own brothers, Moncrieffe, a Major in the 27th Foot, died in 1840; a second, Charles, a Captain in the same regiment, perished in the West Indies; and a third, Suttaby, a Lieutenant in the 44th Foot, lost his life in Spain in 1812. Of his half-brothers, the eldest, Lieut.-Colonel Robt. Willoughby, is now of Kingsbury Cliff; another, Thomas Ferrers, was lost in the Sylph sloop, off Long Island, 17 Jan. 1815. Sir Nesbit is uncle, further, of Lieut. Fras. Willoughby, R.N.; and cousin of Commander J. B. Willoughby, R.N. Among his ancestral connexions wo may record the names of Sir Christopher Willoughby, Kt., of Cossall, who was summoned to Parliament as Baron Willoughby de Eresby – of Sir Rich. Willoughby, Kt., who was Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in the reign of Edward II. – of Robert, Lord Willoughby (brother of the before-named Sir Thos. Willoughby), the last English Governor of Paris, one of the greatest soldiers of his age – of Sir Fras. Willoughby, famed for his successful defence of the Castle of Dublin against the partizans of Roger Moore – and of the loyal Lord Willoughby, whose stout opposition to the Parliamentary forces sent to effect the reduction of Barbadoes in 1651 has procured him a page in the history of that troubled period. Sir Nesbit is also related to the present Lord Middleton, Captain R.N.
This officer entered the Navy, 12 May, 1790, as a Volunteer, on board the Latona 38, Capt. Albemarle Bertie, employed on the Home station, where, and off the American coast, he continued to serve until Jan. 1793, latterly as Midshipman, in the same ship, and in the Edgar 74, Capt. Anthony Jas. Pye Molloy, Alligator 28, Capt. Isaac Coffin, and Vengeance 74, Commodore Thos. Pasley. Joining, then, the Orpheus 32, Capt. Henry Newcome, he sailed for the coast of Africa, and there, on 22 and 24 April, 1793, assisted in cutting out four French brigs and a schooner, of one of which vessels he was made prize-master. We next find him, during a cruize off the Isle of France, contributing to the capture, 5 May, 1794, of Le Duguay Trouin, a French frigate of 34 guns, after a sharp action of an hour and 10 minutes, in which the enemy, out of a crew of 403 men, sustained a loss of 21 killed and 60 wounded, and the British, whose total number did not exceed 194, of 1 person killed and 9 wounded. Being in the same ship at the reduction of Malacca in Aug. 1795, Mr. Willoughby commanded a boat on that occasion, in company with another under Lord Camelford, at the boarding of the Dutch ship Constantia, who had worked herself into the mud, was well armed, and had 100 men on board; and in 1796 he further shared in the reduction of Amboyna and Banda, together with their several dependencies. After a prolonged servitude in the East Indies on board the Heroine 32, Capt. Alan Hyde Gardner, and Suffolk 74, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Peter Rainier, he was promoted to a Lieutenancy, 13 Jan. 1798, in the Victorious 74, Capt. Wm. Clark; on leaving which ship, in June, 1799, he assumed command of the Amboyna brig, but for a limited period only, his health soon obliging him to invalid into the Sceptre 64, Capt. Valentine Edwards, for a passage to the Cape of Good Hope. On 19 of the following Sept. Mr. Willoughby, owing to the failure of a previous expedition, took voluntary charge of the boats belonging to the last-mentioned ship, conducted them through a heavy surf, and effected the destruction of L’Éclair privateer, of 10 guns, 4 swivels, and 83 men, moored within a reel of rocks close to the island of Rodriguez. Not long after this affair he performed an act of great generosity in springing overboard, although the attempt proved vain, to save the life of a man. On the destruction of the Sceptre, during a violent gale in Table Bay, 5 Nov. following, Mr. Willoughby, who had the good fortune at the time to be on shore, returned to England, and on 26 Aug. 1800 was appointed to the Russell 74, Capts. Herbert Sawyer and Wm. Cuming, under the latter of whom he fought at the battle of Copenhagen 2 April, 1801. On that memorable occasion, while detached in one of the ship’s boats, he boarded the Proversteen block-ship, of 56 guns, under a heavy fire from the lower deck, kept up in opposition to the wishes of her Commander, who had hauled down her colours in token of submission. Although not supported by more than 30 men, he succeeded in retaining possession of her under most hazardous circumstances until the next morning. The gallantry of his achievement was acknowledged by three cheers from the Russel’s crew. We next, on 17 July, 1803, find him, in a single boat belonging to the Leviathan 74 (which ship, bearing the flag on the Jamaica station of Sir John Thos. Duckworth, he had joined about 12 months previously), and with only 2 Midshipmen and 7 men, boarding and securing, off Cape Donna Maria, after a row of seven or eight miles, a French national armed ship, L’Athenaise, commanded by a Lieut.-de-frégate, and having on board 50 persons, inclusive of several military officers, and who had not heard of the renewal of hostilities. On 30 Nov. 1803, when the French General, Rochambeau, evacuated Cape François, Mr. Willoughby, who had in the mean time removed with Sir J. Duckworth to the Hercule 74, was the instrument under Providence of saving the French 40-gun frigate La Clorinde and 900 souls from the destruction with which they were threatened by the blacks under General Dessalines, who were in possession of Fort St. Joseph, on the rocks immediately beneath which La Clorinde had grounded. Sir John Duckworth, in his official despatch to the Admiralty, narrates the event, and attributes its happy issue to the “uncommon exertions and professional abilities” of Mr. Willoughby.[1] During the operations of 1804 against Curaçoa, where for 25 consecutive days he was exposed to three and four diurnal attacks from the enemy, he again distinguished himself by a display of marked firmness and daring. Landing on that island on 31 Jan., he first of all commanded a party at the storming of Fort Piscadero, mounting 10 Dutch 12-pounders, that had opposed the debarkation of the troops; the day after which event he was placed in charge of the advanced battery, situated about 800 yards to the westward of the town of St. Ann. He had the good fortune, on the morning of 5 Feb., to defeat, with not more than 85 seamen and marines, as many as 500 of the Dutch and French, after a hard fight and a loss of 23 men killed and wounded; and on the 24th, when the British re-emharked, he covered their retreat, assisted at the destruction of Fort Piscadero, and was among the last to leave the shore. During his occupation of the advanced battery, he frequently, for the purpose of inspiriting the depressed portion of his men, took his meals in an awfully exposed situation, under a full shower of the enemy’s missiles. “The earth,” says Mr. James, “was ploughed up all around, and one man, we believe, was killed close to the spot; but still the table and chair, and the daring young officer who sat there, remained untouched. On one occasion Lieut. Sam. Perrot, R.M., was induced to sit himself in the chair: scarcely had he done so, when a shot came, took off his left arm, badly wounded the knee upon which it had been resting, and knocked the table to atoms.” On 14 March, 1804, we find Mr. Willoughby capturing, in command of the Hercule’s boats, La Félicité French privateer, whose fire occasioned them a loss of a Midshipman and 2 men severely_ wounded. When the same ship, on 6 of the following Sept., was caught in a fearful hurricane off the Silver Keys, during which 300 vessels are supposed to have been lost, this meritorious officer, although at the time on the doctor’s list, was the first person – even the oldest seamen being appalled – who summoned courage to mount into the foretop_ and clear away the wreck of the foretopmast, which had been blown over the side, thus saving the lower mast, which already was in a tottering state. In Feb. 1805, having taken command of a merchant schooner of about 30 tons burthen, manned
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1804, pp. 164, 166.
