302
DOWNES—DOWNMAN.
as Flag-Lieutenant, on the Downs station, to Vice-Admiral Philip Patton; after which, until promoted to the rank of Commander, 12 Jan. 1805, he served in La Virginie 38, Capt. John Poo Beresford, and in the Princess Augusta yacht, Capt. Edw. Jas. Foote, employed in attendance on the King off Weymouth. His subsequent appointments were, to the command – 26 March and 18 April, 1805, of the Wellington and Adelphi armed ships – 7 Feb. 1806, of the Bittern 18 – and, 23 Aug. 1808, of the Redwing 18. When in the Adelphi, Capt. Down appears to have been engaged in escorting convoys to the Baltic, Eyder, and Elbe : during his command of the Bittern and Redwing, he captured, on the Mediterranean station, 2 Aug. 1807, El Verga del Rosario, Spanish privateer of 2 guns and 20 mien – 16 Sept. 1811, La Victorieuse French privateer of 4 guns and 40 men – and, 8 May, 1812, a small Neapolitan vessel. He was posted on 12 Aug. in the latter year; and advanced to the rank he now holds 1 Oct. 1846.
Rear-Admiral Down, who has been for many years afflicted with blindness, was admitted to the out-pension of Greenwich Hospital 5 Jan. 1828. He married, 6 Dec. 1815, Elizabeth, third daughter of Philip Patton, Esq., Admiral of the Red (formerly Commander-in-Chief in the Downs, and afterwards a Lord of the Admiralty), who died 31 Dec. 1815, aged 76 years. He has issue six children. Agent – John P. Muspratt.
DOWNES. (Commander, 1829. f-p., 14; h-p., 28.)
Henry Downes entered the Navy, 6 April, 1805, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board L’Aimable 32, Capt. Wm. Bolton. In Oct. following he accompanied the same officer, as Midshipman, into the Fisgard 38, commanded afterwards by Capt. Fras. Mason; during the six years of his attachment to which frigate, he served at the reduction of Curaçoa, in Jan. 1807, attended, as Master’s Mate, the expedition to the Walcheren in Aug. 1809, commanded a boat at the destruction of a privateer in the Baltic in 1810, and assisted at the cutting out of a ship from Rostock in 1811. From Nov. in the latter year, until Dec. 1813, Mr. Downes was next successively employed on board the Thisbe 28, flag-ship off Deptford of Sir Chas. Hamilton – the Mulgrave 74, Capt. Thos. Jas. Maling – the Daedalus 38, Capt. Murray Maxwell, under whom he was wrecked, near Ceylon, 2 July, 1813 – and the Minden 74, flag-ship of Sir Sam. Hood. He was then appointed Acting-Lieutenant of the Africaine 38, Capt. Hon. Edw. Rodney, in which ship, after visiting the Persian Gulf and the China Sea, he returned to England in Feb. 1816. Having attained the rank of Lieutenant 1 June, 1814, he next, on 5 Dec. 1826, joined, in that capacity, the Sybille 48, bearing the broad pendant on the coast of Africa of Commodore Fras. Aug. Collier. For his conduct when afterwards in command of the Black Joke tender – an account of whose dashing achievements will be found under the head of Capt. Edw. Harris Butterfield – he was ultimately advanced to his present rank, 2 May, 1829.[1] He has not, however, been since employed.
A splendid vase of polished “Heart of Oak,” with appropriate ornaments in silver gilt, we understand, was presented to this officer as “a tribute of admiration and respect from Commodore Collier for his gallant conduct when in command of H.M. tender Black Joke.” Commander Downes is an Hon. Director of the United Service Institution.
DOWNES. (Lieutenant, 1838.)
Thomas Hardwicke Downeswas mentioned in terms of the highest praise by Capt. Fred. Marryat for his conduct as Midshipman of the Larne 20, during the Burmese war, in 1825.[2] He passed his examination in 1827; obtained his commission 2 March, 1838; and has been since appointed – 6 June, 1838, and 22 May and 5 Oct. 1839, to the Jaseur 16, Capt. Fred. Moore Boultbee, Bellerophon 78, Capt. Chas. John Austen, and, as First-Lieutenant, to the Zebra 16, Capts. Robt. Fanshawe Stopford and Jas. John Stopford all on the Mediterranean station – 31 Aug 1841, to the Driver steamer, Capt. Sam Fielding Harmer, whom he accompanied to the East Indie – s – 1 April, 1844, as Senior, to the Firefly steam surveying-vessel, Capt. Fred. Wm. Beechey, on the Home station – 22 Nov. 1844 in a similar capacity to the Amazon 19, commanded in the Mediterranean by Capt. Jas. John Stopford – and, 17 Sept. 1846, to the Coast Guard, in which service he is now employed.
DOWNMAN. (Vice-Admiral, of the Red, 1837. f-p., 36; h-p., 35.)
Hugh Downman, born 29 Oct. 1765, at Plymouth is descended from a respectable family in Devonshire, of which his father was a younger branch.
This officer entered the Navy, 10 Oct. 1776, as A.B. on board the Thetis 32, Capts. Mitchell Graham and John Gill, in which frigate he escorted home a large convoy of Indiamen from St. Helena, From 14 Aug. 1778, until 5 March, 1790, he was next employed, as Midshipman, in the Arethusa and Emerald frigates, both commanded by Capt, Sam. Marshal – the Edgar 74, Commodore Chas. Hotham – the Queen 98, Triumph 74, and Barfleur 98, flag-ships at Portsmouth of Admirals John Montagu and Lord Hood – and the Crown 64, bearing the broad pendant in the East Indies of the Hon. Wm. Cornwallis. During that period, having been wrecked in the Arethusa while in pursuit of an enemy’s frigate off the island of Moulines, Mr. Downman was detained a prisoner of war in France, from March, 1779, to Jan. 1780; after which, when in the Edgar, he was present at the relief of Gibraltar, and in Lord Howe’s partial action with the combined fleets of France and Spain, 20 Oct. 1782. On 5 March, 1790, as above, he was promoted to a Lieutenancy in the Perseverance 36, Capt. Isaac Smith, on the East India station, whence, on being re-transferred to the Crown, he came home, in May, 1792. Being next appointed, 2 Jan. 1793, to the Alcide 74, Capt. Robt. Linzee, he proceeded to the Mediterranean, where he officiated at the occupation of Toulon and the reduction of Corsica. While on the latter service, he cut a gun-boat out from under a battery at St. Fiorenza – was present in the several attacks upon that place and Fornelli – headed a detachment of 100 seamen, and planted the first gun upon the height commanding the tower of Mortella, preparatory to its surrender – and, antecedently to the final capture of Fornelli, assisted in dragging cannon up a stupendous rocky elevation, which commanded the Convention redoubt, and was deemed inaccessible near the summit. After a brief attachment to the Windsor Castle 98, into which Commodore Linzee had been removed on his promotion to Flag-rank, Mr. Downman was appointed, 7 Oct. 1794, to the Victory 100, successively flagship of Lord Hood, Rear-Admiral Robt. Mann, and Sir John Jervis; under the two last of whom he appears to have been respectively present in the actions of 13 July, 1795, and 14 Feb. 1797. On 26 July following he was confirmed in the command of the Speedy sloop, of 14 4-pounders and 80 men, to which he had been recently promoted from the Ville de Paris; and while in that vessel he captured five Spanish privateers, carrying altogether 17 guns, 28 swivels, and 162 men, besides encountering off Vigo two very severe actions, on 3 and 4 Feb. 1798, with the French privateer Papillon, of 14 heavy guns and 160 men, which he beat off on both occasions, with a loss to the Speedy of 5 men killed and 4 wounded.[3] Being officially posted, 26 Dec. 1798, in the Santa Dorothea of 42 guns, a ship he had joined in the previous September, Capt. Downman (whose services in the Speedy had been acknowledged by the presentation to him of a piece of plate, valued at 50l., from the British merchants at Oporto) was subsequently employed, off Malta, and with a perseverance highly creditable,
