vious to which he commanded the Swallow sloop of war in the West Indies, where he captured several of the enemy’s privateers. He assisted at the capture of the neutral islands in 1801; and soon after had the misfortune to be wrecked in the Proselyte frigate, off St. Martin’s. During the late war he commanded in succession the division of prison ships stationed in the river Medway; the Royal William[1], and Prince, three-deckers, bearing the flag of the commander-in-Chief at Portsmouth; and the depot for prisoners of war at Stapleton. Since the peace, he had the superintendence of the ordinary at Sheerness, for the established period of three years.
Agent.– ___
JAMES KEITH SHEPHARD, Esq
[Post-Captain of 1798.]
This officer was made a Lieutenant Sept. 19, 1777, obtained post rank July 12, 1798; and during the remainder of the war commanded the Redoubt of 20 guns, stationed as a floating battery in the river Humber. He was appointed to superintend the impress service at Gravesend about July 1810; and is at present employed in the preventive service.
Agent.– ___
RICHARD HARRISON PEARSON, Esq
[Post-Captain of 1798.]
This officer, a descendant from the elder branch of the Pearsons of Kippencross, in Scotland, is the eldest son of the late Sir Richard Pearson, Knt., who died Lieutenant-Governor of the Royal Hospital at Greenwich, in Jan. 1806, by Margaret, third daughter of Francis Harrison, of Appleby, Westmoreland, Esq.[2].
- ↑ The long services of the Royal William (alias “Old Billy”), protracted beyond those of any other ship ever built, ended in 1813, at which period she was examined, and her timbers found so defective, that she was ordered to be broken up. It is not known when this memorable ship was first built; but it is recorded of her, that she came into harbour to be laid up in ordinary, on the 2d Oct. 1679; went out March 16, 1700; came in again on the 26th July 1702; was ordered, July 31, 1714, to be taken to pieces, for the purpose of being rebuilt; and was undocked on the 3d September 1719.
- ↑ Sir Richard Pearson was the officer who, in Sept. 1779, with his own ship, the Serapis, and the Countess of Scarborough, an armed vessel, whose
