A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Boswall, John Donaldson
BOSWALL, formerly Donaldson. (Captain, 1822. f-p., 18; h-p., 30.)
John Donaldson Boswall, born in 1790, in co. Fife, N.B., assumed his present surname in addition to his patronymic, Donaldson, 27 Nov. 1812.
This officer entered the Navy, early in Aug. 1799, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Pouncer gun-brig, Lieut.-Commander Smith, and immediately afterwards attended the expedition to the Helder, under Sir Andrew Mitchell. He next joined the Polyphemus 64, Capts. Geo. Lumsdaine and John Lawford, under the latter of whom he fought, as Midshipman, at the battle of Copenhagen, 2 April, 1801; and, in May, 1802, he removed to the Centaur 74, bearing the broad pendant of Commodore Sam. Hood. In that ship Mr. Boswall assisted at the capture, in June and Sept. 1803, of the French West India island of Ste. Lucie, and of the Dutch colonies of Demerara, Berbice, and Essequibo; and, on the morning of 4 Feb. 1804, he served in the boats, under Lieut. Robt. Carthew Reynolds, who subsequently died of the wounds he received, at the cutting out from under Fort Edward, Martinique, of the French brig-corvette Le Curieux, of 16 guns and 70 men, which was in every way prepared to resist the attack, and only surrendered at the termination of a desperate and sanguinary conflict, in which the enemy lost 10 killed and 30 wounded, and the British 9 wounded. On the prize being added to the British Navy, under the same name and the command of Capt. Edmund Geo. Byron Bettesworth, Mr. Boswall, on 7 Oct. following, was appointed to her as Acting-Lieutenant; and, on 8 Feb. 1805, we find him signalising himself by his coolness and bravery at the capture, after a close and gallant action of 40 minutes, of La Dame Ernouf privateer, of 16 guns and 120 men, of whom 30 were killed and 41 wounded, while the loss of the Curieux did not exceed 5 killed and 3 wounded. He was confirmed a Lieutenant on 14 Sept. in the same year, and afterwards appointed, in that capacity, 17 Oct. ensuing, to the London 98, Capts. Robt. Rolles, Sir Harry Neale, and Edw. Oliver Osborn, in which, under Sir H. Neale, he assisted, in company with the Amazon 38, at the taking, 13 March, 1806, of the French 80-gun ship Marengo, with Rear-Admiral Linois on board, and 40-gun frigate Belle Poule, after a long running fight in which the London lost 10 killed and 22 wounded – 8 Nov. 1806, to the Crocodile, Capt. E. G. B. Bettesworth, off Guernsey – 30 April, 1807, to the Inflexible 64, Capt. Joshua Rowley Watson, with whom he was present, on shore, at the bombardment of Copenhagen in the ensuing Sept. – 21 Feb. 1808, to the Spitfire sloop, Capt. John Ellis, on the Leith station – 7 July, 1808, as First, to the Gannet brig, Capt. Jas. Stevenson, employed off the coast of France – 4 Nov. 1810, to the Alfred 74, Capt. J. B. Watson, engaged in the defence of Cadiz – 23 April, 1811, to the Implacable 74, commanded by the latter officer on the Mediterranean station, where, with the tender under his orders, he contributed to the capture of a convoy near Genoa in 1811 – and, 2 April, 1814, to the Latona 38, bearing the flag, at Leith, of Rear-Admiral Sir Wm. Johnstone Hope, from which ship he was superseded on the receipt of his second promotal commission, 15 June following. He was afterwards, on 12 Aug. 1819, selected to command the Spey 20, in the Mediterranean. He attained Post-rank 26 Dec. 1822, and was placed on the half-pay of retirement 1 Oct. 1846.
Capt. Boswall is a Deputy-Lieutenant and Magistrate for co. Mid-Lothian, and one of the Royal Company of Archers, the Queen’s body-guard for Scotland. He married, in 1822, Charlotte Angell, daughter of the late Sir Sam. Chambers, Kt., of Bredgar House, co. Kent, by Barbara, eldest daughter of the Hon. Philip Roper, uncle of the present Lord Teynham, and by this lady has issue a son and daughter, the former in the 51st Regt. of Madras Native Infantry.