A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Farrant, William
FARRANT. (Lieut., 1810. f-p., 16; h-p., 32.)
William Farrant entered the Navy, in Sept. 1799, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Canada 74, Capt. Hon. Mich. De Courcy, whom, after attending the expedition to Quiberon, he accompanied, the year following, into the Namur 98. During the peace he successively joined, as Midshipman, the Winchelsea armée en flûte, Capt. John Hatley, and Captain 74, Capt. Chas. Boylea; after which, from April, 1803, until Aug. 1807, he served with the late Sir Thos. Louis in the Conqueror 74, Leopard 50, Ambuscade 32, and Canopus 80. In the latter ship he appears to have assisted in the battle off St. Domingo, 6 Feb. 1806 – the capture, 27 Sept. following, of the French frigate Le Président of 44 guns – and the passage of the Dardanells in Feb. 1807. He then served for 14 months in the Queen 98, Capt. Thos. Geo. Shortland, and Ocean 98, flag-ship of Lord Collingwood, and, after an attachment of two years, as Acting-Lieutenant, to the Alceste 38, Capt. Murray Maxwell, under whom he saw much service on the coast of Italy, was confirmed, 3 Dec. 1810, into the Ville de Paris 110, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Thos. Fras. Fremantle. He subsequently joined – in the course of 1811, the Ajax and Conqueror 74’s, Capts. Robt. Waller Otway and Edw. Fellowes, both in the Mediterranean – 7 June, 1813, the Mutine brig, commanded in North America and the West Indies by Capts. Nevinson De Courcy and Jas. Mould – and, 28 March, 1815, the Pompée 80, Capt. Sir Jas. Athol Wood. He returned home from the Mediterranean in Nov. 1815; and has not since been employed.