of the Active, in destroying one of the enemy’s frigates at the time on shore. As First-Lieutenant of the Spartan, Mr. Willes found frequent opportunities of distinguishing himself. He commanded the boats of that frigate and of the Amphion 32 and Mercury 28, and behaved in a manner in the highest degree creditable to him at the bringing off, 23 April, 1809, of 13 deeply-laden vessels from the Mole of Pesaro, in the Adriatic;[1] the castle at which place was by him blown up. With the boats of his own ship and of the Mercury again under his orders he landed, 2 May, 1809, in the port of Ceseratico, took possession of a battery of 2 long 24-pounders, whose fire had been silenced, and, after having destroyed the former, spiked the latter, and blown up a castle and magazine, re-embarked, bringing away with him 12 vessels laden with corn, hemp, and iron. In this instance, also, Mr. Willes’ gallantry and exertions were much praised. We find him next contributing to the reduction of the islands of Lusin, Zante, Cephalonia, and Cerigo. Cerigo was defended by three forts, one of which, St. Joaquin, mounted 2 18 and 2 9 pounders, and was “completely silenced by the gallant manner in which he attacked it in a prize-schooner under his orders, with a party of the 35th Regt. on board.” [2] On 3 May, 1810, it was Mr. Willes’ fortune to share in a glorious single-handed victory gained by the Spartan in the Bay of Naples (after a contest in which the British sustained a loss, out of 258 men, of 10 men killed and 22 wounded) over a Franco- Neapolitan squadron, carrying altogether 95 guns and about 1400 men. “I was myself,” says Capt. Brenton in his official account of this achievement, “wounded about the middle of the action, which lasted two hours; but my place was most ably supplied by Mr. Willes, First-Lieutenant, whose merit becomes more brilliant by every opportunity he has of showing it; he is without exception one of the best and most gallant officers I ever met with.”[3] For his conduct Mr. Willes, who had been also wounded, was deservedly promoted to the rank of Commander by a commission bearing date 2 June, 1B10.[4] In the following Nov. he was appointed to the Leveret brig, in the North Sea; where he made prize, in the course of 1811-12, of a Danish cutter[5] of 6 guns and 20 men, a French lugger, Le Prospère, of 3 guns and 39 men, another cutter, Le Dunkerquois of 14 guns and 36 men,[6] and Le Brave, a lugger of 4 guns and 22 men – all of them privateers. After serving for a few months in the Bacchus sloop on the Cork station, he was promoted to Post-rank 7 June, 1814. His subsequent appointments were – 3 Oct. 1817 and 15 Dec. 1818, to the Cherub 26 and Wye 26, in which ships he served until May, 1820, on the African and North Sea stations – 17 Jan. 1823, for four years, to the Brazen 26, employed at first in South America and next on the coast of Africa, where he captured eight armed slavers and liberated 998 persons from bondage – 8 Dec. 1835, to the Dublin 50, as Flag-Captain to Sir Graham Eden Hamond in South America, whence he returned in the summer of 1836 – and, 4 Feb. 1845, to the Vanguard 80. In the latter ship he served with the Channel squadron and in the Mediterranean until the period of his death as above.
Capt. Willes[7] was a Deputy-Lieutenant for co. Southampton. He married, 8 Jan. 1814, Anne, second daughter of the late Sir Edmund Lacon, Bart., M.P. for North Yarmouth, by whom he has left, with other issue, a son, Lieut. G. O. Willes, R.N., and a daughter, married to Lieut. Hon. Oliver W. M. Lambart, R.N. Agents – Messrs. Stilwell.
WILLIAMS. (Lieut., 1813. f-p., 11; h-p., 32.)
Augustus Aldborough Lloyd Williams, born 9 Oct. 1790, is third son of the late John Lloyd Williams, Esq., of Gwernant Park, co. Cardigan, by Martha Louisa, second daughter of Motley Pendred Saunders, Esq., of Saunders Grove, co. Wicklow; and brother-in-law of Sir Wm. Oldnall Russel, late Chief-Justice of Bengal. His eldest brother, Edw. Lloyd Williams, Esq., of Gwernant Park, is a barrister-at-law, a Magistrate and Deputy-Lieutenant for cos. Stafford, Worcester, and Warwick, and a Magistrate of Cardigan.
This officer entered the Navy, 10 Feb. 1804, as a Volunteer, on board the Illustrious 74, Capt. Sir Chas. Hamilton; and on the very next day, as well as on subsequent occasions, was in action with the enemy’s gun-boats, praams, and batteries in the neighbourhood of Boulogne. After serving for a time as Midshipman off Ferrol, he removed, in Feb. 1805, to the Diadem 64, Capt. Sir Home Popham; in which ship we find him present at the reduction of the Cape of Good Hope in Jan. 1806, at the capture, 21 Feb. and 4 March following, of the Rolla brig and Volontaire frigate, in Table Bay, and at the taking, in June and Oct. of the same year, of Buenos Ayres and Maldonado. In Feb. 1807, a few weeks after he had been transferred to the Sampson 64, Capt. Wm. Cuming, he assisted in the attack upon Monte Video. Joining, in the ensuing May, the Excellent 74, Capt. John West, he united in the early part of 1808 in a series of active co-operations with the patriots on the coast of Catalonia; where, in the month of Nov., he landed with a party of seamen and marines for the purpose of aiding in the defence of the fortress of Rosas, besieged at the time by several thousand French troops. While on this service Mr. Williams was present in a sortie, in which the British succeeded in rescuing a body of Spaniards, who were in danger of falling into the hands of the enemy. On the Excellent being ordered to the Adriatic he there aided in her boats in an attack upon the town of Pesaro. He was also, 29 July, 1809, in them, under the command of Lieut. John Harper, when, covered by a fire from the Acorn and Bustard sloops, they boarded and carried six Italian gun-vessels, armed with long 18 and 24 pounders, and each manned with 20 men; the whole of which, together with a convoy of 10 laden trabacolos, were brought out, with but trifling loss to the British, from the harbour of Duino, near Trieste. On leaving the Excellent Mr. Williams was received in succession, in April and Oct. 1810, on board the Apollo 38, Capt. Bridges Watkinson Taylor, and Barfleur 98, flag-ship of Hon. Geo. Cranfield Berkeley, both on the Lisbon station. During the time he belonged to the Barfleur he was sent up the river Tagus with a detachment of armed seamen to co-operate with the British army at Villa Franca; and was employed at Mugem in conveying despatches between Lord Wellington and General Hill. After he had been for about 11 months stationed in the Mediterranean and again off Lisbon as Master’s Mate in the Caledonia 120 and Impétueux 74, bearing the flags of Sir Edw. Pellew and the late Sir Geo. Martin, he was nominated, 22 Dec. 1812, Acting-Lieutenant of the Nemesis 28, armée en flûte, Capt. Hon. Jas. Ashley Maude. In the boats of that ship, to which he was confirmed 18 Jan. 1813, he was slightly wounded in the unsuccessful attack upon Crany Island, and was present at the taking of Hampton. On 12 July, 1814, he assisted at the cuttirg-out from Ocrakoke Harbour of the Anaconda of 18 and the Atlas of 10 guns. Since Jan. 1815 (he had been serving latterly at Halifax and in the West Indies in the Centurion 50, flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Edw. Griffith, and Rattler sloop, Capt. Henry Bourne) he has been on half-pay.
In 1816 Lieut. Williams went out to India in the East India country-service. He married, 9 Feb. 1826, Mary Anne, eldest daughter of Jas. Bell, Esq., of Uttoxeter, co. Stafford, Banker, and has issue two sons and one daughter.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1809, p. 1257.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1809, p. 1929.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1810, p. 1134.
- ↑ As a reward for his great courage and intrepidity, “as First Lieutenant of the Spartan,” Capt. Willes was granted permission, 26 .Tune, 1812, to accept and wear the insignia of the Third Class of St. Ferdinand and of Merit, conferred upon him by the King of the Two Sicilies.
- ↑ Taken by the boats.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1809, p. 2194.
- ↑ In addition to the wounds already noticed, he had received a musket-ball through the leg, during the war, in a boat attack.
