A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Fitz-Gerald, William Robert
FITZ-GERALD. (Lieutenant, 1815. f-p., 12; h-p., 31.)
William Robert Fitz-Gerald, born 18 Aug. 1793, is only son of the late John Fitz-Gerald, Esq., of St. Christopher’s, and grandson of Wm. Higgins, Esq., Speaker of the House of Assembly in the island of Nevis.
This officer entered the Navy, 2 April, 1804, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the St. Lucia 16, Capts. Geo. Edm. Byron Bettesworth and John Ayscough, stationed in the West Indies, where, until 1813, he afterwards served, .as Midshipman, in L’Éclair and Swaggerer brigs, both commanded by Lieut. Geo. Jas. Evelyn, and Liberty 14, Lieut-Commander Chas. Deyman Jermy. While in L’Éclair in 1807, he assisted at the capture of the Danish West India islands, and at the re-taking of a prize, whose original captor, La Félicité, a large three-masted French schooner privateer, was simultaneously beaten off, after a close action, in which L’Éclair lost 1 man killed and 4 wounded. During his attachment to the Swaggerer, Mr. Fitz-Gerald served on shore at the reduction of Martinique in Feb. 1809; and in the course of the same and following years he also partook of the operations against the Saintes and Guadeloupe. On 14 Dec. 1813, while serving on board the Monmouth 64, flag-ship in the Downs of Sir Thos. Foley, he joined, as Acting-Lieutenant, the Cadmus 10, Capts. Thos. Fife and Watkin Evans, under whom he cruized until 26 March, 1814; but he was not officially promoted until 7 Feb. 1815 – previously to which he had been re-employed, as Midshipman, in the Monmouth, and had done duty in the same capacity on board the Venerable 74, flag-ship of Sir Philip Durham in the Leeward Islands. From 15 March, 1815, until May, 1816, Mr. Fitz-Gerald served in the Dasher 18, Capt. Wm. Wilmott Henderson, and, with the boats of that ship and of the Fairy under his orders, he cut out three of the enemy’s vessels, under a heavy fire of musketry from the town of François, Guadeloupe – an exploit for which he was officially commended in very warm terms. Since the period of his leaving the Dasher he has been on half-pay.
Lieut. Fitz-Gerald married, in 1831, Eliza Ravenscroft, eldest and only surviving daughter of the late Lieut.-Colonel Starke, of Laugharne Castle, Caermarthenshire.