A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Wiseman, William Saltonstall (a)
WISEMAN, Bart. (Captain, 1820. f-p., 19; h-p., 29.)
Sir William Saltonstall Wiseman was born 5 March, 1784; and died, 1 July, 1845, at Hillingdon End, Uxbridge. He was eldest son of Edm. Wiseman, Esq., by Jemima, daughter of Michael Ame, Esq.; and grandson of Sir Thos. Wiseman, whom he succeeded as seventh Baronet in 1810. This officer entered the Navy, 30 July, 1797, as Fst.-cl. Vol, on board the Warrior 74, Capts. Henry Savage and Chas. Tyler, employed in the North Sea and Mediterranean. In Sept. 1799 (he had attained the rating of Midshipman in March, 1798) he removed to the Wasp, Lieut.-Commander Wm. Heppel, lying at Chatham; and in the following Jan. he was received on board the Active 38, Capts. Chas. Sydney Davers and Rich. Hussey Moubray, again in the Mediterranean; where he was transferred, in June, 1804, to the Kent 74, Capts. Pulteney Malcolm and John Chambers White. On 8 April, 1805, at which period he had been for four months serving in the Channel as Master’s Mate in the Cygnet sloop, Capt. Daniel M‘Leod, he was appointed Sub-Lieutenant of the Protector gun-brig, Lieut.-Commander Sir Geo. Mouat Keith; under whom we find him assisting at the reduction of the Cape of Good Hope. On 27 Jan. 1806 he was there nominated Acting-Lieutenant of the Diomede 50, Capt. Joseph Edmonds; and on 10 March and 7 Dec. in the same year he was in succession transferred, in a similar capacity, to the Diadem 64, Commodore Sir Home Popham, and Sampson 64, Capt. Wm. Cuming. In the Diadem he was present at the capture and the recapture (by the Spaniards) of Buenos Ayres and the reduction of Maldonado and Goretti.[1] He was confirmed in the rank of Lieutenant 30 April, 1807; he was appointed next, 18 May ensuing and 26 April, 1810, to the Espoir sloop, Capt. Henry Hope, and Lion 64, Capt. Henry Heathcote, on the Mediterranean and East India stations (he had invalided from the Espoir 23 April, 1808); and on 24 Sept. 1811 (upwards of three months after he had left the Lion) he was promoted to the rank of Commander. He was appointed, 18 Aug. 1818, to the Sophie 18, fitting for the St. Helena station; was made Post, 22 Nov. 1820, into the Tamar 26, at Jamaica, whence he returned in 1822; and from 4 Feb. 1824 until 1827 was employed in the Samarang 28, and as Flag-Captain to Rear-Admiral Willoughby Thos. Lake in the Jupiter 60, at Halifax. He remained thenceforward on half-pay.
Sir W. S. Wiseman married, first, 8 Jan. 1812, Catherine, second daughter of Sir Jas. Mackintosh, Kt., Recorder of Bombay; and secondly, 5 April, 1827, Eliza, eldest daughter of the Rev. Geo. Davis, B.D., Rector of Cranfield, Bedfordshire. By the former lady, who died in 1822, he has left, with other issue, a son, the present Sir W. S. Wiseman, Bart., Commander R.N. Agents – Case and Loudonsack.
- ↑ It was he who conveyed to the commandant of Goretti the summons from Sir Home Popham which led to the surrender of the island. – Vide Gaz. 1807, p. 115.