A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Johnson, John Samuel Willes
JOHNSON. (Capt., 1846. f-p., 16; h-p., 24.)
John Samuel Willes Johnson, born 3 July, 1793, at South Stoke, near Bath, is eldest son of the Rev. Chas. Johnson, Prebendary of Wells, Rector of South Stoke, and Vicar of South Brent and Berrow, co. Somerset, by Miss Willes, daughter of the late Archdeacon of Wells, and grand-daughter of the late Bishop of Bath and Wells. He is nephew of the late Admiral Sir Davidge Gould, G.C.B.; and brother-in-law of the late Capt. Geo. Gosling, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy, 1 Feb. 1807, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Vestal 28, Capt. Edwards Lloyd Graham, in which ship he was employed for nearly two years on the Home and Newfoundland stations. In Nov. 1809, being then a Master’s Mate, he was placed in charge of the Fortitude, a re-captured English merchantman, and sent, with the intelligence of the Vestal having fallen in with an enemy’s squadron, to Lisbon and Cadiz; on his passage whither, although without a gun on board, he succeeded by a bold ruse-de-guerre in inducing an enemy’s armed vessel, by whom he must have been otherwise inevitably taken, to sheer off. After delivering his despatches to the flag-officer in the Tagus, Mr. Johnson proceeded to England, and on his arrival was received for three months on board the Port Mahon sloop, Capt. Villiers Fras. Hatton. In Aug. 1810 he rejoined Capt. Graham in the Pallas 32, then on the eve of her departure for the coast of Norway, where, it appears, he assisted at the capture of four Danish privateers and of several sail of merchantmen, one of the former of which he was ordered to conduct to Leith roads. Accompanying the same Captain in succession into the Southampton 32, and Alcmène 38, Mr. Johnson proceeded in the latter frigate to the Adriatic, where he bore a part in several boat affairs. On one of those occasions, 22 May, 1812, a Franco-Venetian trabacolo, of 4 guns and 30 men, was captured near the island of Lessina, after a sanguinary conflict in which most of the enemy’s crew were killed and all the remainder wounded; while on the part of the British 4 were slain and 22 wounded, 1 of the former and 3 of the latter in the boat commanded by Mr. Johnson, whose conduct was officially mentioned in the highest terms of commendation. On leaving the Alcmène in Dec. 1813, he Joined the Pylades sloop, Capt. James Wemyss, from which vessel, on the occasion of the surrender of Genoa, 18 April, 1814, he was transferred, as Acting-Lieutenant, to the Caledonia 120, bearing the flag of the late Lord Exmouth – an appointment sanctioned by the Admiralty on 18 of the ensuing month. He went on half-pay in Sept. 1814, but, being again placed, in April 1815, under the orders of the same nobleman, continued to serve with him, in the Boyne 98, and Queen Charlotte 100, until Oct. 1816 – visiting, in the former ship, Naples, Marseilles, and the Barbary States; and participating, in the Queen Charlotte, in the battle of Algiers. After an interval of half-pay he was nominated, 13 Sept. 1817, Flag-Lieutenant to his Lordship in the Impregnable 104, at Plymouth, where he remained until promoted to the rank of Commander 6 Feb. 1821. His subsequent appointments were – 22 Sept. 1835, to the Coast Guard, in which he continued for a period of nearly three years – and 16 Dec. 1841, to the command of the Wolverene 16, fitting for China, where he arrived in time to witness some of the closing operations of the war. Capt. Johnson, who was superseded in the latter vessel in Aug. 1842, and has not been since employed, acquired his present rank 9 Nov. 1846.
In 1827 the Captain published ‘A Journal of a Tour through parts of France, Italy, and Switzerland, in the years 1823-4.’ He married, 14 May, 1821, Eliza, only daughter of John De Windt, Esq., of the Island of Ste. Croix, and of Gloucester Place, London, by whom he has issue. Agent – J. Hinxman.