only daughter of Chas. Mathias, Esq., of Lamphey Court, co. Pembroke, by whom he has issue two sons.
LAYE. (Lieutenant, 1836.)
Henry Thomas Laye entered the Navy, 26 April, 1823, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Trinculo 18, Capt. Rodney Shannon, on the Irish station; and was afterwards, until 1829, employed, as Midshipman, in the Jasper 10, Capt. Henry Martin Blackwood, Jupiter 60, flag-ship at Halifax of Rear-Admiral Willoughby Thos. Lake, and Wellesley 74, Capt. Fred. Lewis Maitland – which latter ship, when in company with a French 74, enforced the evacuation of two places in the Mediterranean. During the period which elapsed between the date last mentioned and that of his promotion to the rank of Lieutenant, 10 Sept. 1836, we find him serving in the Mediterranean, North Sea, and East Indies, as Mate, on board the Donegal 78, Capts. John Dick and Arthur Fanshawe, and Jupiter again, employed at first as a troop-ship, under Master-Commander Richmond Easto, and then in escorting, under Capt. Hon. Fred Wm. Grey, the Earl of Auckland as Governor-General to India. The Donegal, we may add, bore the flag of Sir Pulteney Malcolm during the siege of Antwerp. As Lieutenant, Mr. Laye’s only appointments appear to have been – 12 Jan. 1837, to the Stag 46, bearing the broad pendant of Commodore Thos. Ball Sulivan in South America, where he was superseded in the early part of the following year – and 4 Nov. 1840, to the Endymion 44, commanded by his former Captain, Hon. F. W. Grey, with whom he continued until paid off at the close of 1843. During that period he visited the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, and China, and was in the Yang-tse-Kiang previously to the pacification of Nanking. While there he commanded a detached force that escaladed the walls of Chin-Kiang-Foo, and, owing to the illness of the commanding officer, brought the Rattlesnake 28 down the river.
LAYTON. (Lieut., 1815. f-p., 11; h-p., 32)
Buxton Layton entered the Navy, 27 May, 1804, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Ethalion frigate, Capts. Chas. Stuart and Joseph Spear, employed at first in the North Sea, and then in the West Indies, where, in March, 1806, he became Midshipman of the Amelia 38, Capt. Wm. Champain. From the following Aug. until Dec. 1810, he appears to have been again stationed in the North Sea, as also in the Baltic, on board the Nassau 64, Capt. Robt. Campbell, Edgar 74, Capt. Stephen Poyntz, and Stately 64, Capt. R. Campbell. While in the Nassau, which ship was for a long time employed in blockading the Texel, and formed part of the expedition to Copenhagen in Aug. and Sept. 1807, Mr. Layton (on her being extricated from a mass of ice in which she had been blocked up during the whole winter) assisted, 22 March, 1808, in company with the Stately 64, at the capture and destruction, on the coast of Zealand, of the Danish 74-gun ship Prindts Christian Frederic, after a running fight of great length and obstinacy, in which the Nassau sustained a loss of 2 men killed and 16 wounded. In Dec. 1810 he accompanied Capt. Campbell into the Tremendous 74, and sailed for the Mediterranean, where he remained with that officer until May, 1815, participating intermediately in a variety of important services. He then took up a commission dated 10 Feb. 1815, and has since been on half-pay.
LAYTON. (Captain, 1846. f-p., 16; h-p., 19.)
Henry Layton, born 2 Feb. 1799, at Chigwell, co. Essex, is second son of the Rev. Thos. Layton, M.A., Vicar of that place and of Theydon Bois, and a magistrate for the above co.
This officer entered the Navy, 3 May, 1812, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Barfleur 98, Capt. Sir Thos. Masterman Hardy, whom he followed aa Midshipman in the ensuing Sept. into the Ramillies 74. While in that ship, besides serving at the capture of Washington, Baltimore, and Stonington, and participating in the operations against New Orleans, he assisted in the boats of a squadron at the taking, 14 Dec. 1814, on Lake Borgne, of five American gun-boats under Commodore Jones, which did not surrender until the British, after a violent conflict, had been occasioned a loss of 17 men killed and 77 wounded. From Nov. 1815, when he left the Ramillies, until Dec. 1818, Mr. Layton was employed on the Home station in the Malta 80, and Rivoli 74, both commanded by the present Sir Chas. Ogle, and Rosario 10, Capt. Thos. Ladd Peake. He shortly afterwards passed his examination; and was then for nearly three years and a half stationed in South America, once more under Sir T. M. Hardy, in the Superb 78, Créole 42, and again in the Superb. He was during that period promoted to the rank of Lieutenant by commission dated 2 Nov. 1821. His next appointment was, 9 June, 1824, to the Bulwark 76, Capt. Thos. Dundas, guard-ship at Plymouth, where he was paid off 28 Feb. 1825. Attaining the rank of Commander 10 June following, Capt. Layton was in that capacity employed in the Coast Guard at Killybegs and Gosport from 30 June, 1834, until 26 July, 1837; and on 19 April, 1844, appointed to the Cygnet 6, in which sloop he sailed for the suppression of the slave-trade on the coast of Africa, carrying out Mr. Duncan, the African traveller, to Cape Coast, on his way to the Niger, together with presents for the chiefs of the Cameroon river. He was superseded in Feb. 1846; was advanced to his present rank on 9 Nov. in the same year; and since 12 of that month has been in command of the Belvidera store-ship.
Capt. Layton married, 16 May, 1839, Charlotte Elizabeth, second daughter of the Rev. Edw. Barnard, Rector of Alverstoke, Hants.
LEACH. (Commander, 1841. f-p., 21; h-p., 12.)
Charles Leach was born 12 Sept. 1800. This officer entered the Navy, 23 June, 1814, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Monmouth 64, Capt. Wm. Wilkinson, flag-ship in the North Sea of the late Sir Thos. Foley. In the following month he removed to the Forester 18, Capt. Wm. Hendry, lying at Portsmouth; and during the next seven years we find him employed, on the Cape of Good Hope, Home, African, and South American stations, principally as Midshipman, in the Harpy 16, Capt. Geo. Tyler, Malta 80, Capt. Thos. Gordon Caulfeild. Inconstant and Semiramis frigates, bearing each the broad pendant of Sir Jas. Lucas Yeo, and Alert 18, and Myrmidon 20, both commanded by Capt. Henry John Leeke. He then, in Nov. 1821, passed his examination, but it was not until 9 April, 1828, that he succeeded in obtaining a commission. By that time he had further served, almost without interruption, in the Fly 18, Capts. Geo. Tyler and Edw. Curzon, Doris 42, Capts. Thos. Bourchier and Wm. Jas. Hope Johnstone, Prince Regent 120, bearing the flag of Sir Robt. Moorsom at Chatham, and Ranger 28, Capt. Lord Henry Fred. Thynne – all which ships, excepting the Prince Regent, were stationed in South America, where, from the date of his promotion, as above, until the early part of 1830, and again from 6 Oct. 1832, until he invalided in March, 1834, he was further employed on board the Cadmus 10, Capt. Sir Thos. Raikes Trigge Thompson, and Spartiate 76, bearing the flag of Sir Michael Seymour. His last appointment was 28 July, 1834, to the Winchester 52, flag-ship of Hon. Sir Thos. Bladen Capel in the East Indies, whence he returned home and was paid off in June, 1838. He attained his present rank 23 Nov. 1841.
LEAN. (Lieutenant, 1810. f-p., 18; h-p., 31.)
James Sedgwick Lean entered the Navy, in July, 1798, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Kangaroo 18, Capt. Edw. Brace; and in the following Oct. was twice engaged, in a very gallant manner,
