SEPTIMIUS ARABIN, Esq.
[Post-Captain of 1823.]
Jean D’Arabin, a branch of one of the oldest families in Provence, was born about the year 1600. His grandson, Bartholomew, fled from France at the revocation of the edict of Nantz, in 1685; came over to England, with King William III., in 1688; and commanded a troop of horse, under Colonel Robert Monckton (father of the first Viscount Galway), in 1690. The said Bartholomew was grandfather of John Arabin, who married Judith Daniell, daughter of General De Grangues (aide-de-camp to the Duke of Schomberg at the battle of the Boyne), and by that lady had two sons, Henry and John Daniell; the latter a lieutenant-general in the royal Irish artillery. Henry married Ann Grant, of the family of Grant of Ballendallack, and had issue nine sons, four of whom were devoted to the military and naval services, – viz. George, who died a captain in H.M. 54th regiment; Septimius, the subject of the following sketch; Frederick, a captain in the royal artillery; and Augustus, a lieutenant in the navy; – these gentlemen arc grand-nephews to General William John Arabin, many years a lieutenant-colonel of the 2d regiment of foot-guards.
Mr. Septimius Arabin entered the navy in April, 1799; and served the greater part of his time as midshipman, under Sir W. Sidney Smith, in the Tigre 80, and Antelope 50; the former ship employed in co-operation with the Turkish forces on the coasts of Syria and Egypt, where she remained until the peace of Amiens; the latter in watching the ports of Helvoetsluys, Flushing, Ostend, and Boulogne, subsequent to the renewal of hostilities, in 1803. At this period, Mr. Arabin was often in close action with vessels destined to form a part of the flotilla collecting for the invasion of England; and his conduct on every occasion appears to have met with the unqualified approbation of his superiors. On the 24th March, 1801, he was publicly thanked by Sir W. Sidney Smith, for the gallant and judicious manner in which he conducted the boats of the Antelope, after every officer senior to himself was wounded, in an attack on a Dutch armed schuyt, moored at the entrance of the East Scheldt, and in every way prepared for an obstinate resistance. The capture of this vessel
