A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Mansell, William
MANSELL. (Lieut., 1821. f-p., 13; h-p., 25.)
William Mansell is son of the late Walter Mansell, Esq., of Woodbury House, co. Oxford.
This officer entered the Navy, in June, 1809, as Sec.-cl. Vol., on board the Venerable 74, Capts. Sir Home Popham and Andrew King, in which ship he accompanied the ensuing expedition to the Walcheren, escorted the Earl of Chatham thence to England, and was all but lost during a gale off the coast of Holland. Between 1810 and Aug. 1815 we find him serving, part of the time as Midshipman, in the Orion and Sultan 74’s, Capts. Sir Archibald Collingwood Dickson and John West, and Désirée 36, Capt. Wm. Woolridge. The two former ships were employed in the Baltic, Channel, and West Indies; the Désirée in endeavouring to intercept Napoleon Buonaparte after the battle of Waterloo. After an employment of nearly three years on the Home station in the Scamander 36, Capts. Chas. Sipthorpe John Hawtayne and Wm. Elliott, and Florida 24, also commanded by Capt. Hawtayne, Mr. Mansell, having passed his examination in Dec. 1816, was appointed, in Jan. 1819, Admiralty Midshipman of the Morgiana sloop, Capts. Chas. Borough Strong, Alex. Sandilands, and Wm. Finlaison, in which vessel he sailed for the coast of Africa, where, on 10 of the following Dec, he took command of the gig and assisted- at the capture by boarding, in open day, of the Spanish armed slave-schooner Esperança, of greatly superior force. On that occasion Mr. Mansell, followed by a marine named Lord, was the first on the enemy’s deck. For the space of two minutes he and his brave companion, from unavoidable circumstances, were left unsupported in the presence of very fearful odds, but they made ample use of their time, the former attacking, wounding, and overcoming the Captain of the slaver and another person; and the marine killing the man at the wheel. The loss of the assailed in the affair amounted altogether to 2 men killed and 6 wounded: that of the British to 3 slightly wounded. Among the latter was Mr. Mansell, who had been previously severely bruised by cold shot thrown into the boats with a view of sinking them during their approach. In consideration of his gallant behaviour on the occasion he was so strongly recommended in the despatches to the Admiralty, and his claim to promotion so warmly pressed by the late Mr. Wilberforce, that, on 14 Sept. 1821, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. Prior, however, to that event he appears, in May, 1820, to have landed at the Pongas, near Sierra Leone, and to have united in a series of operations conducted by the present Sir Henry John Leeke, at the head of 170 seamen and marines and 180 black soldiers of the 2nd West India Regt.; the result whereof was the destruction by fire of eight towns, the demolition of a strongly stockaded battery, mounting four guns, and the defeat of a body of 5000 men commanded by King Munga Brama, a barbarian who had murdered an officer and several men belonging to H.M.S. Thistle, and had retained 3 as prisoners. On this, as on other occasions, Mr. Mansell again distinguished himself. He continued in the Morgiana as her First-Lieuenant until Feb. 1822; and was lastly, from 2 Dec. 1825 until Aug. 1827, employed on the Coast Blockade service as a Supernumerary of the Ramillies 74, Capt. Hugh Pigot.
In 1838 Lieut. Mansell was appointed Secretary to the Metropolitan Public Carriage Office; and in 1843, Deputy-Registrar of Metropolitan Public Carriages. He married, first, 9 Dec, 1830, Phillis, only daughter of Joseph Horsford, Esq,, of Weymouth; and, that lady dying in 1834, secondly, 10 Aug, 1836, Susannah Maria, only daughter of John Surman, Esq,, of the Lodge, Malvern, co. Worcester.