A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Downman, Hugh
DOWNMAN. (Vice-Admiral, of the Red, 1837. f-p., 36; h-p., 35.)
Hugh Downman, born 29 Oct. 1765, at Plymouth is descended from a respectable family in Devonshire, of which his father was a younger branch.
This officer entered the Navy, 10 Oct. 1776, as A.B. on board the Thetis 32, Capts. Mitchell Graham and John Gill, in which frigate he escorted home a large convoy of Indiamen from St. Helena, From 14 Aug. 1778, until 5 March, 1790, he was next employed, as Midshipman, in the Arethusa and Emerald frigates, both commanded by Capt, Sam. Marshal – the Edgar 74, Commodore Chas. Hotham – the Queen 98, Triumph 74, and Barfleur 98, flag-ships at Portsmouth of Admirals John Montagu and Lord Hood – and the Crown 64, bearing the broad pendant in the East Indies of the Hon. Wm. Cornwallis. During that period, having been wrecked in the Arethusa while in pursuit of an enemy’s frigate off the island of Moulines, Mr. Downman was detained a prisoner of war in France, from March, 1779, to Jan. 1780; after which, when in the Edgar, he was present at the relief of Gibraltar, and in Lord Howe’s partial action with the combined fleets of France and Spain, 20 Oct. 1782. On 5 March, 1790, as above, he was promoted to a Lieutenancy in the Perseverance 36, Capt. Isaac Smith, on the East India station, whence, on being re-transferred to the Crown, he came home, in May, 1792. Being next appointed, 2 Jan. 1793, to the Alcide 74, Capt. Robt. Linzee, he proceeded to the Mediterranean, where he officiated at the occupation of Toulon and the reduction of Corsica. While on the latter service, he cut a gun-boat out from under a battery at St. Fiorenza – was present in the several attacks upon that place and Fornelli – headed a detachment of 100 seamen, and planted the first gun upon the height commanding the tower of Mortella, preparatory to its surrender – and, antecedently to the final capture of Fornelli, assisted in dragging cannon up a stupendous rocky elevation, which commanded the Convention redoubt, and was deemed inaccessible near the summit. After a brief attachment to the Windsor Castle 98, into which Commodore Linzee had been removed on his promotion to Flag-rank, Mr. Downman was appointed, 7 Oct. 1794, to the Victory 100, successively flagship of Lord Hood, Rear-Admiral Robt. Mann, and Sir John Jervis; under the two last of whom he appears to have been respectively present in the actions of 13 July, 1795, and 14 Feb. 1797. On 26 July following he was confirmed in the command of the Speedy sloop, of 14 4-pounders and 80 men, to which he had been recently promoted from the Ville de Paris; and while in that vessel he captured five Spanish privateers, carrying altogether 17 guns, 28 swivels, and 162 men, besides encountering off Vigo two very severe actions, on 3 and 4 Feb. 1798, with the French privateer Papillon, of 14 heavy guns and 160 men, which he beat off on both occasions, with a loss to the Speedy of 5 men killed and 4 wounded.[1] Being officially posted, 26 Dec. 1798, in the Santa Dorothea of 42 guns, a ship he had joined in the previous September, Capt. Downman (whose services in the Speedy had been acknowledged by the presentation to him of a piece of plate, valued at 50l., from the British merchants at Oporto) was subsequently employed, off Malta, and with a perseverance highly creditable, at the blockade, in the spring of 1800, of the important fortress of Savona, which he ultimately compelled to surrender.[2] He also, after the battle of Marengo, destroyed all the fortifications in the Gulf of Spezia, landed the Duke of Savoy and family at Naples, and preserved the valuable gallery of Florence from falling into the hands of the enemy, by conveying it in safety to Sicily. For these services Capt. Downman was presented with a diamond ring both by the Duchess of Savoy and by the Grand Duke of Tuscany. We afterwards find him, in July, 1801, escorting three Swiss regiments and the corps of Lamenstein to Egypt, where he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Turkish Order of the Crescent; and then employed in enforcing the neutrality of Tripoli and Dearn. Among the numerous prizes made by Capt. Downman during his command of the Santa Dorothea, we may enumerate the capture of the San Leon, Spanish man-of-war brig, of 16 guns and 88 men[3] – of three vessels from Egypt, having on board General Desaix and the Staff of Buonaparte – of other craft, cut out, with the loss of 12 men, from the batteries of Bordiguera and Hospitallier – and of the Bulldog (formerly British) of 16 guns, brought out from Gallipoli. From April, 1801, to Aug. 1802, and from Dec. 1803 to Nov. 1805, he was subsequently employed as Flag-Captain to Sir Jas. Saumarez in the Caesar 80, and Diomede 50, on the Lisbon and Guernsey stations. He then joined the Diadem 64, bearing the broad pendant of Sir Home Popham; and, after witnessing the reduction of the Cape of Good Hope, brought home the despatches announcing that event. Being immediately ordered to the Rio de la Plata, he there resumed command of his former ship, the Diomede, in which, subsequently to the fall of Monte Video, he returned to England with the present Lord Beresford, and was paid off, in June, 1807. From 8 Sept. following, until appointed, 14 Jan. 1811, to the Princess Caroline 74, Capt. Downman next superintended the prison-ships at Portsmouth. After assisting at the destruction, on 25 March in the latter year, of the French 40-gun frigate Amazone, near Cape Barfieur, he convoyed a fleet of Indiamen to Madeira, on his return from which place he was sent to cruize in the North Sea, where we find him, early in 1814, landing the Marines of the ship at Scheveling for the support of the Prince of Orange. He made a further voyage to Spitzbergen, and was put out of commission 22 Sept. 1814. His last appointment appears to have been, on 2 Dec. 1824, to the Windsor Castle 74, at Portsmouth, where he remained until the receipt of his Flag 27 May, 1825. He acquired his present rank 10 Jan. 1837.
Vice-Admiral Downman married, 23 June, 1803, a daughter of Peter Palmer, Esq., of Portsmouth. Agent – Joseph Woodhead.