A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Hilton, Stephen
HILTON. (Retired Commander, 1839. f-p., 21; h-p., 31.)
Stephen Hilton, born 9 Aug. 1785, is brother of Commander Geo. Hilton, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy, 13 Aug. 1795, as Third-cl. Vol., on board the Bristol, Lieut.-Commander Hutchison, lying at Chatham; and, from July, 1796, until Jan. 1798, was borne at Sheerness on the books of the Grana, Lieut.-Commander Dixon. Re-embarking, in Aug. 1799, on board the Pearl 32, Capt. Sam. Jas. Ballard, he proceeded to the Mediterranean, where, during a continuance of two years, he participated as Midshipman in various cutting-out affairs in the vicinity of Toulon, and attended the expedition of 1801 to Egypt. Between Feb. 1802 and March, 1805, he served on the Home station in the Acasta 40, Capts. Edw. Fellowes and Jas. Athol Wood, Revolutionnaire frigate, Capt. Walter Lock, and Queen 98, Capts. Thos. Jones and Manley Dixon. He then became Master’s Mate of the Minotaur 74, Capt. Chas. John Moore Mansfield, and, after sharing in the glories of Trafalgar, was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant 22 Jan. 1806. Being appointed, on 14 of the following June, to the Revenge 74, Capts. Sir John Gore, Hon. Chas. Paget, and Alex. Robt. Kerr, he witnessed, 25 Sept. in the same year, the capture of four heavy French frigates by a squadron under Sir Sam. Hood, off Rochefort, and was further present, in 1809, at the destruction of the French shipping in Basque Roads, and the siege of Flushing. On the latter occasion he was sent on shore with a party of 80 seamen, and while employed in a battery was slightly wounded by the explosion of a cartridge, which killed 3 of his men and seriously injured a Midshipman.[1] His subsequent appointments were, always as First-Lieutenant – in 1810-11, to the Primrose 18, Capts. Thos. Burton and Chas. Geo. Rodney Phillott, Sophie 18, Capt. Nicholas Lockyer, and Pique 36, Capt. Hon. Anthony Maitland, on the Home station – 14 March, 1812, to the Leopard 50, armée en flûte, Capt. Wm. Henry Dillon, under whom he was actively employed in the Mediterranean and on the coast of Spain in the conveyance of troops and provisions for Lord Wellington’s army – 28 April, 1814, to the Desirée 36, Capt. Wm. Woolridge, in which frigate he made a voyage to the Cape of Good Hope, and was next stationed in the Downs and off the Scheldt – and, 19 Sept. 1815 and 11 March, 1816, to the Spencer 74, and Malta 80, Capts. Wm. Robt. Broughton and Thos. Gordon Caulfeild, guard-ships at Plymouth. He went on half-pay 28 Feb. 1817; and accepted the rank he now holds 7 Jan. 1839.
Commander Hilton married in 1818, and has issue nine children.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1809, p. 1327.