Page:A Naval Biographical Dictionary.djvu/756

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742
MATHISON—MATSON.

duing some serious riots among the keelmen on the river Tyne: the other vessels were all stationed in South America; where, on the date above mentioned, Mr. Mathias was nominated Acting-Lieutenant of the Tartar 42, bearing the broad-pendant of Sir Thos. Masterman Hardy. He was officially promoted 22 Oct. 1823; and was afterwards appointed – 23 March, 1824, again to the Doris, Capts. Vernon, Thos. Bourchier, and Wm. Jas. Hope Johnstone, in which vessel he returned home and was paid off in Jan. 1825 – 12 March, 1830, to the Talavera 74, Capts. Hugh Pigot, David Colby, and Thos. Brown, on the Home and Lisbon stations – and, 17 May, 1833, as First, to the Caledonia 120, commanded in the Mediterranean, part of the time a flag-ship to Sir Josias Rowley, by Capts. T. Brown and Geo. Bohun Martin. He was superseded on being advanced to his present rank 10 Jan. 1837; and he was next, from 22 March, 1838, until 1843, employed in the Coast Guard. He has since been on half-pay.

Commander Mathias married, first, 14 July, 1838, Emily, fourth daughter of the late Rev. John Taylor, Rector of Stainford; and (that lady dying 19 Feb. 1839), secondly, in 1840, Lydia Charlotte, eldest daughter of R. Moyle, Esq., of Penzance, Cornwall. Agents – Hallett and Robinson.



MATHISON. (Commander, 1843.)

Charles Mitchell Mathison entered the Navy 5 Aug. 1819; passed his examination in 1825; and was made Lieutenant, 12 May, 1827, into the Alacrity 10, Capt. Geo. Jas. Hope Johnstone, on the Mediterranean station. His succeeding appointments were – 12 March, 1830, to the Scylla 18, Capts. John Hindmarsh and Hon. Geo. Grey, also in the Mediterranean, whence he returned in the early part of 1834 – 31 Jan. 1835, as a Supernumerary, to the Dublin 50, Capt. Chas. Hope, fitting at Plymouth – 10 April, 1835, 2 Nov. 1836, and 18 May, 1837, to the Barham 50, Thunderer 84, and. Minden 72, Capts. Armar Lowry Corry, Wm. Furlong Wise, and Alex. Renton Sharpe, all in the Mediterranean, where he remained until the commencement of 1840 – 20 Aug. 1841, to the Malabar 72, Capt. Sir Geo. Rose Sartorius, on the South American station – and, 2 Jan. 1843, to the St. Vincent 120, as Flag-Lieutenant to Sir Chas. Rowley at Portsmouth. He attained the rank he now holds 25 Sept. in the latter year; and since 28 Jan. 1847 has been in command of the Mariner 16, on the coast of Africa.



MATSON. (Commander, 1830. f-p., 22; h-p., 20.)

George William Matson was born 10 Aug. 1794.

This officer entered the Navy, 12 June, 1805, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Glory 98, Capt. Sam. Warren, and on 22 July following was present, under the flag of Rear-Admiral Chas. Stirling, in Sir Robt. Calder’s action with the combined squadrons of France and Spain off Cape Finisterre. Quitting the Glory in July, 1806, he was next, until March, 1814, employed, chiefly in the capacity of Midshipman, in the Sampson 64, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Stirling, Diadem 64, Bellerophon 74, and President 38, all commanded (the two former as flag-ships of Rear-Admirals Stirling and Gardner) by Capt. Sam. Warren, Prince 98, bearing the flag of Sir Rich. Biokerton, Ardent 64, Capt. John Cochet, North Star 20, Capt. Thos. Coe, Shark sloop, Capt. John Gore, and Argo 44, Capts. Cornelius Quinton and Wm. Fothergill. He served in the Diadem at the reduction of Monte Video in Feb. 1807; assisted, 7 July, 1809, in the boats of the Bellerophon and other ships, at the capture of a Russian flotilla and convoy in the Baltic (an exploit more particularly alluded to in our memoir of Capt. Chas. Allen); and was present, in the President, at the taking of Java in Sept. 1811. On 25 March, 1814, at which time he was serving in the Argo in the West Indies, he was nominated Acting-Lieutenant of the Bonne Citoyenne 20, Capts. Pitt Burnaby Greene and Augustus Wm. Jas. Clifford. He obtained official promotion 1 Feb. 1815; and was afterwards appointed – 29 April, 1815, to the gun-boat service at Deal – 5 Nov. following, to the Harrier sloop, Capt. Sir Chas. Thos. Jones, on the Halifax station, where he continued, the last two years and a half as First-Lieutenant, until the close of 1818 – about Dec. 1820, in the capacity last mentioned, to the Sophie 18, Capts. Geo. French, Robt. Graham Dunlop, and Geo. Fred. Ryves, fitting for the East Indies, whence he invalided 28 Aug. 1823 – 14 Sept. 1824, again as Senior, to the Esk 20, Capt. Wm. Jardine Purchas, whom he accompanied to the coast of Africa – and, 21 Nov. 1825 and 1 Nov. 1826, to the command, on that station, of the Swinger and Clinker gun-brigs. On paying the Swinger off at Portsmouth, 26 July, 1826, Lieut. Matson was presented by the crew with a dress-sword, belt, and epaulette, in token of their very great esteem. He was advanced to his present rank soon after his return to England in the Clinker (in which vessel he had effected the emancipation of 1400 slaves) 22 Oct. 1830; and has since been on half-pay.

Commander Matson married, 7 Oct. 1835, Jane Newman, eldest daughter of the late Wm. Walter Yea, Esq., of Pyrland, co. Somerset, and sister of the present Sir Wm. Walter Yea, Bart. Agents – Holmes and Folkard.



MATSON. (Commander, 1843. f-p., 22; h-p., 2.)

Henry James Matson, born 5 April, 1810, is son of Chas. Matson, Esq., Paymaster and Purser, R.N. (1793); nephew of Admiral Rich. Matson; grand-nephew of the late Admiral Sir Henry Harvey, K.B., who commanded the Ramillies 74 in the action of 1 June, 1794, and also of the gallant Capt. John Harvey, R.N., who was mortally wounded in command of the Brunswick 74 on the same occasion; and second-cousin of Commander G. W. Matson, R.N.

This officer entered the Navy, 10 July, 1823, as Fst-cl. Vol., on board the Seringapatam 46, Capt. Sam. Warren, stationed in the Channel; and in the early part of the following year proceeded in the Samarang 28, Capt. Sir Wm. Saltonstall Wiseman, to North America; where, in Dec. 1824, he joined the Jupiter 60, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Willoughby Thos. Lake. In Sept. 1827, having attained the rating of Midshipman some time previously, he joined the Revenge 76, Capts. Norbome Thompson and Hon. Chas. Orlando Bridgeman, in which ship, stationed in the Mediterranean, he continued until Oct. 1830. In the course of the ensuing month (he had passed his examination 12 Aug. 1829) he became Mate of the Undaunted 46, Capt. Edw. Harvey, fitting for the Cape of Good Hope; and in Feb. 1833 he was transftrred from that frigate to the Curlew 10, Capt. Henry Dundas Trotter, and placed in charge of a watch. For his subsequent conduct at the capture of some pirates on the west coast of Africa, Mr. Matson, who left the Curlew in June, 1834, was promoted, 8 April, 1835, to the rank of Lieutenant, and appointed, a week afterwards, to the Pearl 20, Capts. Hugh Nurse and Lord Clarence Edw. Paget, employed at first on the Lisbon and then on the North America and West India station. The latter vessel, of which he had been for eighteen months First-Lieutenant, being put out of commission 2 Jan. 1839, he obtained command, 2 March following, of the Waterwitch 10, and was again ordered to the west coast of Africa; where four years of the most successful exertion in suppression of the slave trade resulted in his advancement to the rank of Commander, 17 July, 1843. His last appointment was to the command, 7 Sept. 1844, of the Daring 12, in which sloop he served on the Home and North America and West India stations until superseded in Feb. 1847.

Commander Matson married, 12 June, 1837, Phila-