A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Bigland, Wilson Braddyll
BIGLAND, K.H. (Captain, 1821. f-p., 16; h-p., 31.)
Wilson Braddyll Bigland, born 20 July, 1788, at Bigland Hall, the seat of his ancestors since the Norman Conquest, is son of the late Geo. Bigland, Esq., of Bigland, by his second wife, Sarah, daughter of John Gale, Esq., of Whitehaven, High Sheriff for Cumberland, and sister of the late Wilson Braddyll, Esq., of Conishead Priory.
This officer entered the Navy, 21 Oct. 1801, as Third-cl. Vol., on board the Theseus 74, Capt. John Bligh, with whom, on proceeding to the West Indies, he served, as Midshipman, in 1803-4, at the blockade of Cape François – the reduction of Port Dauphin, where two forts and a 28-gun ship, La Sagesse were taken from the enemy – the capture of the French squadron with the remains of General Bochambeau’s army from Cape François – and the unsuccessful attempt on Curaçoa. In March, 1805, some months after his transference with Capt. Bligh to the Surveillante 38, he had the misfortune to be taken prisoner, while in charge of a prize-schooner, on the coast of Vera Cruz; and, on being released by a royal order from the Court of Madrid, in Aug. 1807, he was sent to Jamaica, whence, after a brief attachment to the Shark, receiving-ship, Capt. Christopher Bell, he returned home, early in 1808, in the Chichester, store-ship, Capt. Jas. Tait. On 5 March in the same year Mr. Bigland, who had passed his examination but a few days previously, was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, and from that date until 31 Dec. 1813, he continued to serve with the present Sir Geo. Cockburn, almost uninterruptedly, in the Pompée 80, Belleisle, Implacable, and Alfred 74’s, Grampus 50, and Marlborough and Sceptre 74’s. During that period he served on shore, with a party of seamen from the Pompée, at the reduction of Martinique, in Feb. 1809, on which occasion he was in temporary command of the seamen’s battery at the moment the enemy first hoisted the white flag of capitulation – obtained, in August following, while in the Belleisle, the public acknowledgments of Commodore Cockburn for his courage and zeal as his aide-de-camp at the siege of Flushing[1] – was actively employed, from 1810 to 1812, in the Implacable and Alfred, at the defence of Cadiz – and, in the Marlborough and Sceptre, was a participator, as Flag-Lieutenant to his patron, in most of those gallant achievements on the shores and up the rivers of North America with which the name of Cockburn is identified. He returned to England with Sir John Borlase Warren, in the St. Domingo 74, at the commencement of 1814, and, on 15 June in that year, while acting in command of the Jasper 10, was presented with a second promotal commission. Capt. Bigland’s subsequent appointments were, between 3 Aug. 1818, and his advancement to Post-rank, 6 March, 1821, to the Parthian 10, Ontario 18, and Bann 20, in all of which he was most efficaciously employed in the protection of British trade in the West Indies. He then, until Aug. of the latter year, commanded the Euryalus 42. His acceptance of the retirement took place 1 Oct. 1846.
Capt. Bigland was nominated a K.H. 25 Jan. 1836. He married, 18 Jan. 1822, Emily, second sister of the present Capt. Sir Hen. John Leeke, R.N., Kt., K.H., and has had issue two sons and a daughter. His eldest son, George Selsey, an Ensign in the 46th regiment, was killed by falling down the hatchway of the Java transport, when embarked with his regiment at Gibraltar, for passage to Barbadoes, 23 Jan. 1842. Agents – Messrs. Chard.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1809, p. 1326.