A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Ussher, Thomas

by William Richard O'Byrne

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USSHER, Kt., C.B., K.C.H. (Rear-Admiral, of the Blue, 1846. f-p., 26; h-p., 30.)

Sir Thomas Ussher was born in 1779, and died 6 Jan. 1848. He was son of the Rev. Henry Ussher, a Senior Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, First Astronomer Royal of Ireland, promoter of the Royal Irish Academy, and a Member of that, the Royal Edinburgh, and many foreign Academies. His immediate ancestor. Archbishop Ussher, Primate of Ireland, was a descendant of one of the Neville family, who settled in the sister kingdom during the reign of King John, and assumed the name of Ussher, to perpetuate the name of the office he held near the King’s person.

This officer entered the Navy, 27 Jan. 1791 (under the patronage of Colonel Wm. Burton Conyngham, M.P., uncle of the late Marquess Conyngham), as Midshipman, on board the Squirrel 20, Capt. Wm. O’Brien Drury. In that vessel, after serving on the Irish station, he proceeded to the coast of Africa; where, to avenge an insult offered to the British flag, he assisted in driving the Portuguese Governor of Prince’s Island, in the Bight of Benin, with severe loss, from the two batteries (one mounting 22, the other 4 guns) defending the harbour. On his return to England, during their passage whither the officers and crew of the Squirrel were reduced to a daily allowance of one ounce of bread, and a single glass of water each, he joined, in Sept. 1793, the Invincible 74, Capt. Hon. Thos. Pakenham; prerviously to following whom into La Juste 80, he bore a warm part in Lord Howe’s actions 29 May and 1 June, 1794. La Juste was a ship that surrendered on the latter occasion; and Mr. Ussher was one of those who assisted in taking possession of her. After cruizing for upwards of 12 months in the Channel, he was received in succession, in Oct. and Nov. 1795 and March, 1796, on board the Prince George 98, Glory 98, and Thunderer 74, bearing each the flag of the late Sir Hugh Cloberry Christian. In the Prince George and Glory he was present in two violent hurricanes, which each time compelled the return to port of an expedition intended to act against the enemy’s colonies in the West Indies; whither, however, he proceeded in the Thunderer, having, we may add, all the chronometers intrusted to his charge. On the passage out, he removed with Sir H. C. Christian to the Astraea frigate. During the operations of May, 1796, against Ste. Lucie, Mr. Ussher, who had been nominated Acting-Lieutenant of the Minotaur 74, Capt. Thos. Louis, was employed on shore in command of a party of seamen attached to the army under Sir Ralph Abercromby. Subsequently to the surrender of the island, he was ordered to act as Lieutenant in the Pelican brig, of 18 guns (16 32-pounder carronades and 2 long 6’s), Capts. John Clarke Searle, Thos. Harvey, Edw. Kittoe, John Gascoyne, John Hamstead, Christopher Laroche, and Robt. Philpot. Under Capt. Searle the latter vessel, with only 97 men on board, beat off in the most dashing manner, near Désirade, the French frigate Médée of 40 guns and 300 men, after a close action, in which the enemy sustained a loss of 33 men in killed and wounded, and the Pelican, although her sails and rigging were out to pieces, of only 1 man slightly wounded. This affair took place on the morning of 23 Sept. 1796; and in the course of the same day the sloop retook the Alcyon, late a British army victualler, and then a prize to the Médée; by whom, on the 24th, she was again captured, close in with Guadeloupe; where Mr. Ussher, who had been placed in charge of her, was for a short time detained. On 17 Sept. 1797, having rejoined the Pelican, we find him^[1] contributing, under the temporary command of Lieut. Thos. White (by whom his zeal, conduct, and bravery were much praised), to the destruction, not far from St. Domingo, of Le Trompeur French privateer of 16 guns and 160 men.^[2] This vessel had been engaged by the Pelican in the morning for 35 minutes. She had then endeavoured to effect her escape, but, being overtaken, had resolutely defended herself until the fire of her opponent sent her to the bottom. Sixty only of her brave crew could the British save, but among them was their gallant chief, whose life was preserved through the exertions of Mr. Ussher. There appears to have been, in company with Le Trompeur, an armed schooner; but we are unable to discover that she rendered her consort any effective aid. On 4 April, 1798, Mr. Ussher, who, in command of two boats, containing 14 men, had been occupied, during the two preceding days, in looking into the different creeks about Cumberland Harbour and St. Jago de Cuba in search of a privateer which had been committing great depredations on the coast of Jamaica, landed in a sandy bay near the latter port. While his men were reposing on the beach, they were of a sudden, although a sentinel had been posted on a height to prevent surprise, attacked by between 60 and 70 soldiers, who, with a volley of musketry, rushed upon them, determined apparently to give no quarter. A deadly conflict ensued, and lasted until Mr. Ussher, having succeeded in regaining his only remaining boat – the Spaniards had swamped the other – was enabled to fire into the midst of them a swivel, loaded with 200 musket-balls. The enemy then fled; and the British re-embarked, with a loss, however, of 2 killed and 10 severely and slightly wounded. Among the latter was Mr. Ussher. On the following day, the 5th, while reconnoitring the mouth of the river Augustine, near Cumberland Harbour, he conceived it possible, although with only two boats and 19 men, to obtain possession of a French privateer schooner, Le Moulin à Café, of 7 guns and 83 men, which was seen lying across the stream, with her bow apparently aground and a great part of her crew on shore. With a view to facilitate the accomplishment of this object, he made with all celerity for the land, for the purpose of either attacking the latter or, by a rapid movement, of gaining the vessel before them. In each intent he was disappointed. The enemy got on board; and, by means of hawsers already laid out to trees on the opposite bank, hauled the schooner into mid-channel. In reply to a summons made by Sir. Ussher to them to surrender, he received a broadside; he made every attempt to board, under cover of the smoke, but was foiled, owing to the depth of water; yet, unwilling to retreat, and eagerly anticipating a re-enforcement from the Pelican, he remained exposed to a destructive fire until, having had his best marksmen killed and many others wounded, he was himself felled by a shot through the right thigh. Conceiving his wound to be mortal, he directed those of his party, who were able, to retire, and he then, from the loss of blood, fainted. On recovering his senses he found himself in the hands of the French, who, to their honour be it recorded, treated him and his fellow-sufferers with all the attention that generosity could suggest. For many months after his return to the Pelican, Mr. Ussher was under the necessity of using crutches; but in this state even was he not forsaken by that spirit of enterprise which ever distinguished him; and in Jan. 1799 we accordingly find him again volunteering, with the Pelican’s cutter and 12 men, to attack another privateer, La Trompeuse, of 5 guns and about 70 men, lying in the Artibonite river, at the west end of St. Domingo. Notwithstanding that the odds were so fearfully against him, and that many of the privateersmen were strongly posted behind trees. La Trompeuse was boarded, carried, and, as she was fast aground, destroyed. It had been intended to approach her in a detained merchant-schooner, with 50 men; but as the wind blew down the river, and the British in working up were likely to be too much exposed, the plan, as shown, was changed, much to the credit of Mr. Ussher; who, it may be here added, was present, while belonging to the Pelican, in upwards of 20 boat engagements with the enemy. On leaving her he joined, in May, 1799 the Trent 36, Capt. Robt. Waller Otway. On 7 of the following month he boarded, with the ship’s barge, in Aguada Bay, Puerto Rico, a schooner, lying under the very muzzles of the guns in a large battery, and attached to the shore by a hawser made fast to the deck, by another at the mast-head, and by a rope fixed to the heel of the rudder. Having, with the assistance of the Trent’s cutter under Mr. Henry M‘Cleverty, the Master, towed the prize out beneath a ruinous fire from the battery, he returned in the cutter and, fortunately without further loss (every one nearly of the barge’s crew had been killed or wounded), brought off a felucca. In July, 1799, as detailed in our memoir of Capt. Otway, who accompanied him as a volunteer, he commanded the same boats at the capture of a Spanish vessel at Laguira; which port he had entered for the heroic purpose of endeavouring to retake the late British frigate Hermione, which, however, had sailed a few days previously. He subsequently, in the face of a troop of cavalry, brought off a felucca, found lying under a small battery on the north side of Puerto Rico. On the return of the Trent to England with the flag of Sir Hyde Parker, in Sept. 1800, Mr. Ussher, from the effects of his wounds, which threatened even to produce locked-jaw, was obliged for a time to seek half-pay, thereby losing the fairest chance of promotion. Although, on being surveyed by the College of Surgeons, the injuries he had received were declared equal to the loss of a limb, he was unable to procure compensation; although, too, his late Commander-in-Chief Sir Hyde Parker, in a letter to the Secretary of the Admiralty, “recommended him, in justice to his merits, not only for a pension, but for any mark of favour their Lordships might think proper to bestow on him.” On applying in June, 1801, for employment, contrary to the advice of his physicians, he was at once appointed to the command of the Nox cutter. In this vessel, which was stationed off Weymouth in attendance upon the King, he remained four months. Encouraged by a promise of early advancement, he was led, when the extensive promotion in honour of the peace of Amiens took place, to hope that his name would have been included; but the hope was vain. His next appointments were, 26 Sept. 1803 and 6 April, 1804, to the command of the Joseph cutter and Colpoys brig of 14 12-pounder carronades and 40 men, attached to the blockading force under Admiral Cornwallis off Brest. Towards the close of 1804, Mr. Ussher, it appears, was to have been the second in command under Capt. Peter Puget, had a plan, suggested by that otficer, of destroying the Brest fleet by means of fire-ships, been carried into execution. His unwearied vigilance however, and the discretion he evinced, in maturing the scheme as far as it went, were reported in very flattering terms to the First Lord of the Admiralty, by whom they were duly acknowledged. About this period the British fleet, during a succession of hard weather, was blown off the coast; and on regaining his station Admiral Cornwallis was in some doubt as to whether or not the enemy had left port. On hearing of this, Mr. Ussher, of his own accord, stood close in shore after dark, and, hoisting out his gig (a 4-oared boat), actually entered the harbour, discovered and rowed along the whole French line, and thereby obtained an exact knowledge of the enemy’s force, consisting of 21 sail. On arriving abreast of the French Admiral’s ship he was descried, and immediately pursued by three boats; but from these he fortunately escaped, as well as from the boats of 11 gun-brigs lying in Camaret Bay, who, on his clearing the Goulet Passage, united in the chase. The Colpoys, the next day, joined her own Admiral, with the signal flying “The enemy the same as when last reconnoitred;” affording to the latter the information he had anxiously desired, and to Capt. Puget the particulars that were required for the fructification of the plan he had formed. Mr. Ussher’s next exploit was that of landing at midnight with only 6 men, at not more than 200 yards distance from Bertheaume Castle, where he surprised a signal-post, obtained possession of the enemy’s private signals, locked the guard up in a room, and brought off the commanding officer. On 21 March, 1806, having driven three Spanish luggers under a battery of 6 24-pounders in the port of Avillas, he pushed with two boats, manned with volunteers, through a heavy fire of grape from the battery and of musketry from a party of soldiers, who had been sent on board the vessels to defend them, and, with 6 men in the headmost boat, boarded and carried them, the enemy jumping over one side as the British entered the other. Thirteen of the former were taken prisoners; and on the arrival of the second boat, which pulled heavy, two of the prizes, mounting each 2 guns, and laden with flax and steel (the third, in ballast, was restored), were brought off. On first boarding, Mr. Ussher had made two of the crew jump overboard and swim on shore, directing them to inform the officer commanding at the battery that if another gun was fired, he would hang the Spaniards, 11 in number, remaining in his possession. The menace having the effect he wished, he was enabled with safety to complete his operations.^[3] On 19 April, 1806, the Colpoys, being in company with the Attack gun-brig, Lieut.-Commander Thos. Swain, he landed with 12 men from each vessel at the entrance of the river Douillan, and, after a short skirmish, spiked the 2 guns of a battery which had yielded protection to two chasse-marées. The latter were then taken possession of; the signal-post at Douillan was destroyed; and the whole service accomplished without the slightest loss, or any greater damage to the two brigs than that done to their standing and running rigging while engaged with the battery previously to its destruction^[4] With, in addition to the Colpoys, the Haughty gun-brig and Frisk cutter under his orders, Mr. Ussher volunteered, not long afterwards, to endeavour to cut out a French frigate lying at St. Sebastian; but he was prevented by contrary winds from reaching that place until the ship had sailed. He destroyed next, with the same vessels and the Felix schooner, several batteries at St. Antonio, Avillas, and Bermeo; and, on 28 July, 1806, he took possession, after much opposition, of the town of Hea; the defences of which, two batteries, were, together with a magazine and some vessels, either taken or demolished. In less than a week after the latter event he was obliged to resign the command of the Colpoys; the fatigue he had undergone having been so great as to cause the wound he had before received in his thigh to break out afresh, accompanied by the most alarming symptoms. His claims being now backed by testimonials of the strongest character from Earl St. Vincent and Admirals Cornwallis and Graves, he had the gratification of being at length, on 18 Oct. in the same year, promoted to the command of the Redwing sloop of 18 guns. His conduct at Avillas had previously obtained for him a sword valued at 50l. from the Patriotic Society; and he had had the satisfaction of receiving from the crew of the Colpoys a similar token of their “respect and esteem.” While he commanded the Redwing, Capt. Ussher was chiefly employed in affording protection to the trade against the Spanish gun-boats and privateers near Gibraltar. While in escort, in March, 1807, of a convoy through the Straits, he succeeded, on passing Tarifa, in decoying the enemy’s flotilla within range of his carronades; and he then opened a fire which forced them to seek safety under their land batteries. On 20 April following he was engaged in a spirited affair with a division of gun-boats and several batteries near Cabritta Point; and from the latter date until 19 Aug. he was in one way or another constantly in collision with the enemy. On her return from conveying despatches to the Balearic Islands, the Redwing, on 7 Sept., drove several vessels on shore near the town of Calassel, on the coast of Catalonia; and, with the aid of her boats, would in all probability have taken or destroyed them, had not a violent thunder-storm intervened. On the following day, having pushed in within 100 yards of the castle of Benidorme, mounting 4 18-pounders, she enabled her boats, under the present Capt. John Macpherson Ferguson, to board and carry a polacre-ship, whose yard-arms nearly touched the walls. She then, although her masts, sails, and rigging were greatly damaged, made after three privateers, mounting respectively 10, 6, and 4 guns, who, under cover of the smoke, had made their escape from before the town. These she pursued until they ran on shore, apparently in a sinking state, at Jovosa, four miles west of Benidorme. Capt. Ussher subsequently resumed his station in the Gut of Gibraltar; where he continued to display the same zeal, the same skill and enterprise, which had already raised his reputation so high, and which led Lord Collingwood to observe that he was entitled to “whatever regard the Admiralty might be pleased to show him.” On 7 May, 1808, being about six miles E.S.E. of Cape Trafalgar, he discovered, at daybreak, a convoy of 12 sail passing alongshore under the protection of seven armed vessels, namely, two schooners, the Diligente and Boreas, each mounting 2 long 24-pounders and 2 8’s, with a complement of 60 men; three gun-vessels, carrying in the aggregate 3 long 24-pounders, 2 6’s, 1 36-pounder, and 111 men; and a mistico and felucca, each of 4 guns and 20 men. Forming a line abreast, this formidable force swept, with an evident intention of boarding, towards the Redwing; who, nothing loth, prepared for the conflict by loading each gun with one round shot, one grape, one canister, and 500 musket-balls, the latter tied up in a bag. When within pistol-shot the Redwing’s broadside, reserved until then, went off like a single gun. Struck at the water-line, and cut open fore and aft, the Diligente gave two or three heavy rolls, turned over, and, with all on board, went down. Sharing her fate, the Boreas was soon no more; two other of the vessels, with four of the merchantmen, disappeared in the surf; and seven traders, together with the armed mistico, fell into the hands of the British. The felucca, one gun-boat, and a single merchant-vessel were all that escaped. In thus brilliantly disposing of her foes the Redwing had her foremast crippled by two 24-pounders; and a shot of similar dimensions passed through her mainmast; the gammoning of her bowsprit was shot through; and the knee of her head was cut asunder. Her loss, however, was confined to 1 man killed, and the Master, Purser, and 1 sailor wounded; while that of the Spaniards, as by themselves admitted, extended to 240, out of 271, killed, wounded, and taken prisoners.^[5] “I shall transmit to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty,” says the veteran Collingwood in a letter addressed to Capt. Ussher, “a detail of this gallant atfair, to whom I make no doubt it will be as gratifying as it is to me, as it affords another instance of that zeal and ability which have been so conspicuously displayed by you for the good of his Majesty’s service, and the annoyance of the enemy.” On 1 June, 1808, we find the Redwing pursuing a mistico and two feluccas into the Bay of Bolonia, near Cape Trafalgar; where, as soon as she had silenced the fire of a battery, mounting 6 long 24-pounders, her boats, under Lieut. Ferguson, destroyed the mistico and took possession of the feluccas. Accompanied by the Lieutenant and 40 men armed with pikes, Capt. Ussher then landed, stormed the battery, rendered its guns unserviceable, and destroyed the magazine. Up to this period the Redwing, in the whole, had not lost more than 7 men killed and 32 wounded. On his return to Gibraltar, Capt. Ussher found that for “his judicious and gallant conduct in his Majesty’s service” he had been promoted to Post-rank by a commission bearing date 24 May, 1808. Although directed to continue in the Redwing, the state of his health, from his former wounds, proved such as not to admit of his doing so; and he accordingly returned to England in the Bittern sloop, arriving there about the following Sept. To mark their Lordships’ appreciation of his services, they promoted, it may be right to add, his First-Lieutenant, confirmed the officer who was acting as Second, awarded the Senior-Midshipman, Mr. Rich. Soper, a commission, and ordered warrants to be given to such of his own boat’s crew as were qualified for them. At a public dinner given to him by the nobility and gentry at Dublin, Capt. Ussher was presented with the freedom of that city. His subsequent appointments were – 6 May, 1809, to the Leyden 64, which ship was paid off about Jan. 1810 – 15 and 24 May, 1811, to the America 74 and Hyacinth 26 – 1 Oct. 1812, to the Euryalus 36^[6] – and, 2 Feb. 1813 and 29 June, 1814, to the Undaunted 38 and Duncan 74. It was at first intended that the Leyden should be stationed in the Kattegat for the protection of British trade; and for that purpose she had attached to her 13 gunboats with 18 Lieutenants and 800 picked men. The abdication of the King of Sweden, however, causing an alteration in the plans of Government, she was not employed in any particular way until the commencement of the operations against VValcheren, when she proceeded thither with a regiment of guards. She returned to England with a number of sick soldiers; but, on being ordered back to the Scheldt, was found in so defective a state that the pilots refused to take charge of her. Capt. Ussher was in consequence obliged to navigate her himself; a service for which he obtained the thanks of the Admiralty. After accompanying a fleet of merchantmen in the Hyacinth to the Mediterranean, he joined the squadron engaged in the defence of Cadiz. On the night of 29 April, 1812, having assembled the boats of his own ship and of the Goshawk sloop and Resolute gun-brig, and having added to them a gun-boat. No. 16, he placed himself at the head of the whole and proceeded to the attack of several privateers,^[7] commanded by one Barbastro, a man of great enterprise and daring, and then lying in the port of Malaga; the entrance to which was protected by two batteries, one mounting 15 long 24-pounders, the other 4 guns of the same calibre. In his own gig with 6 men, supported by his Second-Lieutenant, the present Sir Thos. Hastings, in the pinnace with 20 men, he made a dash at the larger battery, and although fired at before the scaling-ladders could be placed, made, himself completely master of it in less than five minutes after he had touched the shore. He immediately turned the guns against the castle of Gibralfaro, and kept the garrison there in check until all the powder he could find was expended. He then pulled up the harbour to superintend the further operations; but the boats, in the mean time, had become exposed, with such prizes as they had taken, to a murderous fire as well from the castle as from the 57th Regt. of French infantry, on the mole-wall; and the moon now rising with more than usual brightness, and displaying them to full view, while from the effects of the firing the wind died away, their position became criticalin the extreme. Barbastro’s own privateer, however, the Braave of 10 guns and 130 men (most of whom jumped overboard), and the Napoléon, of similar force, were brought out – the remainder, before they were abandoned, being damaged as much as possible. In this most heroic affair the British, out of 149 officers and men, had 15, including Capt. Jas. Lilburne of the Goshawk, killed, and 53 wounded. Although the enterprise was not fully successful, yet the judgment with which it was planned, and the valour that marked it, failed not to attract the high approbation of Sir Edw. Pellew, the Commander-in-Chief, and the Board of Admiralty, while co-operating, in May, 1812, with the patriots on the coast of Granada, whose confidence he had gained, Capt. Ussher, with the Hyacinth, Termagant sloop, and Basilisk gun-brig under his orders, attacked on 26 of that month, and in less than an hour silenced the fire of the important castle of Almuñecar, armed though it was with 2 brass 24-pounders, 6 iron 18-pounders, and a howitzer, and defended by 300 French troops. At 7 a.m. on the 27th the latter, having during the night mounted a howitzer in a breach made by the ships in the covered way to the castle, re-opened their fire; but by 10 a.m. the castle was again silenced, and the French were driven with groat loss into the town, where they fortified themselves in the church and houses. Desirous of sparing the unfortunate inhabitants, Capt. Ussher ceased firing; and at 2 p.m., after having destroyed a privateer of 2 guns and 30 or 40 men, at anchor under the castle, he weighed and ran down to Nersa, for the purpose of concerting plans with the guerillas; on his arrival there he embarked 200 infantry on board his little squadron, and then stood back with them towards Almuñecar, while a body of cavalry hastened thither by a more circuitous route. A calm, however, delaying his progress, the enemy obtained a knowledge of the combined movement that was being made against them, and precipitately fled. The fortifications of the castle were ultimately demolished.^[8] Capt. Ussher afterwards intercepted several valuable American merchantmen;^[9] which, however, became droits of Admiralty. During the short time he commanded the Euryalus, he was employed chiefly at the blockade of Toulon. His boats, while he was in the Undaunted, were engaged, either alone or in company with those of other ships, in a variety of important operations;^[10] and the latter frigate was herself brought into repeated collision with the enemy’s batteries. During the severe winter of 1813 we find Capt. Ussher again stationed oif Toulon; where he was left by Sir Edw. Pellew with a small squadron under his orders to watch the movements of the French fleet. In April, 1814, being close in with Marseilles, in company with the Euryalus 36, Capt. Chas. Napier, he received from that city a deputation, consisting of the mayor and civil authorities, who had come off to inform him of the abdication of Napoleon Buonaparte, and of the formation of a provisional government in the absence of the Bourbons. He therefore landed; but he had not long done so when, through the hands of the late Sir Neil Campbell, who had just arrived from Paris, he received a requisition from Lord Castlereagh that he should forthwith make preparations for conveying the ex-Emperor from the shores of France to Elba. Repairing accordingly to Fréjus, he there, on the evening of 28 April, had the honour of embarking the fallen chief; with whom, at about 8 p.m. on the 30th, he anchored at the mouth of the harbour of Porto Ferrajo.^[11] On 3 May Napoleon landed and took upon himself the government of the island. Capt. Ussher, who obtained great credit for the manner in which he acquitted himself of the delicate and important duty which had been confided to him, remained at Elba until the English transports which had brought the ex-Emperor’s troops, horses, carriages, baggage, &c., were cleared and sent to Genoa; whither, although entreated by Napoleon to prolong his stay, he then himself proceeded. In Aug. 1814 he returned to England in the Duncan 74; to which ship he had been, as above, appointed. He was nominated a C.B. 4 June, 1815; awarded, 2 Dec. following, a pension for his wounds of, we believe, 250l. per annum; appointed, 24 July, 1830, Equerry in the Household of Her Majesty Queen Adelaide; created in 1831 a K.C.H. (accompanied with the honour of Knighthood); granted the Captain’s Good-Service Pension 12 March, 1838; and advanced to Flag-rank 9 Nov. 1846. He filled the posts of Commissioner, or Commodore-Superintendent, of Bermuda and Halifax Dockyards from 1831 until 1838, and of Commander-in-Chief at Cork from 1 July, 1847, until the period of his death.

Sir Thos. Ussher published in 1840 a “Narrative of the First Abdication of Napoleon.” He married a daughter of Thos. Foster, Esq., of Grove House. Bucks, niece of Fred. Wm. Foster, Bishop of the Moravian Church at Jamaica, and cousin of the third Lady Holland, by whom he has left issue, with two daughters, three sons, the eldest, Sydney Henry, a Captain R.N., the second, Edw. Pellew Hammett, a First-Lieutenant R.M. (1841), and a third, Wm. Henry Bernard, in the Commissariat. Agents – Messrs. Ommaimey.

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1. He had been officially promoted 17 July preceding.
2. Vide Gaz. 1797, p. 1114.
3. Vide Gaz. 1800, p. 437.
4. Vide Gaz. 1806, p. 570.
5. Vide Gaz. 1808, p. 735.
6. He held the temporary command for a few days in Nov. 1812 of the Edinburgh 74, at Minorca.
7. Notorious for their depredations on British commerce.
8. Vide Gaz. 1812, p. 1279.
9. Vide Gaz. 1812, p. 2290.
10. Those at Carri, 18 March, 1813, will be found mentioned under the head of Capt. Aaron Tozer; at Morjean, 31 March and 2 May, 1813, under Commander Isaac Shaw; at and near Marseilles, 3 and 7 May, 1813, under Capt. Wm. Oldrey; at Cassis, 18 Aug. 1813, under Capts. Sir John Gordon Sinclair and A. Tozer; and at Port Nouvelle, 9 Nov. 1813, under Lieut. Jos. Robt. Hownam. On the occasion of the second affair at Morjean, 2 May, 1813, perceiving that the enemy’s vessels were fastened to the snore by hawsers from their mast-heads, Capt. Ussher immediately volunteered his services, pushed in, and received so heavy a fire of musketry from a party of soldiers posted behind high cliffs, that be had scarcely time to get alongside of the first vessel before his gig filled up to the thwarts – Vide for Carri, Gaz. 1813, p. 1148; for Cassis, Gaz. 1813, p. 2011; for Port Nouvelle, Gaz. 1814, p. 124.
11. During the passage Capt. Ussher was waited on by a deputation from Capraja, praying tliat he would, which he immediately did, take possession of that island.