – 8 June, 1804, to the Diomede 50, Capts. Hugh Downman and Joseph Edmunds, in which ship, bearing the flag at first of Sir Jas. Saumarez, he superintended the landing of the troops under Major-General (now Lord) Beresford in the operations against the Cape of Good Hope, and had charge of the seamen atached to that officer’s brigade at Saldanha Bay – 27 Jan. 1806, as First, to the Diadem 64, bearing the broad pendant of Sir Home Popham – 11 March ensuing, to the command of an armed transport, for the purpose of conveying home intelligence of a French squadron under Jerome Buonaparte having arrived in the vicinity of the Cape – and, 29 Aug. in the same year, to the post of Flag-Lieutenant under Sir Jas. Saumarez, with whom he successively served in the Channel and Baltic on board the Diomede, Hibernia, and Victory. Being confirmed, 17 Sept. 1808, in the command of the Rose sloop, Capt. Mansell, while in that vessel, assisted at the capture of the island of Anholdt, 18 May, 1809, and succeeded, with much gallantry and good conduct, in beating off, near the Skawe, 28 April, 1810, a Danish flotilla, consisting of four gun-vessels, with other rowing-boats, whose fire, although it but slightly wounded five of the Rose’s people, proved nevertheless, during upwards of an hour’s continuance, most destructive to her sails and rigging, carrying away also the wheel, besides lodging 19 shot in the hull, and rendering the mainyard and main-mast unserviceable. In 1812 Capt. Mansell was presented by Viscount Cathcart, the British Ambassador at St. Petersburg, with a valuable diamond ring, which his Lordship had been directed by the Emperor Alexander to forward to him as a mark of the high sense that monarch entertained of his services, especially in safely conducting through the Belt a Russian squadron under Vice-Admiral Crown; and in the course of the same year he was honoured by King Charles XIII. with the insignia of a Knight of the Royal Military Order of the Sword, in testimony of the esteem in which his services were likewise held by his Swedish Majesty. The Rose being paid off in April, 1813, he was next, 23 Aug. following, appointed to the Pelican brig, of 18 guns, in which vessel we find him serving on the Irish station and off the north coast of Spain until his promotion to Post-rank, 7 June, 1814. During the period he commanded the Rose and Pelican, Capt. Mansell evinced a degree of zeal and activity that did not fail to procure him the approbation of every officer under whom he was employed. He contrived, indeed, to make prize of at least 170 vessels of various descriptions, and among them, 13 June, 1814, the Siro, American letter-of-marque of 225 tons, pierced for 16 guns, mounting 12 long nine-pounders, with a complement of 49 men.^[4] Unsuccessful, after his advancement to Post-rank, in his applications for further employment, he accepted the Retirement 1 Oct. 1846.

Sir Thos. Mansell (whom William IV. nominated a K.C.H., and invested with the honour of Knighthood, in 1837) married, in Nov. 1806, Catherine, daughter of John Lukis, Esq., merchant, of Guernsey, by whom he has issue four sons and four daughters. Of the former, the eldest, a M.D., is a Surgeon R.N. (1840); the second, Arthur Lukis, a Lieutenant R.N.; the third, William Mansell, First-Lieutenant R.M. (1846); and the fourth, George Hope, a Mate R.N. (1847).

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1. As a reward for this achievement Capt. Saumarez received the honour of Knighthood.
2. Vide Gaz. 1797, p. 212.
3. Vide Gaz. 1803, p. 1273. Mr. Mansell, who was for some time First-Lieutenant of the Cerberus, had, in the preceding Aug., commanded her boats in two cutting-out affairs. He brought out, on the first occasion, a large fishing-vessel from Concalle Bay, and on the second he captured, with but two boats, not less than seven smacks, mounting from 16 to 18 guns each, in St. Cas Bav. – Vide Gaz. 1803, p. 1050.
4. Vide Gaz. 1814, p. 232.