A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Crawford, Abraham
CRAWFORD. (Captain, 1829. f-p., 17; h-p., 30.)
Abraham Crawford, born in Oct. 1788, is youngest Son of the late Rev. Thos. Crawford, of Lismore, co. Waterford; and brother of Lieut. Rich. Crawford, R.N., who was lost in a hurricane while commanding the Dominica schooner, 15 Aug. 1815.
This officer entered the Navy, 19 May, 1800, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Diamond 38, Capts. Edw. Griffith and Thos. Elphinstone, in which ship he assisted at the capture of many of the enemy’s vessels, armed and otherwise. While next serving, under Capt. Edw. W. C. R. Owen, in the Immortalité and Clyde frigates, he appears, as Midshipman, to have been almost daily in action, from June, 1802, until Aug. 1806, with detachments of the Boulogne flotilla, several of which were at different times taken, and himself on one occasion wounded. On next joining the Royal George 100, bearing the flag of Sir John Thos. Duckworth, he was present, in Feb. 1807, at the passage of the Dardanells, and beheld the destruction of a Turkish squadron off Point Pesquies. Being promoted, 25 Nov. 1807, to a Lieutenancy in the Sultan 74, Capts. Edw. Griffith and John West, the subject of this sketch subsequently assisted in cutting out numerous vessels from different ports in the Gulf of Genoa, and joined in a pursuit which led to the self-destruction of the two French line-of-battle ships Robuste and Lion, 25 Oct. 1809. We afterwards find Mr. Crawford – whose next appointments were, 19 Jan. 1810, and 28 Oct. 1811, to the Tigre 74, and Malta 80, both commanded hy the late Sir Benj. Hallowell Carew – serving at the blockade of Toulon, and co-operating with the patriots on the coast of Catalonia, where he was present at the siege of Tarragona in 1811. He was promoted to the rank of Commander on leaving the Malta, 23 March, 1815; appointed to the Grasshopper 18, on the West India station, 8 Dec. 1827; and posted into the Magnificent receiving-ship at Port Royal, Jamaica, 5 Jan. 1829. He invalided home in the course of the same year; and has not since been afloat.
Capt. Crawford received a pecuniary reward during the war from the Patriotic Society. He married, in Jan. 1831, Sophia, daughter of the Rev. Jas. Mockler, of Rockville, co. Cork. Agents – Coplands and Burnett.