A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Emerton, James
EMERTON. (Retired Commander, 1840. h-p., 18; h-p., 34.)
James Emerton was born 10 May, 1776, in Middlesex, and died, 9 June, 1846, at Stratford-le-Bow.
This officer (who, when Mate of a West Indiaman, in the preceding spring, had served as a Volunteer under Lieut. Groves, of H.M.S. Roebucks, against the Charibs in the Island of St. Vincent, and had been engaged in 16 different attacks on the enemy’s stockades) entered the Navy, 28 July, 1795, as A.B., on board the Leander 50, Capts. Maurice Delgamo and Thos. Boulden Thompson; under the latter of whom – after witnessing the capture of the Dutch frigate Argo, and participating, as Midshipman, in the attack upon Tenerife and in the battle of the Nile – he was taken, 18 Aug. 1798, by the French 74-gun ship Généreux, at the end of a close and bloody conflict of six hours, in which the Leander, besides being totally dismasted, and otherwise fearfully shattered, sustained a loss, out of 282 men, of 35 killed and 57 wounded, and the enemy, whose force originally consisted of 936 men, of 100 killed and 188 wounded. On his restoration to liberty, in Nov. following, Mr. Emerton joined the Vanguard 74, bearing the flag of Sir Horatio Nelson; and while in that ship he appears to have been very actively employed off the coast of Italy, where he served with the boats at the capture, in Leghorn Roads, of two polacres, mounting 16 and 18 guns, and assisted in removing the court and treasure from Naples to Palermo. After an intermediate attachment of fifteen months to the Bellerophon 74, Capt. Henry D’Esterre Darby, he became Master’s Mate, in Sept. 1800, of the Bellona 74, in which ship, commanded by his former Captain, then Sir T. B. Thompson, to whom succeeded Capt. Thos. Bertie, he took part, and was severely wounded, in the battle off Copenhagen, 2 April, 1801.[1] When subsequently at Jamaica, Mr. Emerton was appointed, 16 May, 1802, Acting-Lieutenant of the Orion 74, Capt. Robt. Cuthbert, on returning with whom to England he was officially promoted 9 July following. His succeeding appointments, we find, were – 15 April, 1803, to the Leyden 64, Capt. J. Seater, off Harwich – 12 Nov. 1804, as First-Lieutenant, to the Mosquito 18, Capt. Sam. Jackson, in which he contributed to the capture, near Scarborough, of a smuggler and two French privateers, the Orestes and Pylades, 12 April, 1805 – 24 Sept. 1806, to the Magnificent 74, Capt. Geo. Eyre, employed at the blockade of Cadiz, Toulon, and Corfu – in July, 1809, to the Spartiate 74, Capt. Sir Fras. Laforey, for passage home – and, 8 June, 1810, to the Thisbe, successive flag-ship in the river Thames of Rear-Admirals Wm. Albany Otway, Sir Chas. Hamilton, and Hon. Arthur Kaye Legge. While in the latter vessel, he jury-rigged, and took to Northfleet, the Nelson of 120 guns; and he was also very zealous in his endeavours to suppress the shameful extortions of the crimps. Having been on half-pay since Jan. 1815, he was at length, on 24 April, 1837, admitted to the out-pension of Greenwich Hospital. He accepted the rank of Retired Commander 30 July, 1840,
During his servitude as Midshipman, Commander Emerton was often employed on extra-official or dockyard duty; and when the intelligence of his having been wounded at Copenhagen reached England, the Patriotic Society rewarded him with a gratuity of 30l. He appears after the peace to have presented the Admiralty with two codes of signals. He married 26 June, 1816; and died a widower with two sons and three daughters. Agents – Goode and Lawrence.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1801, p. 404.