A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Marley, Robert Roper
MARLEY. (Lieut., 1809. f-p., 21; h-p., 34.)
Robert Roper Marley entered the Navy in 1792, as an Officer’s Servant, on board the Powerful 74, in which ship, commanded by Capts. Thos, Hicks, Wm. Albany Otway, Fisher, and Wm. O’Brien Drury, he served, on the St. Helena, West India, Channel, North Sea, and Mediterranean stations, until 1800 – the last five years in the capacity of Midshipman. On 11 Oct. 1797 he was present in the action off Camperdown. After a servitude of 20 months in the Proselyte, Capt. Geo. Fowke, Mr. Marley, towards the close of 1802, at which period he was in the West Indies, became attached to the Leviathan 74, bearing the flag of Sir John Thos. Duckworth, with whom and with the late Vice-Admiral Jas. Rich. Dacres he continued employed in the same ship and in the Hercule 74 until 1806; during which period he took part in the operations against the French at St. Domingo, and was for a time detached in the Gracieuse tender of 12 guns, commanded by Mr. T. B. Smith, Midshipman. In that vessel, after having assisted at the capture of a large Spanish schooner, and exchanged fire with a French sloop within gun-shot of the forts of the city of St. Domingo, he shared in a very gallant conflict which terminated in the destruction, 11 April, 1805, of a schooner carrying 1 long brass 12-pounder, mounted on a circle amidships, 2 long brass 4-pounder carriage-guns, and 4 brass 3-pounder swivels, with a crew of 96 men. A wound he received on the occasion[1] procured him a grant from the Patriotic Society. In April 1806 and Jan. 1807 he was successively nominated Acting Sub-Lieutenant of the Pelican sloop, Capt. Wm. Ward, and Pike schooner, Lieut.-Commander John Ottley, also in the West Indies, where, after he had again served for nine months as Midshipman in the Veteran 64 flag-ship of Vice-Admiral Dacres, he became Acting-Lieutenant of the Drake sloop, Capt. John Fleming. He removed in a similar capacity, in the following July, to the Jasper 10, Capt. Wm. Westcott Daniel, stationed on the coasts of Spain, France, and Portugal; and on 31 Dec. 1809 he was confirmed a Lieutenant in the Alfred 74, Capts Joshua Rowley Watson and Joshua Sydney Horton. Being subsequently, on his return from a second visit to the West Indies, ordered off Cadiz he was there, in Feb. 1812, placed in command of gun-boat No. 7, and employed in the defence of that place. He went back to the Alfred in the ensuing April, but left her in Sept. of the same year; and was lastly, from 6 Aug. 1813 to 7 July, 1814, stationed off the coast of Ireland in the Avon sloop, Capt. Geo. Rose Sartorius.
He is in the receipt, for his wounds, of a pension of 91l. 5s.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1805, p. 901.