A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Hotham, William (a)
HOTHAM, G.C.B. (Admiral, of the Red, 1837. f-p., 22; h-p., 46.)
Sir William Hotham, born in Feb. 1772, is second son of Geo. Hotham, a General in the Army, and Colonel of the 14th Regt. of Foot, by Diana, youngest daughter of Sir Warton Pennyman, Bart.; brother-in-law of the late Lord Edw. O’Bryen, Capt. R.N.; and nephew of the first Lord Hotham, who commanded the Edgar 74, at the relief of Gibraltar in 1782, fought the well-known actions of 14 March and 13 July, 1795, with the French fleet, was raised for his services to the peerage, and died 2 May, 1813.
This officer (whose name had been borne on the books of different ships since 21 Dec. 1779) went to sea from Westminster School, in the autumn of 1785, on board the Grampus 50, Capt. Edw. Thompson. On his return home from the African station in the following spring, he entered the Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth, but he re-embarked in Sept. 1786 on board the Solebay 32, Capt. John Holloway, and sailed for the Leeward Islands, where he remained until the close of 1789. In 1790 we find him cruizing in the Channel in the Hebe 36, Capt. Alex. Hood, and also in the Princess Royal 98, bearing the flag of his uncle Rear-Admiral Hotham. Attaining the rank of Lieutenant on 27 Oct. in the same year, and being shortly afterwards appointed in that capacity to the Alligator 28, Capt. Isaac Coffin, he proceeded to Halifax, whence, in 1791, he returned home with Lord Dorchester, the Governor-General. In 1792 he was again ordered to Halifax, in the Winchelsea 32, Capt. Fisher; and in June, 1793, subsequently to his removal to the Duke 98, Commodore Geo. Murray, he shared in the unsuccessful operation against Martinique. In January, 1794, on his arrival off Toulon in the Inconstant .36, Capt. Augustus Montgomery, Mr. Hotham was appointed Seventh Lieutenant of the Victory 100, bearing the flag of Lord Hood, by whom, during the siege of Bastia, he was allowed to serve on shore as a Volunteer with the brigade of seamen employed under the orders of Capt. Nelson. On 11 Aug. 1794, when before Calvi, which place also surrendered to the British arms, he was invested (being at the time First of the Victory) with the command of L’Éclair sloop; and on 7 Oct. in the same year he was made Post into the Cyclops 28, previously to his actual junction of which frigate he acted for a short time as Captain of the Bedford 74, lying in Leghorn Roads. After she had spent some time in blockading the port of Smyrna, in unison with a force under Capt. Sam. Hood, the Cyclops went to Gibraltar, and was thence ordered with despatches to England, where, on her arrival after an extraordinary passage of six days, she was paid off in March, 1796. Owing to this unexpected departure from the Mediterranean, Capt. Hotham appears to have lost the command of La Minerve, one of the finest frigates in the service, to which the Commander-in-Chief, we are informed, had in ignorance of his absence appointed him. With the exception of the command, held for a very brief period, of La Réunion 36, he did not succeed in again procuring employment until Jan. 1797, when he received instructions to join the Adamant 50. In that ship, which, to the credit of her Commander, was the only two-decker that preserved its loyalty intact during the mutiny at the Nore, Capt. Hotham was stationed with Lord Duncan off the Texel, and, besides occasionally bearing the flag of that nobleman, was with him in the memorable victory achieved over the Dutch, off Camperdown, 11 Oct. 1797. On that occasion he took charge of the Haerlem, a captured 64, and succeeded, after a great deal of blowing and unsettled weather, in carrying her through the Cockle Gatway into Yarmouth Roads. The share borne by Capt. Hotham in the engagement was recompensed with a gold medal, and his First-Lieutenant was promoted to the rank of Commander. After several months of employment on the coast of France, the Adamant proceeded to the Cape of Good Hope, and was ultimately sent on a cruize off the Isle of France. On 11 Dec. 1799, being at the time in company with the Tremendous 74, she drove the French frigate La Preneuse on shore, under a heavy fire from the batteries in the neighbourhood of Port Louis, which harbour, with his own ship, and the Lancaster, Rattlesnake, and Euphrosyne under his orders, Capt. Hotham was subsequently sent to blockade. Having returned with convoy to England, and been paid off, Capt. Hotham, in March, 1803, procured command of the Raisonnable 64. He at first served off the Dutch coast, and for a short time carried the flag of Admiral Thornbrough, as he afterwards did, in the Downs, of Admiral Montagu. He was also engaged in watching the movements of the enemy off Boulogne, at a moment when an invasion of England was anticipated; and during a very tempestuous winter, in which the York 64, was lost, he was stationed in the North Sea. His health obliging him to resign the command of the Raisonnable in 1804, he remained on half-pay until appointed to the Liverpool district of Sea Fencibles, which, however, he only joined a short time previously to the disbandment of the corps in 1810. He then acquired command of the Royal Sovereign yacht, and remained in that vessel until advanced to the rank of Rear-Admiral 4 Dec. 1813. He has since been on half-pay. He was created a K.C.B. 2 Jan. 1815; a Vice-Admiral 19 July, 1821; a full Admiral 10 Jan. 1837; and a G.C.B. 4 July, 1840.
Sir Wm. Hotham married, first, in June, 1804, Anne, daughter of Sir Edw. Jeynes, Kt., of Gloucester, and sister-in-law of the late Admiral Sir Edw. Thornbrough, G.C.B., who died in 1827; and secondly, in 1835, Jane Seymour, widow of Roger Pettiward, Esq., formerly of Great Finborough, Suffolk. By his first marriage he had issue, with one daughter, four sons, of whom the eldest, Augustus, is in the Army, and the third, John William, a Lieutenant R.N.