Page:A Naval Biographical Dictionary.djvu/959

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QUIN—QUINLAN—RABAN—RABETT.
945

tinued until put out of commission at the close of 1838, he was promoted, 10 Jan. 1837, to the rank he now holds. His last appointment was, 29 Nov. 1841, to the Minden hospital-ship in the East Indies. He has been on half-pay since the end of 1844. Agents – Messrs. Chard.



QUIN. (Commander, 1846.)

Richard Robert Quin entered the Navy 7 May, 1834; passed his examination 9 July, 1840; and for his services as Mate of the Conway 26, Capt. Chas. Ramsay Drinkwater Bethune, on the coast of China, particularly at the capture of Canton,[1] was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant 8 June, 1841. His appointments in the latter capacity were – 10 March, 1842, to the Belvidera 38, Capt. Hon. Geo. Grey, in the Mediterranean – and, 30 May, 1844, to the Collingwood 80, hearing the flag of Sir Geo. Fras. Seymour in the Pacific. He attained his present rank 9 Nov. 1846.



QUINLAN. (Lieutenant, 1843.)

William St. Louis Quinlan entered the Navy 21 Jan. 1829; passed his examination 10 June, 1835; and while serving as Mate, in 1842, in the Charybdis brigantine, Lieut.-Commander Jas. Archibald Macdonald, appears to have “upheld the British flag against a superior force” at the blockade of San Juan de Nicaragua, He obtained his commission 3 Feb. 1843; became, 13 Sept. following, Additional-Lieutenant of the Dublin 50, flag-ship in the Pacific of Rear-Admiral Rich. Thomas; and, from 19 Dec. 1844 until paid off at the close of 1847, was employed on the same station in the Cormorant steam-sloop, of 300-horse-power, Capts. Geo. Thos. Gordon and Fred. Beauchamp Paget Seymour.



R.

RABAN. (Lieut., 1814. f-p., 9; h-p., 32.)

Robert Bruce Raban entered the Navy, 20 May, 1806, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on borad the Glatton 50, Capts. Thos. Seccombe, Henry Hope, John Clavell, Geo. Miller Bligh, and John Smith; under whom we find him successively employed on the Downs and Mediterranean stations (nearly the whole time in the capacity of Midshipman), until transferred, in Sept. 1809, to the Namur 74, Capt. Rich. Jones, part of the force employed in the expedition to the Walcheren. After serving for rather more than two years off Cork, Cadiz, and Brest in the Rota 38, Capt. Philip Somerville, he joined, in Jan. 1812, the Montagu 74, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Manley Dixon on the Brazilian station; where, in July, 1813, he followed Capt. Manley Hall Dixon (who had had command of the Montagu) into the Nereus 42; of which ship he was confirmed a Lieutenant, after having served for nearly three months as such, 29 Nov. 1814. He has been on half-pay since Jan. 1815.



RABETT. (Lieut., 1826. f-p., 21; h-p., 16.)

George William Rabett is second son of the late Reginald Rabett, Esq., of Bramfield Hall, Suffolk, by Mary, daughter of the late Matthias Kerrison, Esq., of Broom Hall and Hoxne Hall, in the same co., and sister of the present Lieut.-General Sir Edw. Kerrison, Bart., K.C.B., G.C.H., M.P., Colonel of the 14th Light Dragoons, and Recorder of Eye. His maternal aunt married Sir Ralph Blois, Bart.; his elder and only brother, the Rev. Reginald Rabett, A.M., of Bramfield Hall, Vicar of Thomton-cum-Bagworth, co. Leicester, married a daughter of Rich. Bickerton, Esq., of Rhoden, co. Salop, a relative of Admiral Sir Rich. Bickerton, Bart.; and his sister, Mary, married the present Viscount Maynard. Lord Lieutenant, Vice-Admiral, and Custos Rotulorum for co. Essex. Through his connexion with the latter nobleman, Lieut. Rabett is uncle of the Hon. Charles Henry Maynard, of the Royal Horse Guards, who married Lady Frances Murray, sister of the present Duke of Atholl, and niece of the Duke of Northumberland, Captain R.N.; and uncle also of the Hon. Mrs. Capel, sister-in-law of the Earl of Essex. The family of Rabett is of Saxon origin, and one of the longest seated in co. Suffolk, where members of it served at various times as High Bailiffs and Sheriffs, and at an early period (as far back as the reign of Edward IV.) returned Members to Parliament for Dunwich.

This officer entered the Navy, 18 Dec. 1810, on board the Galatea 42, Capt. Woodley Losack; and on 20 May, 1811, was present as Midshipman (while cruizing off Madagascar in company with the Astrea and Phoebe, frigates about equal in force to the Galatea, and 18-gun brig Racehorse) in a long and trying action with the French 40-gun frigates Rénommée, Clorinde, and Néréide, in which the Galatea, besides being much cut up in her hull, masts, and rigging, sustained a loss of 16 men killed and 46 wounded. After participating in much active service on the Cape of Good Hope and East India stations, and also on the coast of France, where he assisted in cutting-out and destroying many vessels, and was often involved in action with the enemy’s batteries, particularly between Havre-de-Grace and Cape La Hogue, he removed, in Aug. 1813, to the Cydnus 38, Capt. Fred. Langford. In that frigate, which was at first employed off Brest and as a cruizer in the Bay of Biscay, he contributed to the capture, 4 March, 1814, of the Bunker’s Hill American privateer of 14 guns and 86 men, and, in the course of the same year, attended the expedition against New Orleans. During the operations connected with the attack on that place he was actively engaged on shore with the army, and aided in storming a strong battery on the right bank of the Mississippi. He had previously assisted at the blockade of Carthagena. He closed his war services by enacting a part at the storming and capture of Fort Bowyer, Mobile. In April, 1816, Mr. Rabett joined the Malta 84, Capt. Thos. Gordon Caulfeild; and on 6 Nov. in the same year he passed his examination at the Royal Naval College. In Jan. 1818, at which period he had been for eight months employed in the North Sea on board the Florida 24, Capt. Chas. Sibthorpe John Hawtayne, he passed his examination for seamanship on board the Northumberland 74, at Sheerness. In May and Nov. of the same year he joined, first the Carnation 18, and then the Tamar 26, both commanded by Capt. Hon. John Gordon, with whom he served on the Newfoundland station until paid off. In Feb. 1820, after having been wrecked on the coast of Labrador and been for several months frozen up at Newfoundland, he was received on board the Impregnable 104, bearing the flag of Lord Exmouth at Plymouth, where he was transferred to the Britannia 120, bearing that of Hon. Sir Alex. Cochrane. He next, in Oct. 1823 and Feb. 1825, joined the Sybille 48, Capt. Sam. John Brooke Pechell, and Owen Glendower 42, bearing the broad pendant of Commodore Hood Hanway Christian, with whom he sailed, as Admiralty Mate, to the Cape of Good Hope. Volunteering, on his arrival, to assist in surveying the shores of Africa, he was nominated for that purpose Acting-Lieutenant of the Leven 24, Capt. Wm. Fitzwilliam Owen. He was confirmed in his present rank 9 Jan. 1826, and subsequently appointed – 18 June, 1827, to the Mosquito 10, Capts. Geo. Bohun Martin and Chas. Bentham, with whom he served until Aug. 1829 – 1 Sept. 1830, as First, on promotion, to the Herald yacht – and 1& Feb. and 2 Dec. 1831, as a Supernumerary, to the Spartiate 76, and Victory 104, each bearing the flag of Sir Thos. Foley at Portsmouth. In the Mosquito he fought at the battle of Navarin, assisted at the capture of three piratical brigs,[2] each mounting 10 guns with a complement of 84 men, served with Count Capo d’Istria at the taking of the Acropolis at Corinth, and assumed a share in a variety of other important operations.

  1. Vide Gaz. 1841, p. 1505.
  2. He was placed in charge of one of the vessels with only four men.