he assisted in silencing the fire of nine gun-vessels by whom the Cerberus had been assailed when for three hours aground on a sand-bank[1] – 8 June, 1804, to the Diomede 50, Capts. Hugh Downman and Joseph Edmunds, in which ship, bearing the flag at first of Sir Jas. Saumarez, he superintended the landing of the troops under Major-General (now Lord) Beresford in the operations against the Cape of Good Hope, and had charge of the seamen atached to that officer’s brigade at Saldanha Bay – 27 Jan. 1806, as First, to the Diadem 64, bearing the broad pendant of Sir Home Popham – 11 March ensuing, to the command of an armed transport, for the purpose of conveying home intelligence of a French squadron under Jerome Buonaparte having arrived in the vicinity of the Cape – and, 29 Aug. in the same year, to the post of Flag-Lieutenant under Sir Jas. Saumarez, with whom he successively served in the Channel and Baltic on board the Diomede, Hibernia, and Victory. Being confirmed, 17 Sept. 1808, in the command of the Rose sloop, Capt. Mansell, while in that vessel, assisted at the capture of the island of Anholdt, 18 May, 1809, and succeeded, with much gallantry and good conduct, in beating off, near the Skawe, 28 April, 1810, a Danish flotilla, consisting of four gun-vessels, with other rowing-boats, whose fire, although it but slightly wounded five of the Rose’s people, proved nevertheless, during upwards of an hour’s continuance, most destructive to her sails and rigging, carrying away also the wheel, besides lodging 19 shot in the hull, and rendering the mainyard and main-mast unserviceable. In 1812 Capt. Mansell was presented by Viscount Cathcart, the British Ambassador at St. Petersburg, with a valuable diamond ring, which his Lordship had been directed by the Emperor Alexander to forward to him as a mark of the high sense that monarch entertained of his services, especially in safely conducting through the Belt a Russian squadron under Vice-Admiral Crown; and in the course of the same year he was honoured by King Charles XIII. with the insignia of a Knight of the Royal Military Order of the Sword, in testimony of the esteem in which his services were likewise held by his Swedish Majesty. The Rose being paid off in April, 1813, he was next, 23 Aug. following, appointed to the Pelican brig, of 18 guns, in which vessel we find him serving on the Irish station and off the north coast of Spain until his promotion to Post-rank, 7 June, 1814. During the period he commanded the Rose and Pelican, Capt. Mansell evinced a degree of zeal and activity that did not fail to procure him the approbation of every officer under whom he was employed. He contrived, indeed, to make prize of at least 170 vessels of various descriptions, and among them, 13 June, 1814, the Siro, American letter-of-marque of 225 tons, pierced for 16 guns, mounting 12 long nine-pounders, with a complement of 49 men.[2] Unsuccessful, after his advancement to Post-rank, in his applications for further employment, he accepted the Retirement 1 Oct. 1846.
Sir Thos. Mansell (whom William IV. nominated a K.C.H., and invested with the honour of Knighthood, in 1837) married, in Nov. 1806, Catherine, daughter of John Lukis, Esq., merchant, of Guernsey, by whom he has issue four sons and four daughters. Of the former, the eldest, a M.D., is a Surgeon R.N. (1840); the second, Arthur Lukis, a Lieutenant R.N.; the third, William Mansell, First-Lieutenant R.M. (1846); and the fourth, George Hope, a Mate R.N. (1847).
MANSELL. (Lieut., 1821. f-p., 13; h-p., 25.)
William Mansell is son of the late Walter Mansell, Esq., of Woodbury House, co. Oxford.
This officer entered the Navy, in June, 1809, as Sec.-cl. Vol., on board the Venerable 74, Capts. Sir Home Popham and Andrew King, in which ship he accompanied the ensuing expedition to the Walcheren, escorted the Earl of Chatham thence to England, and was all but lost during a gale off the coast of Holland. Between 1810 and Aug. 1815 we find him serving, part of the time as Midshipman, in the Orion and Sultan 74’s, Capts. Sir Archibald Collingwood Dickson and John West, and Désirée 36, Capt. Wm. Woolridge. The two former ships were employed in the Baltic, Channel, and West Indies; the Désirée in endeavouring to intercept Napoleon Buonaparte after the battle of Waterloo. After an employment of nearly three years on the Home station in the Scamander 36, Capts. Chas. Sipthorpe John Hawtayne and Wm. Elliott, and Florida 24, also commanded by Capt. Hawtayne, Mr. Mansell, having passed his examination in Dec. 1816, was appointed, in Jan. 1819, Admiralty Midshipman of the Morgiana sloop, Capts. Chas. Borough Strong, Alex. Sandilands, and Wm. Finlaison, in which vessel he sailed for the coast of Africa, where, on 10 of the following Dec, he took command of the gig and assisted- at the capture by boarding, in open day, of the Spanish armed slave-schooner Esperança, of greatly superior force. On that occasion Mr. Mansell, followed by a marine named Lord, was the first on the enemy’s deck. For the space of two minutes he and his brave companion, from unavoidable circumstances, were left unsupported in the presence of very fearful odds, but they made ample use of their time, the former attacking, wounding, and overcoming the Captain of the slaver and another person; and the marine killing the man at the wheel. The loss of the assailed in the affair amounted altogether to 2 men killed and 6 wounded: that of the British to 3 slightly wounded. Among the latter was Mr. Mansell, who had been previously severely bruised by cold shot thrown into the boats with a view of sinking them during their approach. In consideration of his gallant behaviour on the occasion he was so strongly recommended in the despatches to the Admiralty, and his claim to promotion so warmly pressed by the late Mr. Wilberforce, that, on 14 Sept. 1821, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. Prior, however, to that event he appears, in May, 1820, to have landed at the Pongas, near Sierra Leone, and to have united in a series of operations conducted by the present Sir Henry John Leeke, at the head of 170 seamen and marines and 180 black soldiers of the 2nd West India Regt.; the result whereof was the destruction by fire of eight towns, the demolition of a strongly stockaded battery, mounting four guns, and the defeat of a body of 5000 men commanded by King Munga Brama, a barbarian who had murdered an officer and several men belonging to H.M.S. Thistle, and had retained 3 as prisoners. On this, as on other occasions, Mr. Mansell again distinguished himself. He continued in the Morgiana as her First-Lieuenant until Feb. 1822; and was lastly, from 2 Dec. 1825 until Aug. 1827, employed on the Coast Blockade service as a Supernumerary of the Ramillies 74, Capt. Hugh Pigot.
In 1838 Lieut. Mansell was appointed Secretary to the Metropolitan Public Carriage Office; and in 1843, Deputy-Registrar of Metropolitan Public Carriages. He married, first, 9 Dec, 1830, Phillis, only daughter of Joseph Horsford, Esq,, of Weymouth; and, that lady dying in 1834, secondly, 10 Aug, 1836, Susannah Maria, only daughter of John Surman, Esq,, of the Lodge, Malvern, co. Worcester.
MANSFIELD. (Lieutenant, 1845. f-p., 14; h-p., 1.)
Walter George Mansfield, born about 1818 is son of Walter H. Mansfield, Esq., of Yeomansown House, co. Kildare.
This officer entered the Navy, in May, 1832, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Vernon 50, Capt. Sir
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1803, p. 1273. Mr. Mansell, who was for some time First-Lieutenant of the Cerberus, had, in the preceding Aug., commanded her boats in two cutting-out affairs. He brought out, on the first occasion, a large fishing-vessel from Concalle Bay, and on the second he captured, with but two boats, not less than seven smacks, mounting from 16 to 18 guns each, in St. Cas Bav. – Vide Gaz. 1803, p. 1050.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1814, p. 232.
