A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Rochfort, Robert
ROCHFORT. (Commander, 1828. f-p., 18; h-p., 30.)
Robert Rochfort, born in 1789, is second son of the late Henry Rochfort, Esq., an officer in the 28th Regt., Assistant-Commissary-General on the Irish establishment, by Henrietta, daughter of John Hill, Esq., of Barnhill, co. Carlow. Three of his uncles (the eldest, George, a General of Artillery) were also in the army; his grandfather, Arthur Rochfort, LL.D., was M.P. for Westmeath; his grand-uncle, Robert Rochfort, likewise M.P. for that co., was created, 29 Nov. 1756, Earl of Belvedere; and his great-grandfether, the Right Hon. Geo. Rochfort, M.P., who married a daughter of the third Earl of Drogheda, filled the office of Chief Chamberlain of the Court of Exchequer. The father of the latter gentleman, Robert Rochfort, was appointed Attorney-General in 1695, chosen Speaker of the House of Commons in Ireland in the following Aug., and constituted, in June, 1707, Chief Baron of the Exchequer. Commander Rochfort, the present male representative of the house of Rochfort, which has been seated in Ireland since the days of Strongbow, is second-cousin of the late Capt. Wm. Rochfort, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy, 27 Sept. 1799, as A.B., on board the Haerlem 64, Capt. Geo. Burlton, with whom he continued employed in the Mediterranean in the Africaine 38, and as Midshipman in the Success 32, until paid off in April, 1802. He next, in March, 1803, joined the Calcutta 54, Capt. Daniel Woodriff, in which ship, on his return from escorting convicts to Van Diemen’s Land, he proceeded as Master’s Mate to St. Helena for convoy. During her passage home the Calcutta, after having beaten the French 40-gun frigate Armide, was attacked, 26 Sept. 1805, and, at the end of a gallant action of three-quarters of an hour, productive to her of a loss, out of 343 men, of 6 killed and 6 wounded, unavoidably captured, by the 74-gun ship Majestueux, part of a squadron under the orders of Rear-Admiral Allemand. Mr. Rochfort remained, we believe, a prisoner in France until Oct. 1809. On 26 April, 1811 (two months after he had been ordered to act as such), he was confirmed a Lieutenant in the Mutine brig, Capt. Nevinson de Courcy, on the Brazilian station, whence, in June, 1812, he invalided. In June, 1813, and Feb. 1814, he joined the Chesapeake frigate and Fantome 20, Capts. Alex. Gordon and John Lawrence, both on the coast of North America; and from 29 Sept. in the latter year until 4 July, 1815, he commanded, in the Bay of Fundy, the Landrail cutter, in which vessel he beat off five American privateers of superior force. He afterwards commanded (on the Plymouth station) the Lapwing Revenue-cruizer from 4 March, 1819, until 1822; and the Bittern 10 from 31 Dec. 1825 until advanced to his present rank 10 March, 1828. He has since been on half-pay.
Commander Rochfort married, 12 Sept. 1814, Maria, daughter of Geo. Leonard, Esq., of Dover Castle, in Sussex Vale, New Brunswick, North America, Superintendent of Trades and Fisheries, and has issue one daughter. Agents – Messrs. Ommanney.