A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Hornby, Phipps
HORNBY, C.B. (Rear-Admiral of the Blue, 1846. f-p., 34; h-p., 16.)
Phipps Hornby, born 27 April, 1785, is fifth son of the Rev. Geoffrey Hornby, Rector of Winwick, Lancashire, by the Hon. Lucy Stanley, sister of Edward, 12th Earl of Derby; brother of Lieut.-Colonel Charles Hornby, of the Scots Fusileer Guards; brother-in-law of the present Earl of Derby; and uncle both of Capt. W. W. Hornby, R.N., and of Edm. Geo. Hornby, Esq., late M.P. for Warrington, who married a cousin of the Right Hon. Sir Robert Peel, Bart., M.P.
This officer entered the Navy, 19 May, 1797, as Midshipman, on board the Latona frigate, Capt. John Bligh, bearing the flag of Hon. Wm. Waldegrave at Newfoundland, where, removing successively to the Romney 50, and Agincourt 64, he served with the same officers until 1800. He next cruized for several months in the Channel on board the Active frigate, Capt. John Giffard, and on then rejoining Capt. Bligh in the Theseus 74, was for upwards of two years employed with him in the West Indies, on which station we find him repeatedly engaged in cutting out armed and other vessels from the enemy’s different ports and harbours in St. Domingo. In July, 1803, he returned home in the Santa Margarita 36, Capt. Wilson Rathbome, and in the spring of the following year he sailed in the Leviathan 74, Capt. Henry Wm. Bayntun, for the Mediterranean, where, on 1 Aug. 1804, he was promoted from the Victory 100, flagship of Lord Nelson, to an Acting Lieutenancy in the Excellent 74, Capt. Frank Sotheron – an appointment which the Admiralty confirmed by a commission dated on. 16 of the ensuing Nov. In May, 1806, besides serving on shore at the defence of Gaeta, Mr. Hornby was entrusted with the command of the seamen and marines during the operations connected with the capture of the island of Capri. He soon afterwards joined the Swiftsure 74, Capt. Wm. Geo. Rutherford, and on 15 Aug. 1806 was promoted to the command of the Duchess of Bedford of 16 guns. In that vessel, when in the Gut of Gibraltar, he succeeded in beating off two Spanish privateers who had endeavoured to carry her by boarding. Capt. Hornby’s next appointment was, about Feb. 1807, to the Minorca 18, in which sloop, previously to visiting the Adriatic, he came into frequent contact with the enemy’s gun-boats and batteries, both in the vicinity of Cadiz and while employed in the blockade of Ceuta, a port on the coast of Morocco. On 31 March, 1810, he was appointed (having been advanced to Post-commission on 16 of the preceding month) to the temporary command of the Fame 74, off Toulon. On his proximate removal to the Volage 22, he co-operated for some time in the defence of Sicily against the threatened invasion of Murat; and on 13 March, 1811, he had the honour of enacting a conspicuous part in the celebrated action off Lissa, when a British squadron, carrying in the whole 156 guns and 879 men, gloriously defeated, after a shattering battle of six hours, and a loss to the Volage of 13 killed and 33 wounded, a Franco- Venetian armament, whose force amounted to 284 guns and 2655 men.[1] The brave and gallant conduct displayed on the occasion by Capt. Hornby, who himself received a slight wound, was rewarded by the Admiralty with a gold medal. He continued in the Volage until Oct. 1811, and was next, on 6 Aug. 1812, and 3 Dec. 1814, appointed to. the command of the Stag 36, and Spartan 38. In the former of those frigates he made a voyage to the Cape of Good Hope; and on returning, in the latter, to the Mediterranean, he was employed as Senior officer, in conjunction with a Tuscan land-force, to secure the accomplishment of a treaty stipulative of the surrender to Tuscany of the island of Elba by the French. For this service Capt. Hornby was presented by the Tuscan Government with the Cross of the Imperial Order of St. Joseph of Wurtzbourgh. He paid the Spartan off in July, 1816, and from that period remained unemployed until 1832, when he was appointed Superintendent of the Royal Naval Hospital and Victualling Yard at Plymouth. He removed, 6 Jan. 1838, to the command of the William and Mary yacht, and the superintendentship of the Dockyard at Woolwich; and from 16 Dec. 1841, until promoted to flag-rank, 9 Nov. 1846, he filled the office of Comptroller-General of the Coast Guard.
The Rear-Admiral was nominated a C.B. 4 June, 1815. He married, 22 Nov. 1814, Sophie Maria, eldest daughter of the late Right Hon. General Burgoyne, by whom he has issue eight children. His second daughter, Caroline Lucy, is married to Lieut. W. T. Denison, R.E. Agents – Messrs. Halford and Co.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1811, p. 894.