A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Lloyd, Robert
LLOYD. (Vice-Admiral of the White, 1837. f-p., 24; h-p., 43.)
Robert Lloyd was born 24 March, 1765, and died 17 Jan. 1846, at his seat, Tregayan, co. Anglesey. He was eldest son of Robt. Lloyd, Esq., of Gunys, co. Caernarvon, by Margaret Edmunds, of Tregayan, only daughter of the Rev. Dr. Edmunds, Rector of Aber, in the same shire.
This officer entered the Navy, 31 March, 1779, as Captain’s Servant, on board the Valiant 74, Capt. Goodall; on removing from which ship to a Midshipman’s berth in the Fairy 18, Capts. Berkeley, Keppel, and Brown, he was wounded in a sharp action which preceded the capture of that sloop by the French frigate Madame. After a captivity of some time in France, he was exchanged about March, 1781, and on his return to England was received on board the Medway 74, Capts. Harwood and Edgar. He next, between May, 1782, and July, 1787, served on the Channel station in the Hebe frigate, Capts. Keppel and Edw. Thornbrough, and on 22 Nov. 1790, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. Obtaining an appointment, in Dec. 1792, to the Latona 38, Capts. Thornbrough and Hon. Arthur Kaye Legge, Mr. Lloyd fought under the former of those officers in the action of 1 June, 1794; and on rejoining him as Senior Lieutenant in the Robust 74, he served in Lord Bridport’s action, and was severely wounded in the expedition to Quiberon. On 6 Dec. 1796 we find him promoted to the command of the Racoon sloop in the North Sea; where, after a short running fight, in which the Racoon had 1 person, the Master, killed, and 4 wounded, he succeeded in taking, 11 Jan. 1798, Le Policrate French privateer, of 16 guns and 72 men;[1] and, on 22 of the same month, La Pensée, of 2 guns, 9 swivels, and 32 men. Capt. Lloyd, who had previously captured Les Amis, of 2 guns, 6 swivels, and 31 men, made further prize, 20 Oct. following, at the end of a running action of two hours, of La Vigilante, of 14 guns and 50 men.[2] Prior to his attainment of Post-rank 6 Dec. 1799, he had the increased good fortune to sink a French lugger, and to eifect the capture of the privateers Le Vrai Décide, of 14 guns, 4 swivels, and 41 men, and L’Intrépide, of 16 guns and 60 men, 13 of whom were killed and wounded.[3] On the latter occasion he unfortunately received a wound in the head from a half-Pike. His last appointments were – 12 Jan. 1801, to the Mars 74, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Thornbrough in the Channel, where he remained until April, 1802 – 25 March, 1807, to the Hussar 38, in which ship, after assisting at the reduction of Copenhagen, he visited North America and the West Indies – 31 May, 1809, and 25 Sept. 1810, to the Guerrière 40, and Swiftsure 74, flagship of Sir John Borlase Warren, both on the North American station – and, 11 Feb. 1812 (after ten months of half-pay), to the Plantagenet 74. Continuing in the latter vessel until paid off in April, 1815, Capt. Lloyd was at first employed in the Baltic, and afterwards again in North America, where he captured a large number of coasters,[4] and accompanied the expeditions against Washington and New Orleans. On his return to England he brought with him the bodies of Generals Gibbs and Pakenham. He became a Rear-Admiral 22 July, 1830; and a Vice- Admiral 10 Jan. 1837.
In 1790 Vice- Admiral Lloyd was High Sheriff for Caernarvon; as he was, in 1820, for Anglesey. At the period of his death he was a Deputy-Lieutenant for the latter county, and a Magistrate for both. He married, first, in 1789, Elizabeth Charlotte, daughter of Henry Gibbs, Esq., of Portsmouth, Surveyor-General of Customs; and secondly, 28 Nov. 1839, Ellen, daughter of the late Thos. Roberts, Esq., Surgeon, of Garth View, Bangor, North Wales. His only daughter was the wife of the late Capt. Thos. Parry Jones Parry, R.N.