exploit was happily performed without loss, owing solely to the conduct of Capt. Moresby; whose order in advancing, judgment in landing, and determination of manner in leading the men up to the batteries, so intimidated the enemy, that they did not wait for the charge, but hastily fired and fled. During the proximate siege of Trieste, he served on shore in command, from 16 to 24 Oct., of one of the batteries; he was then ordered to form one with 4 32-pounders, within breaching distance; and this, in the course of 56 hours, under all the disadvantages of weather, &c., he contrived, with 50 men from the Milford and 20 from the Wizard, to complete without assistance of any kind.[1] For the above and other important services performed in co-operation with the Austrian troops on the coasts of the Adriatic, Capt. Moresby obtained permission, 23 May, 1814, to accept and wear the insignia of a Knight of the Imperial Military Order of Maria Theresa; and being moreover strongly recommended to the consideration of the Admiralty, he was advanced, 7 June following, to Post-rank; besides being nominated, 4 June, 1815, a C.B. His next appointment was, 26 April, 1819, to the Menai 24; in which ship, after visiting St. Helena, then the abode of Napoleon Buonaparte, he proceeded as Senior officer to the Cape of Good Hope. In 1820 he undertook the survey of Algoa Bay and its vicinity, as also the landing of the settlers, in number 2000, and the other duties connected with the first establishment of a colony at that place, the whole of which, notwithstanding their arduous nature, he discharged in a manner in the highest degree creditable to his sagacity and benevolence. In Feb. 1821 Capt. Moresby assumed the chief command at the Mauritius, with a view to the suppression of the slave-trade, which, up to the period of his arrival, had been carried on to a very great extent. Within a short time, however, the more notorious vessels were either captured or destroyed; prosecution was commenced against the owners and captains; and a complete stop put to other adventurers. For the purpose of preventing a recurrence of what he had so successfully demolished, Capt. Moresby then entered into a treaty with the Imaum of Muscat, afterwards confirmed by the British government, upon whom it conferred the right of exerting itself to the utmost for the abolition of the nefarious traffic. At the expiration of the Menai’s term of service, in the spring of 1822, the Admiralty, on the application of Lord Bathurst, Secretary of State for the Colonies, and at the solicitation of Mr. Wilberforce and others, was induced to prolong the period of Capt. Moresby’s command at the Mauritius; and he accordingly continued there until June, 1823. He then embarked the Governor, Sir Robt. Farquhar, and, after arranging a treaty with the King of Madagascar for the suppression of the slave-trade in his dominions, returned to England and was paid off in the month of Sept. To such an extent had his health become impaired while in command of the Menai, particularly in the extensive surveys he had made of the Ethiopian archipelago and of the African coast, that for five years he was subject to attacks which reduced him each time to the lowest state of debility. Although the vigour of his constitution was at length restored, he did not succeed in procuring fresh employment until Jan. 1837, on 25 of which month he was selected to succeed Sir Thos. Fellowes in the command of the Pembroke 74, on the Mediterranean station, whence he came home and was put out of commission in Feb. 1840. He has been in command, since 1 March, 1845, of the Canopus 84, employed chiefly on particular service.
Capt. Moresby married, 6 Aug. 1814, at Malta, Eliza Louisa, youngest daughter of John Williams, Esq., of Bakewell, Derbyshire, by whom he has issue three sons and two daughters – the elder married to Commander J. C. Prevost, R.N. His eldest son, Fairfax, now a Mate R.N. (1845), was born in Dec. 1826, and served as Midshipman of the Pique 36, Capt. Edw. Boxer, throughout all the operations on the coast of Syria, including the bombardment of Acre, as also of the Cornwallis 72, Sir Wm. Parker’s flag-ship, during the war in China. Capt. Moresby’s youngest son, John, born in March, 1830, was lately serving as a naval cadet on board the America 50., Capt. Hon. John Gordon. Agents – Messrs. Ommanney.
MORGAN. (Lieutenant, 1845.)
Edward Edwin Morgan passed his examination 10 Sept. 1836; and after having served for several years as Mate, on the South American and East India stations, in the Rose 18 and North Star 26, Capts. Peter Christie and Sir Jas. Everard Home, was promoted, 20 Jan. 1845, to the rank of Lieutenant, and appointed, 13 Feb. following, Additional of the Agincourt 72, flag-ship on the latter station of Sir Thos. John Cochrane. Being next, 17 Dec. in the same year, appointed to the Hazard 18, Capt. Fras. Philip Egerton, he accompanied, in July, 1846, an expedition conducted by Sir T. J. Cochrane against the Sultan of Borneo, where, on 8 of that month, he commanded the eighth company of small-arm men at the capture of the enemy’s forts and batteries on the river Brune. On the ensuing ascent of a branch of the latter stream by a force under Capt. Geo. Mundy, and its debarkation, after struggling for many hours against an almost impenetrable navigation, at the village of Mallout, Mr. Morgan, while the main body marched on to Damuan, in the hope of there capturing the Sultan’s person, was left behind in partial charge of a flotilla of seven gun-boats under Lieut. Geo. Edwin Patey, and was mentioned for the cheerful assistance he afforded on the occasion.[2] The Hazard was paid off in 1847.
MORGAN. (Captain, 1836. f-p., 25; h-p., 24.)
James Morgan is son of the late Rev. Patrick Morgan, Rector of Killybegs, co. Donegal; and brother of Lieut. Wm. Moore Morgan, R.M., who fell at the battle of Algiers while serving on board the Granicus 36, Capt. Wm. Furlong Wise. Another brother, Hugh, was an officer in the Royal Artillery.
This officer entered the Navy, 1 Nov. 1798, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Savage 16, Capts. Norborne Thompson, Wm. Henry Webley, and John Tower, stationed in the Downs; where, in March, 1803, nearly two years and a half after he had attained the rating of Midshipman, he accompanied Capt. Tower into the Lark sloop. In Feb. 1805, at which period he was serving on board the Fury bomb, he was appointed Sub-Lieutenant of the Flamer gun-brig, Lieut.-Commander Jas. Storey; and on 30 Jan. 1806, as a reward for meritorious conduct he had displayed off Boulogne, he -was promoted, on the recommendation of Lord Keith, to a full Lieutenancy in the Lynx sloop, Capt. John Willoughby Marshall, attached to the force in the North Sea. Quitting that vessel in the summer of 1807, he served, during the next four years, on the St. Helena, Home, and West India stations, in the Agincourt 64, Capt. Henry Hill, Resolution 74, Capt. Geo. Burlton, Nymphe 38, Capt. Hon. Josceline Percy, Neptune 98, Capt. Jas. Athol Wood, Elk sloop, Capt. Jeremiah Coghlan, Hyperion 36, Capts. Thos. Chas. Brodie and Wm. Pryce Cumby, and Polyphemus 64, flag-ship of Vice- Admiral Bartholomew Sam. Rowley. In 1811, owing to the circumstance of Capt. Brodie and two of his officers having been taken captive in their boats by the black commandant at Gonaives, St. Domingo, in consequence of protection afforded by the former to an English merchant who had been detained a prisoner for an alleged breach of blockade, Lieut. Morgan, then Senior of the Hyperion, anchored the ship as soon as possible with one broadside to the batteries and the other to a Haytian frigate, and succeeded by his threatening demeanour in forthwith obtaining their release. In April, 1812, nine months after the state of his health had obliged
