Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall sp3.djvu/295

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POST-CAPTAINS OF 1814.
277

British brigs had 2 men killed and 11, including Mr. James Waring, first lieutenant of the Royalist, and Mr. William Wilson, master, wounded.

The prize proved to be le Weser, of 1081 tons, mounting 28 long 18-pounders, and 16 18-pounder carronades, with a complement of 340 men, of whom 4 were slain and 15 wounded. She had sailed from the Texel just three weeks before Captain Macdonald fell in with her, and had lost her main and mizen-masts in a gale on the 16th October. Captain Macdonald was advanced to post rank June 7, 1814, and nominated a C.B. in June, 1815,

Agents.– Messrs. Barnett and King.



GEORGE EDWARD WATTS, Esq.
[Post-Captain of 1814.]

This officer was born in Scotland, and is descended from a respectable family of that name, settled in Northamptonshire previous to the year 1615, that being the date of the registry of arms in the Herald’s Office, of James Watts, Esq. a direct descendant, who held the rank of captain in the royal navy, by commission dated July 11, 1686, and commanded a line-of-battle ship about the same period.

Captain James Watts was paternal uncle to the celebrated Dr. Isaac Watts, and this officer’s lineal progenitor. His grandson accompanied the royal army under the Duke of Cumberland into Scotland, as a captain of infantry, fought at the battle of Culloden, and, at the end of the civil contest, in 1746, having succeeded to a handsome patrimony, married and settled in Selkirkshire. He had four sons, all of whom died childless, except John, who married Miss Agnes Skene – collaterally related to the very ancient family of the Skenes, of Skene, in Aberdeenshire. Although educated for the church, his desire was to enter the army; to which his father was so vehemently opposed, that he not only refused him present assistance, but threatened, in the event of disobedience, to disinherit him. In the mean time, his father, who had long been deeply engaged in mining speculations with the Earl of Dundonald and others, died; and when his affairs were in-