A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Corbyn, Joseph
CORBYN. (Commander, 1814. f-p., 23; h-p., 38.)
Joseph Corbyn entered the Navy, 19 March, 1786, as Captain’s Servant, on borad the Winchelsea, Capt. Edw. Pellew, on the Newfoundland station, where, and in the West Indies, he served until June, 1790 – the last three years in the Maidstone, Capt. Henry Newcome. In July, 1793, he joined, as Midshipman, the Scorpion, Capt. Thos. Western. He served afterwards for nearly three years in the Argo, Sampson, and Victorious, all commanded by Capt. Wm. Clark, under whom he witnessed the reduction of the Cape of Good Hope in Sept. 1795; became, 21 June, 1796, Acting-Lieutenant of the Hobart sloop, Capt. Benj. Wm. Page; and, until confirmed by the Admiralty, 23 Jan. 1802, continued to serve in the same capacity on board his old ship the Victorious, Capt. Clark, and La Sybille of 48 guns, Capt. Chas. Adam. During his attachment to the last-mentioned frigate, Mr. Corbyn distinguished himself in command of her boats at the blockade of Batavia in 1800; and assisted at the capture, 19 Aug. 1801, of La Chiffonne of 42 guns, after a gallant action of 20 minutes fought off the Seychelles. He left the Sybille in May, 1803, and did not again go afloat until 5 Sept. 1805, when he rejoined Capt. Adam in the Resistance 38, of which ship he commanded the boats at the capture of a 4-gun battery, and destruction of a French armed schooner and chasse-marée in the port of Anchové, near Cape Machicaco, 8 March, 1809.[1] Mr. Corbyn – who in Sept. 1810, accompanied the same Captain, as his First-Lieutenant, into the Invincible 74 – served next at the siege of Tarragona in May, 1811. He co-operated also with the Baron d’Eroles (by whom the assistance he aflbrded was spoken of in the highest terms) in a successful attack made in April, 1813, on the enemy’s posts at Ampolla and Perello; and acquired great praise for his indefatigable and efffective exertions, as commandant of a battery, during the arduous operations which preceded the capture of the fort of Col de Balaguer in June following.[2] He was consequently rewarded with a Commander’s commission dated 15 June, 1814; and was subsequently appointed – 18 April, 1837, to the Packet Service at Pembroke – and 8 May, 1839, to the Victory 104, flag-ship of Hon. Duncombe Pleydell Bouverie, Admiral-Superintendent at Portsmouth. Since 27 Aug. 1840, this officer has held an appointment in Greenwich Hospital.
He is married, and has issue.