A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Fanshawe, Arthur
FANSHAWE, C.B. (Captain, 1816. f-p., 21; h-p., 22.)
Arthur Fanshawe is third and youngest son of the late Capt. Robt. Fanshawe, R.N.,[1] Resident Commissioner of Plymouth Dockyard, by Christiana, daughter of John Gennys, Esq.; brother of Capt. Robt. Fanshawe, R.N., who died in 1804, and of Colonel Edw. Fanshawe, R.E., C.B.; brother-in-law of Admirals Wm. Bedford, Sir Thos. Byam Martin, G.C.B., Sir John Chambers White, K.C.B., and Sir Robt. Stopford, G.C.B.; uncle, we believe, of Commander Edw. Gennys Fanshawe, R.N.; and cousin of Capt. Henry Fanshawe, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy, 8 Feb. 1804, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Impétueux 74, Capt. Thos. Byam Martin, stationed in the Channel; became attached, in Dec. 1806, to the Salvador del Mundo, flag-ship of Admiral Young at Plymouth; and on his removal to the Prince of Wales 98, bearing the flag of Lord Gambier, attended the expedition to Copenhagen in Aug. 1807. He then rejoined Capt. Martin in the Implacable 74; and, on 26 Aug. 1808, took part, as Midshipman, in a gallant action of 20 minutes with the Russian 74-gun ship Sewolod, which was completely silenced, and in the end, with the assistance of the Centaur 74, flag-ship of Sir Sam. Hood, captured and burnt, in sight of the whole Russian fleet, near Rogerswick, after a total loss to the enemy of 303 men, and to the Implacable individually of 6 killed and 26 wounded. In 1809-10 we find Mr. Fanshawe cooperating with the patriots on the north coast of Spain, in the Amazon 38, Capt. Wm. Parker, and afterwards serving for two years at the Cape, latterly as Acting-Lieutenant, in the Scipion 74, Lion 64, and President 38, flag-ships of Rear-Admiral Stopford, under whom, in the Scipion, he contributed to the reduction of Java, in Aug. 1811. On being officially promoted, 22 April, 1813, he became Flag-Lieutenant, in the Prince Frederick 74, to Sir T. B. Martin, then second in command at Plymouth, whence, however, he soon sailed for North America, in the Endymion, of 48 guns and 319 men, Capt. Henry Hope. While on that station Mr. Fanshawe, in 1814, served in the boats at the capture of the Meteor privateer, of 3 guns and 32 men; he also assisted Capt. Rich. Coote in gallantly destroying, near Pettipague Point, on the river Connecticut, 27 of the enemy’s vessels, three of which were heavy privateers, and the aggregate burden of the whole upwards of 5000 tons; and was again employed in the boats in an unsuccessful attack upon the Prince de Neufchatel American privateer, which cost the British a loss of 28 men killed and 37 badly wounded. On 15 Jan. 1815, he further participated in the capture, after a close action of two hours and a half, with a loss to the Endymion of 11 killed and 14 wounded, and to her opponent of 35 killed and 70 wounded, of the President frigate, of 56 guns and 465 men. Being promoted to the rank of Commander, 2 Oct. 1815, Capt. Fanshawe, who for a few weeks had re-officiated as Flag-Lieutenant to Sir T. B. Martin in the Ganges 74, was next, in the course of 1816, appointed to the acting-command of the Pique, Junon, and Maeander frigates, in the first of which he made a voyage to the West Indies. His confirmation to Post-rank taking place on 17 Oct. in the same year, he afterwards joined – 26 Nov. 1818, the Newcastle 60, which ship, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Edw. Griffith, he paid off, on her return from the Halifax station, in 1822 – 17 July, 1832, the Donegal 78, employed off Lisbon, whence he came home in July, 1834 – and, 9 Feb. 1837, the Princess Charlotte 104, as Flag-Captain to Sir Robt. Stopford, Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean, to whom, during the campaign on the coast of Syria, he proved of great service in the details and arrangements connected with the different operations, particularly at the bombardment of St. Jean d’Acre, on which occasion he was officially praised for the most able manner in which he fulfilled the duties of his post.[2] Since the paying off of the Princess Charlotte in 1841, he has been unemployed.
Capt. Fanshawe, as a reward for his Syrian services, was nominated a C.B. 18 Dec. 1840. He married, 10 Aug. 1820, a daughter of the late Vice-Admiral Sir Edw. Griffith Colpoys, K.C.B., whose flag-ship he then commanded. Agent – J. Chippendale.
- ↑ Capt. Fanshawe was born in 1740, and entered the Navy in 1763. He bore a part in the three general actions between Vice-Admiral Pocock and the Comte d’Ache in 1758-9; commanded the Carysfort 28, and Monmouth 64, at the reduction of New York in Sept. 1776, and in the action between Byron and D’Estaing, off Grenada, in July, 1779; and served aa Flag-Captain to Sir George B. Rodney on the glorious 12 April, 1782. From 1784 until 1789, he sat as M.P. for Plymouth; and at the period of his death, 4 Feb. 1823, he had been upwards of twenty-six years resident commissioner of the dockyard at that place. He would then, had he accepted his flag instead of the latter appointment, have been senior Admiral of the Red.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1840, p. 2989.