A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Jefferis, Charles
JEFFERIS. (Lieut., 1809. f-p., 13; h-p., 33.)
Charles Jefferis entered the Navy, 19 Feb. 1801, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Bellona 74, Capts. Sir Thos. Boulden Thompson and Thos. Bertie, under the former of whom he shared in the action off Copenhagen 2 April, 1801, and then visited Cadiz and the West Indies. In the course of 1802 he successively joined the Childers and Dasher sloops, both commanded by Capt. John Delafons, on whose death, in the East Indies, in 1804, he removed to the Sceptre 74, Capt. Joseph Bingham. Besides participating in that ship in an engagement with a French frigate and the batteries in St. Paul’s Bay, Ile de Bourbon, he was frequently employed in her boats against the enemy, and was once reduced to such extremity as to be compelled to subsist for several weeks, upon two ounces of bad biscuit a-day. In Nov. 1808 he was promoted from the Culloden 74, bearing the flag of Sir Edw. Pellew, to the rank of Acting-Lieutenant in the Rattlesnake 18, Capt. Jas. John Gordon Bremer – an act which the Admiralty sanctioned by commission dated 22 May, 1809. On 7 Sept. following, the firmness and humanity of Mr. Jefferis were strikingly displayed in the circumstance of his taking command, during a heavy gale, of the boats of the Rattlesnake, and persevering in his efforts to succour a ship under convoy, whereby 68 persons and a large amount of treasure were rescued from destruction. On that occasion he went on board and remained until every soul had been safely taken off, he himself leaving a few minutes only before the vessel foundered. A few days after the occurrence of this event we find Mr. Jefreris joining the Dover 38, Capt. Edw. Tucker, an officer whose warm approbation it was his frequent fortune to elicit. Being on one occasion sent in command of a watering party to the island of Engano, he was there attacked by a band of armed savages, to whom, had it not been for the skill and determination he evinced, the whole of the British must have fallen a sacrifice. He afterwards saw much boat-service off the island of Java; and in Feb. 18l0 he greatly signalized himself throughout the operations which led to the capture of the island of Amboyna, where, it appears, he was the senior naval officer landed from the squadron, and where, although wounded by a spent grape-shot at the storming of the second battery, he continued to afford his valuable assistance until the last.[1] After the surrender of the island Mr. Jefferis was often detached in the command of armed vessels for the purpose of defending it against the pirates. He also, when in charge of an armed brig, co-operated with the Dover in the capture of the Dutch settlements of Gorontello, Manado, and Kema. In Aug. 1810, having rejoined his ship, he was again employed on shore in command of the seamen at the taking of the island of Temate, and on his return on board, after the storming of Fort Kyo-Merah, he exerted himself, greatly to the satisfaction of his Captain, in the attack on Fort Orange and several of the enemy’s batteries.[2] When subsequently on his way with despatches in the Mandarin, a captured sloop of war, from Amboyna to Madras, Lieut. Jefferis was unfortunately wrecked, by his vessel striking on an unknown reef off Red Island, in the Straits of Singapore, where, with his crew, who were saved from immediate destruction solely through the instrumentahty of his own great exertions, he was picked up in a state of utter exhaustion by H.M.S. Chiffonne, then most providentially passing through. Lieut. Jefferis, who contrived, however, to save the despatches, was actually on board the Mandarin at the very moment she went down. He soon afterwards took a passage back to Amboyna in the Phoenix frigate, and served, en route, as a volunteer in a boat expedition against the Dutch settlement of Palembang. On his re-junction of the Dover, he had the ill luck, on 2 May, 1811, to be again wrecked in Madras Roads, on which occasion, in common with the rest of the officers and crew, he endured the greatest misery, being lashed to the ship from 11 p.m. until 8 in the following morning, with a tremendous surf breaking over him at intervals of every four or five minutes. In consequence of this disaster he sustained a considerable loss of prize property, and, as he happened to be in command of the Dover at the time, was detained in India nearly 12 months at his own expense, not being allowed any pay until after the court-martial, which took place at Portsmouth in July, 1812, and which not only fully acquitted him of all blame, but complimented him for his conduct. It had indeed been everything that could be expected from a skilful, expert, and excellent seaman. After having further served for nearly two years and a half with eminent credit, as First-Lieutenant, on the Cork, Brazilian, and West India stations, of the Bacchus sloop, Capts. Lewis Hole, Geo. Wickens Willes, and Wm. Hill, Mr. Jefferis was paid off in Oct. 1815. Since that period he has not been able to procure either employment or promotion.
The Lieutenant, whose testimonials of service are of a brilliant character, married, 28 Dec. 1824, Maria, daughter of the late John Pearson, Esq., of Rutland Place.