A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Burgess, Samuel
BURGESS. (Captain, 1830. f-p., 27; h-p., 30.)
Samuel Burgess, born 9 Sept. 1781, is son of Commander Wm. Burgess, R.N. (1796), who died, 18 Dec. 1840, in his 89th year; and only brother of Lieut. Burgess, R.N., who died in the West Indies, in 1795, while serving on board H.M.S. Matilda.
This officer entered the Navy, in March, 1790, as Servant to his father, then Senior-Lieutenant of the Berwick 74, Capt. Benj. Caldwell, lying in Portsmouth Harbour, and during the eight months of his continuance in that ship received a severe injury in the head, in consequence of an accidental fall from the cockpit into the coal-hole. In Sept. 1793, he re-entered the service as Midshipman, on board the Impregnable 98, bearing the flag of his previous Commander, under whom, with his father again as First-Lieutenant, he took part in the victory of the 1st of June, 1794. After further serving in the same ship, under Capts. Sir Chas. Cotton, Andrew Mitchell, and John Thomas, he removed, in July, 1796, to the Unicorn 32, Capt. Sir Thos. Williams, on the Irish station, where he assisted in taking, with other vessels, L’Entreprise privateer, of 6 guns and 40 men, and was transferred, in Jan. 1797, to the Dryad 36, Capt. Lord Amelius Beauclerk. While in that frigate Mr. Burgess was also present at the capture of the three privateers, Eclair, Brune, and Mars, carrying in the whole 46 guns, and destruction of a fourth, La Cornélie. He next, in March, 1799, became attached to the Andromache 32, Capt. Robt. Laurie; passed his examination in June following; and, on immediately afterwards rejoining Vice-Admiral Mitchell, his former Captain, In the Isis 50, accompanied him in the expedition to the Helder, where he was confirmed a Lieutenant in the Wolverene 16, Capt. Jeffery Raigersfeld, 18 Nov. in the same year. On 17 March, 1800, he obtained an appointment, as First-Lieutenant, to the Sylph 18, Capt. Chas. Dashwood, in which vessel he was for some time employed, always within gun-shot distance of the batteries, in watching the movements of the enemy in Brest Harbour. On one occasion, during a foggy night, when the British frigate Alcmene, having drifted among the Black Rocks, had grounded, become high and dry, and been actually attacked by a flotilla of gun-boats, Mr. Burgess participated in a gallant and hazardous, yet successful dash, made by the Sylph, to her rescue. In the same vessel’s subsequent long and brilliant night actions of 31 July and 28 Sept. 1801, with the French frigate L’Artemise, of 44 guns and 350 men, off the north coast of Spain, in both which instances the enemy was beaten off, he elicited the warm official approbation of his Captain, but, strange to record, was left unpromoted for 15 years, although the latter was at once advanced to Post-rank. His ensuing appointments were – 6 June, 1803, and 3 Feb. 1804, to the command of the Content and Pigmy cutters, of 6 and 16 guns, both on the Guernsey station, where he assisted at the bombardment of Granville, 14 and 15 Sept. 1803, was frequently engaged with the enemy’s gun-boats and batteries, cut out from under their protection a French sloop, otherwise captured three smuggling luggers, and retook two merchantmen. Notwithstanding all this, he was suspended in Aug. 1804, and appointed to the Prince 98, Capts. Rich. Grindall and Wm. Lechmere, under the former of whom he was afterwards present, 21 Oct. 1805, at the battle of Trafalgar. Having paid the Prince off, as her First-Lieutenant, early in 1807, he next, with Capt. Lechmere, joined, in a similar capacity, the Dreadnought 98, one of the Channel fleet; and, on 19 Oct. in the same year, was placed in command of the Pincher, a 12-gun brig, employed successively in the North Sea and Baltic. During the nearly six years of his attachment to the last-named vessel, Lieut. Burgess evinced particular zeal and activity. He captured three privateers, two armed boats, and two small smuggling luggers – assisted Lord Geo. Stuart, by his indefatigable exertions, in reducing the batteries of Cuxhaven and Bremerlehe, and in expelling the enemy from Gessendorf[1] – destroyed, in company with the Badger and Bruizer, a French brig-of-war – and took between 60 and 70 sail of merchantmen, five of which were cut out from a small creek by the boats of a squadron under his orders, consisting, besides the Pincher, of the Paz schooner. Prince of Wales hired cutter, and a gun-boat. When at length, as might be supposed, he had well earned his long-expected promotion, he found himself, on 30 April, 1813, superseded by a Commander, his brig having been recently rated a sloop; and, although promised the next Lieutenant’s command that should become vacant, he remained on half-pay until 25 Aug. following, on which date he was appointed to the Vixen gun-brig. For the next 17 months we find him protecting the different convoys traversing the North Sea, and, on 25 March, 1815, appointed to the Boyne 98, flag-ship in the Mediterranean of Lord Exmouth, to whom he became Flag-Lieutenant, in the Queen Charlotte, of 100 guns, 3 July, 1816. On the memorable 27th of August, Lieut. Burgess was the officer selected to convey to the Dey of Algiers those requisitions, the non-compliance with which ultimately reduced his colossal fortifications to a pile of ruins, and, at the close of the bombardment, he was again deputed with, and received the potentate’s assent to, the repetition of the same demands. Lieut. Burgess, who was at last advanced to the rank of Commander, on the arrival of the despatches in England, 16 Sept. 1816, was afterwards appointed, 24 Jan. 1827, to the Alert 18; in which sloop, on proceeding to the South American station, he made the quickest passage ever performed from Monte Video to Valparaiso, was for some time employed in collecting treasure at the Intermedios, and then went to Guaymas, a port higher up the Gulf of California than had been before visited by a man-of-war. On 27 Nov. 1829, he was posted into the Warspite 76, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Thos. Baker; and, on 29 Nov. 1830, he assumed command of the Thetis frigate, then about to proceed from Rio Janeiro to England with specie on board to a vast amount. Unfortunately, however, on the night of 5 of the following month, the ship struck on a rock off Cape Frio and instantly went down, occasioning a loss of life to 20 persons, and barely allowing time for the remainder to escape. Capt. Burgess has since been on half-pay.
He married, 9 Feb. 1805, Elizabeth, daughter of the late Capt. Isaac Cotgrave, R.N., and sister of the present Commander E. S. and Lieuts. R. and R. B. Cotgrave, R.N. He is now a widower.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1809, p. 1212.