where, in March, 1807, he joined the Queen 98, Capt. Fras. Pender. Removing, in July following, to the San Juan 74, guard-ship at Gibraltar, Lieut.Commander Thos. Spence, he was there for some months engaged on gun-boat service. On his arrival home in April, 1808, he was received as a Supernumerary on board the Royal William, Capt. Hon. Courtenay Boyle, guard-ship at Spithead. In the summer of the same year he sailed for the West Indies in the Flying Fish schooner, Lieut.-Commander Jas. Glassford Gooding, under whom he continued until the ensuing Nov., when a fall from the rigging obliged him to invalid. So serious was the injury he sustained on the occasion, that it was not until March, 1811, that he was again enabled to go afloat. He then joined the Aquilon and Saldanha frigates, Capts. Wm. Bowles and Hon. Wm. Pakenham; from the latter of which vessels, stationed on the coast of Ireland, he was sent in the following Oct. to England for the purpose of passing his examination, a short time only before she was lost with nearly the whole of her officers and crew. Proceeding next, in Feb. 1812, to the Mediterranean, on board the Gorgon 44, armée en flûte, Capt. Alex. Milner, he was nominated, in May of that year, Master’s Mate of the Royal George 100, Capt. Thos. Fras. Chas. Mainwaring, stationed off Toulon, where he witnessed the partial actions of 5 Nov. 1813 and 13 Feb. 1814 with the French fleet. On 6 March, 1814, he became Acting-Lieutenant of the Barfleur 98, Capt. John Maitland; he was confirmed, while again in the Royal George, 5 April following; and in the next July he returned to England, in the Barfleur, and was paid off. His last appointment was, 1 Nov. 1820, to the Coast Guard, in which service he continued a period of five years and three months.
Lieut. Norman married in April, 1817, and has issue five sons and one daughter. One of the former, Wm. Henry, Purser and Paymaster, R.N. (1841), is at present serving at the Cape of Good Hope in the Rosamond steam-sloop, of 287 horsepower. Agent – J. Hinxman.
NORRIS. (Lieutenant, 1812. f-p., 9; h-p., 33.)
Joseph Norris was born 16 Aug. 1789. This officer entered the Navy, 10 Nov. 1805, as Midshipman, on board the Apollo 3S, Capt. Edw. Fellowes, with whom he removed, in July, 1808, to the Conqueror 74, and continued to serve, chiefly in the Mediterranean, until made Lieutenant, 22 Feb. 1812, into the Polyphemus 64, Capt. Peter John Douglas, on the West India station, whither he proceeded in the Jason 32, Capt. Hon. Jas. Wm. King. While in the Apollo, besides assisting at the cutting out of many of the enemy’s vessels on the coast of Calabria, he was present in 1807 at the landing of the troops under Major-General Fraser in Egypt, where he witnessed the surrender of Alexandria, and had command of a boat on Lake Etko at the reduction of Rosetta. During the term of his servitude in the Conqueror he came into frequent contact with the enemy in the neighbourhood of Toulon; on one occasion in particular, 20 July, 1810, when that ship, in company with the Warspite and Ajax 74’s, rescued in a most gallant manner the Euryalus frigate and Shearwater brig from being captured by a powerful division of the enemy’s fleet, consisting of six sail of the line and four frigates. We also find him, 11 Sept. 1811, commanding one of three boats under the orders of Lieut. Rich. Howell Fleming, at the destruction, in noon day, of an armed vessel chained from her masts to the shore, at Aras, in the gulf of Genoa, where the British encountered so fierce an opposition that 2 of their number were killed and 9 wounded. During the passage home of the Polyphemus with convoy in the autumn of 1812, Lieut. Norris was placed in command, as Prize-Master, of the James Maddison captured American schooner, of 12 guns. In that vessel, on the merchantmen being dispersed in a gale, he succeeded in re-collecting 20 of them; the whole of which, after having beaten off an American privateer of superior force, he conducted in safety to England, receiving, on his arrival, the thanks of the Committee at Lloyd’s. His last appointments were, 2 Feb. 1813 and 17 Oct. 1814, to the Persian and Mercurius sloops, Capts. Chas. Bertram and Thos. Renwick. In the Persian he was wrecked, as detailed in our memoir of Capt. Bertram, on the Silver Keys, in the West Indies, 16 June, 1813: and in the Mercurius he was actively employed off the coast of France during the war of a hundred days. He has been on half-pay since 18 Sept. 1815.
He married, 1 Jan. 1818, Ann Grigg, sister of Jas. Cassell, Esq., First-Lieutenant R.M., and niece of Lieut.-Colonel Cassell, of the same corps, by whom he has issue four children.
NORTHUMBERLAND, Duke of, formerly Lord Prudhoe, F.R.S., F.S.A. (Captain, 1815. f-p., 11; h-p., 31.)
His Grace Algernon Duke of Northumberland, born 15 Sept. 1792, is second and youngest son of Hugh, second Duke of Northumberland, K.G., by Frances Julia, third daughter of Peter Burrell, Esq., of Beckenham, co. Kent, and sister of Peter, late Lord Gwydir. His brother, Hugh, third Duke, K.G., whom he succeeded in 1847, assisted, as His Britannic Majesty’s Envoy Extraordinary, at the coronation of Charles X., King of France, became subsequently Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and held the office of Vice- Admiral of co. Northumberland, and of the town and co. of the town of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
This officer (then Lord Algernon Percy[1]) entered the Navy, in March, 1805, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Tribune frigate, Capt. Rich. Henry Alex. Bennett, whom he followed, as Midshipman, in the ensuing Sept., into the Fame 74. In those ships he served, off Shetland, Rochefort, and Cadiz, and in various parts of the Mediterranean, until 1810. He then joined the Hydra 38, Capt. Geo. Mundy, and after having commanded a gun-boat in co-operation with the patriots on the coast of Andalusia, he became attached, in Jan. 1811, to the Christian VII. 80, bearing the flag off the Scheldt of Sir Edw. Pellew; under whom, when again serving in the Mediterranean on board the Caledonia 120, he was confirmed in the rank of Lieutenant by a commission bearing date 16 Dec. 1811. Prior to the receipt of the intelligence of his official advancement to the rank of Commander, which took place 8 March, 1814, his Lordship occasionally acted as Captain of the Scout and Pelorus sloops, and also of the Caledonia herself, in which ship he fought in a partial action with the French fleet off Toulon, and witnessed the fall of Genoa. He subsequently officiated for some months as Acting-Captain of the Cossack 22, on the coast of North America; and at the period of his elevation to Post-rank, 19 Aug. 1815, was serving at Portsmouth on board the Driver sloop. He has since been on half-pay.
The Duke was elected a F.R.S. 9 April, 1818. He married, 25 Aug. 1842, Lady Eleanor, eldest daughter of Earl Grosvenor. Agent – John P. Muspratt.
NORTON. (Retired Captain, 1840. f-p., 21; h-p., 35.)
John Norton was born 24 May, 1771, and died 26 Sept. 1845.
This officer entered the Navy, about 1789, as A.B., on board the Phoenix 36, Capts. Byron and Sir Rich. John Strachan; under the latter of whom, while cruizing off the coast of Malabar in company with the Perseverance frigate, he took part, 19 Nov. 1791, in an obstinate action (produced by a resistance on the part of the French Captain to a search being imposed by the British upon two merchant-vessels under his orders) with La Résolue, of 46 guns, whose colours were not struck until she had herself sustained a loss of 25 men killed and 40 wounded, and had occasioned one to the Phoenix
- ↑ He was raised to the peerage as Lord Prudhoe in 1816.
