A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Hilton, George
HILTON. (Commander, 1814. f-p., 19; h-p.,.33.)
George Hilton, born 18 Feb. 1782, is brother of Retired Commander Stephen Hilton, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy, 1 April, 1795, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Andromache 32, Capt. Chas. John Moore Mansfield, with whom he served, in the same ship, and in the Dryad 36, until April, 1801. While in the Andromache, he participated, as Midshipman, in three sharp encounters with the enemy – the first time, on 31 Jan. 1797, when, in a mistaken engagement of 40 minutes with an Algerine of similar force, 66 of whose people were killed and 50 badly wounded, the British sustained a loss of 3 men killed and 6 wounded; the second, in an action fought, in the same year, off Cadiz between the Andromache and three British ships on the one side, and a Spanish 74 on the other; and the third, in an affair with some Spanish gun-boats near the batteries of Algeciras, in which the Andromache, while in escort of a convoy, had 4 men killed and 19 wounded. When in the Dryad, in the summer of 1800, Mr. Hilton assisted in taking captive a small Swedish frigate, the Ulla Fersen, a step rendered necessary by opposition the latter had offered to being detained. He was ultimately (while serving in the Channel on board the Ville de Paris 110, flag-ship of Hon. Wm. Cornwallis) made Lieutenant, 29 July, 1801, into the Royal George 100, Capt. John Child Purvis, with whom he continued until paid off in April, 1802. On 23 of the following July he rejoined the Dryad, then commanded by Capt. Robt. Williams, on the Irish station. On the renewal of hostilities in 1803, Commodore Wm. Domett having hoisted his broad pendant on board that frigate, Mr. Hilton was sent by him in a Revenue-cutter for the purpose of raising seamen, of whom the Navy was at the time in great need. Having put into a small harbour, to the south-west of the Cove of Cork, he landed with a party of men and proceeded towards Skibbereen with a view to the impressment of some sailors known to be at that place. On his way, however, he sustained a furious attack from a body of peasantry, who, besides more or less beating his men, inflicted upon him two severe cuts in the head, and all but deprived him of life. Being again, in Aug. 1804, placed under the orders of Admiral Cornwallis in the Ville de Paris, Mr. Hilton had an opportunity, on 22 Aug. 1805, of joining in that officer’s pursuit of the French fleet into Brest, and of afterwards acting for five months as his First-Lieutenant. His next appointment, we find, was, in Feb. 1807, to the Orion 74, Capt. Sir Arch. Collingwood Dickson, whom he accompanied in the ensuing expedition to Copenhagen, whence, on the surrender of the Danish shipping, he was sent home in command of the Perlen, one of the largest of the enemy’s frigates. While subsequently attached, between July, 1808, and May, 1810, in the capacity of First-Lieutenant, to the Atlas 98, bearing the flag of his old Captain, Purvis, he witnessed many of the operations connected with the defence of Cadiz, and was for a considerable time charged, in addition to his other duties, with the province of translating all the public, as well as private, Spanish correspondence. In Oct. 1810, Mr. Hilton became First of the Africa 64, bearing the flag of the late Sir Herbert Sawyer on the Halifax station; where, from 14 Sept. 1813, until 7 June, 1814, he further served as Flag-Lieutenant to the same officer in the Trent 36. He was then invested with the command of the Nimrod 18, which he retained, on the North American and Cork stations, until paid off in Sept. 1815. He has not been since afloat.
Commander Hilton married, 23 April, 1816, Elizabeth, eldest sister of the present Commander John Harvey, R.N., and was left a widower 25 Feb. 1819. Agents – Messrs. Stilwell.