A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Symonds, Thomas Edward (a)

by William Richard O'Byrne

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SYMONDS. (Rear-Admiral, 1846. f-p., 17; h-p., 35.)

Thomas Edward Symonds, born 31 Jan. 1781, is eldest son (by Elizabeth, daughter of Hugh Malet, Esq., and wife afterwards of Lieut.-General Farmer, R.M.) of the late Capt. Thos. Symonds, R.N.;^[1] and brother (with the present Sir Wm. Symonds) of Commander Jermyn John Symonds, R.N., who was lost with all his crew in the Helena sloop, on the coast of Holland, 3 Nov. 1796, and of Commander John Chas. Symonds, R.N. (1814), who died 16 Dec. 1840, at Keyhaven, Hants, aged 50. His uncle, the late Dr. Symonds, was Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge, and successor to the poet Gray.

This officer entered the Navy, in Dec. 1795, as Midshipman, on board the Cambridge 74, bearing the flag of Vice-Admiral Rich. Onslow at Plymouth; and from March, 1796, until promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, 8 Oct. 1802, was employed, on the Lisbon, Halifax, West India, and Home stations, part of the time as Master’s Mate, in the St. Albans 64 and Resolution 74, flag-ships of Vice-Admiral Geo. Vandeput, Dasher 18, Capt. Geo. Tobin, Asia 64, flag-ship of Vice-Admiral Vandeput, Lily 14, Capt. Jos. Spear, Belleisle 74, Capt. John Whitby, and Royal Charlotte yacht, Capt. Sir Harry Burrard Neale. He was next, 17 Nov. 1802 and 10 May, 1803, appointed to the Dasher sloop, Capt. Delafons, and Ville de Paris 110, flag-ship of Hon. Wm. Cornwallis, on the Irish, Mediterranean, and Channel stations; he attained the rank of Commander 22 Jan. 1806; and from March, 1807, until posted 29 Sept. 1813, he served in that capacity in the Tweed 18, in the West Indies and North Sea and on the coast of Africa. In the Ville de Paris, in which ship he performed the duties of Signal-Lieutenant, he was present, 22 Aug. 1805, in an attack made upon the French fleet close in with Brest Harbour; and while serving in the Tweed he commanded the in-shore squadron at the blockade and surrender of the city of St. Domingo, in 1809, and made prize at different times of three privateers (the Santissima Trinidad of 4 guns and 20 men, L’Aventure of 3 guns and 52 men, and the Steinbill of 10 guns and 30 men) and 15 sail of merchantmen. Referring to the siege of St. Domingo, Capt. Wm. Pryce Cumby, of the Polyphemus 64, in an official letter to Vice-Admiral Bartholomew Sam. Rowley, the Commander-in-Chief, dated 7 July, 1809, says – “This despatch will be delivered to you by Capt. Symonds, of the Tweed, to whose zealous attention in conducting the troops, schooners, and gun-boats, during a close and vigorous blockade of two months, I owe considerable obligation; and although the services of the squadron you did me the honour to place under my orders may not have been of a brilliant nature, I trust I may be permitted on this occasion to bear testimony to the unremitting perseverance with which the vessels maintained the stations assigned them, through all the variety of weather incident to the season, on a steep and dangerous shore, where no anchorage was to be obtained, as well as to the vigilance and alacrity of those men who were employed in the night guard-boats, by whose united exertions the enemy’s accustomed supply by sea was entirely cut off, and the surrender of the city greatly accelerated.”^[2] Capt. Symonds accepted his present rank 1 Oct. 1846.

The Rear-Admiral is Chairman of the Lymington Union. He married, 11 March, 1815, Lucinde,^[3] twin-daughter of the late Fras. Joseph Touzi, a Lieutenant in the French navy, by whom he has had issue 10 children, seven of whom are now living. One of his sons, Thomas Edward, is a Commander R.N.; another, Jermyn Charles, is a First-Lieutenant R.M. (1841); and a third, Octavius Cumby, fell a victim to African fever while serving with Capt. Walter Grimston Estcourt in the Éclair steamer.

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1. Capt. Thos. Symonds attained Post-rank in 1771. He commanded the Charon 44 in an action with the d’Artois 64, which ship, on the approach of the Bienfaisant, surrendered. The Charon was afterwards blown up by red-hot shot while acting against the rebels in York River. The crew were taken prisoners with the troops under Lord Cornwallis; and Capt. Symonds, who at the time of the explosion was on shore at the batteries, also fell into the enemy’s hands. He died in 1793 at Bury St. Edmunds.
2. Vide Gaz. 1809, p. 1420.
3. The romantic history of this lady, who was captured, when an orphan, at the age of eleven, by the boats of the Tweed, in endeavouring to effect her escape with others in a small schooner from St. Domingo, and who, with her twin-sister, was brought to England and educated by Capt. Symonds, has been published in a charming little autobiographical work entitled ‘Les Jumelles.’