A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Huskisson, Thomas
HUSKISSON. (Capt., 1811. f-p., 15; h-p., 32.)
Thomas Huskisson was born 31 July, 1784, at Oxley, near Wolverhampton, co. Stafford, and died 21 Dec. 1844. He was brother of Geo. Huskisson, Esq., formerly an officer of the Royal Marines, who died Collector of the Customs at the island of St. Vincent in Feb. 1844, having held that appointment since 1820; and half-brother of the late Right Hon. Wm. Huskisson, one of H.M. Principal Secretaries of State, as also of Major-General Sam. Huskisson. One of his sisters married the Rev. Jas. Walhouse, uncle to the present Lord Hatherton.
This officer entered the Navy, 22 July, 1800 (under the patronage of Admiral Mark Milbanke), as A.B., on board the Beaver sloop, Capt. Christopher B. Jones, lying at Portsmouth; and, on removing, in the following Oct., to the Romney 50, Capt. Sir Home Popham, proceeded to the Red Sea, where he was detached, as Midshipman, during a few months of 1802, in a small hired brig, to assist in surveying the coast of Arabia. After visiting other parts of India he returned home, and joined in June, 1803, the Defence 74, Capt. Geo. Hope, under whom we find him enacting a warm part in the action off Cape Trafalgar, 21 Oct. 1805. Being next transferred to the Foudroyant 80, successive flag-ship of Admirals Sir John Borlase Warren and Albemarle Bertie, he had an opportunity, on 13 March, 1806, of witnessing the capture of the Marengo of 80 guns, having Rear-Admiral Linois on board, and 40-gun frigate Belle Poule. On 9 Aug. in the same year Mr. Huskisson was nominated Acting-Lieutenant of the Foudroyant; an appointment which the Admiralty sanctioned by a commission signed on 15 of the ensuing Nov. In July, 1807, he was ordered to join the Prince of Wales 98, bearing the flag of Admiral Gambier, to whom he officiated as Flag-Lieutenant during the operations which led to the subsequent fall of Copenhagen. In Jan. 1808 he obtained an appointment to the Hyperion 36, Capt. Thos. Chas. Brodie, fitting at Chatham, whence, in the spring, he sailed for Jamaica in the Melpomène 38, with Vice-Admiral Bartholomew Sam. Rowley, who, on their arrival, placed him in charge, on 5 July, of the Fleur de la Mer schooner, in which vessel he appears to have been for some time employed at the blockade of St. Domingo. Being advanced, 18 Jan. 1809, to the command of the Pelorus 18, Capt. Huskisson, on 17 Oct. in that year, distinguished himself by the very gallant style in which he supported Capt. Hugh Cameron ot the Hazard 18, at the destruction of a battery near Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, while the boats of the two sloops were effecting the annihilation of a privateer in the manner alluded to in our memoir of Lieut. Hugh Hunter. The loss of the Pelorus on this occasion amounted to 2 men killed and 6 wounded. After assisting at the reduction of Guadeloupe, Capt. Huskisson was appointed Acting-Captain of the Blonde frigate, and directed to escort home a valuable fleet of merchantmen. The vacancy which he had been selected to fill not being of a nature to entitle him to confirmation, he rejoined the Pelorus, and continued to serve in her, on the Jamaica station, until posted, 14 March, 1811, into the Garland 28. In June, 1812, being still in the West Indies, he was removed by Vice-Admiral Chas. Stirling to the Barbadoes 24; in which ship he succeeded, while in protection of a convoy, in capturing, at the close of a seven hours’ chase, the U.S. Revenue-cruizer James Maddison, pierced for 14, but carrying only 10 guns, with a complement of 65 men. A few days after this event the Barbadoes was separated from the convoy in a violent gale, during which she lost her top-masts and main-yard. Having refitted at Bermuda, Capt. Huskisson took charge of three small vessels bound to Halifax, and was proceeding thither with 60,000 dollars on board for the dockyard, when, on the night of 28 Sept. 1812, the Barbadoes and two of her consorts were unfortunately wrecked on the N.W. bar of Sable Island. The specie, however, was saved by being thrown overboard with a buoy attached to each of the cases; and at the expiration of 12 days the sufferers were released from their unpleasant position by the advent of a frigate and schooner sent to their assistance. Capt. Huskisson, who was most fully acquitted by court-martial of all blame for the loss of his ship, was next employed, from 12 June to 28 Nov. 1815, in the Euryalus 42, and Perseus 22; in the former of which ships he cruized in command of a small squadron off Havre and the mouth of the Seine, until the surrender of Napoleon Buonaparte. Rejoining the Euryalus in July, 1818, he sailed in that frigate for the West Indies, where, on 18 Nov. 1819, in consequence of the death of Rear-Admiral Donald Campbell, he became Senior officer of the squadron in the Caribbean seas, and hoisted a broad pendant. On the arrival of Rear-Admiral Fahie from England in May, 1820, Capt. Huskisson was instructed to repair to Jamaica, and place himself under the orders of Sir Home Popham; and on 16 June, eight days only after he had reached his destination, he again hoisted a broad pendant, and assumed the chief command on the station, owing to the health of the Admiral necessitating his return to England. On being relieved by Sir Chas. Rowley in Dec. 1820, Capt. Huskisson himself invalided. His last appointment afloat was to the Semiramis 42, flag-ship at Cork of Lord John Colville, the command of which he retained from 1 Sept, 1821 until superseded, at his own request, in March, 1822. He was admitted into Greenwich Hospital 15 Oct. 1830.
Capt. Huskisson filled the office of Paymaster of the Navy from 28 March, 1827, until its abolition in Oct. 1830. He married, 22 Aug. 1813, Miss E. Wedge, daughter of an agriculturist eminent in the west of Staffordshire, by whom he had three sons and two daughters. His eldest son, Thomas, died at Malta, 16 May, 1833, while serving as Midshipman of H.M.S. Cordelia. His second son, Wm. Milbanke, holds an appointment in the Foreign Office; and his youngest, John, is a First-Lieutenant, R.M.