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,
