A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Leigh, Benjamin
LEIGH. (Retired Commander, 1833. f-p., 24; h-p., 40.)
Benjamin Leigh died 22 Feb. 1846.
This officer entered the Navy, in 1782, as Fst.-cl. Boy, on board La Fortunée, Capt. Hugh Cloberry Christian, and cruized, until the peace of 1783, on the coast of North America. He served next, from 1786 to 1792, part of the time as Midshipman, in the Atalante sloop, Capts. Delgano, Schomberg, Halsted, Foote, and Elphinstone, on the East India station; and after a further attachment to the Alcide 74, and, as Acting-Lieutenant, to the Spitfire sloop, was confirmed, 10 March, 1795, into the Hornet sloop, Capts. Wm. Lukin and Robt. Larkan, in which vessel he made a voyage to St. Helena. His subsequent appointments were – 27 Dec. 1796, to the Minerva frigate, Capt. Thos. Peyton, in the Channel – 28 Sept. 1797, to the Inflexible, Capt. Ferris, on the Downs station – 28 June, 1799, to La Juste 80, Capt. Sir Henry Trollope, which ship a serious injury compelled him to leave in the following year – for a short time in 1801, to the command of the Crown prison-ship at Portsmouth – and, in 1804, to the charge of a signal station in the Isle of Wight, where he remained until 1814. He became a Retired Commander, on the Senior List, 10 Jan. 1833.
He was father-in-law of the present Commander Geo. Caswell, R.N.