A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Dornford, Josiah
DORNFORD. (Lieut., 1802. f-p., 43; h-p., 9.)
Josiah Dornford, born in Dec. 1785, is son of a gentleman who for some time was Deputy-Commissary-General in the West Indies; where his uncle, the late Josiah Dornford, Esq., was at the same period Commissary-General.
This officer entered the Navy, in Feb. 1795, as a Volunteer, on board the Active 38, Capt. Thos. Wolley; previously to the sailing of which ship for Newfoundland, he received a severe wound in the head, and another in the knee, by the falling of two blocks from the mizen-top. Between Jan. 1796 and his promotion to the rank of Lieutenant, 29 April, 1802, he afterwards served, chiefly on the Home station, and principally as Midshipman, in the Princess Augusta yacht, Capt. Edw. Riou, Arethusa 38, Capt. T. Wolley, Barfleur 98, Capt. Jas. Rich. Dacres, Arethusa again, Megaera fire-ship, Capts. Peter Turner Bover, Tristram Robt. Ricketts, Henry Hill, and John Newhouse, and, a third time, in the Arethusa. When in the latter frigate, in 1799, he accompanied the Duke of Kent to Halifax, where he officiated on shore as attendant Midshipman to His Royal Highness: in the Megaera we find him chiefly occupied in repeating the signals made from the flag-ship. A short time previously to the peace of Amiens, Mr. Dornford appears to have been taken captive by the French privateer Le Brave while returning to port in charge of a prize. During the five years immediately subsequent to his promotion, he successively joined the Neptune 98, Capts. Fras. Wm. Austen and Wm. O’Brien Drury, L’Aigle 36, Capt. Geo. Wolfe, Acasta 40, Capt. Rich. Dalling Dunn, Loire 38, Capt. Fred. Lewis Maitland, and, as First-Lieutenant, the Phoebe 36, all employed on Home service. From 28 July, 1807, to 14 July, 1814, he next commanded the Thrasher gun-brig; and, during that period, he joined in an attack made in April, 1809, on a strong division of the Boulogne flotilla, a great part of which was either captured, destroyed, or greatly damaged. Towards the close of the latter year he took an active part also in the expedition to the Walcheren; after which, in 1813, he brought over to England the officer charged with the important intelligence of the French having been driven across the Rhine, and, on another occasion, the Russian General Tchaplitz, to whom had been intrusted the keys of Hamburgh. Mr. Domford’s next appointment was, 25 March, 1820, to the Coast Guard; in which service he continued until his admission to Greenwich Hospital, 1 June, 1844.
He married, in Dec. 1810, Miss Elizabeth Macnab, of Dumfries, by whom he has, with five other children, a son, Josiah James, Lieutenant, R.N., and a daughter, married to Commander Sam. Mercer, R.N. Agents – Pettet and Newton.