A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Morgan, James
MORGAN. (Captain, 1836. f-p., 25; h-p., 24.)
James Morgan is son of the late Rev. Patrick Morgan, Rector of Killybegs, co. Donegal; and brother of Lieut. Wm. Moore Morgan, R.M., who fell at the battle of Algiers while serving on board the Granicus 36, Capt. Wm. Furlong Wise. Another brother, Hugh, was an officer in the Royal Artillery.
This officer entered the Navy, 1 Nov. 1798, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Savage 16, Capts. Norborne Thompson, Wm. Henry Webley, and John Tower, stationed in the Downs; where, in March, 1803, nearly two years and a half after he had attained the rating of Midshipman, he accompanied Capt. Tower into the Lark sloop. In Feb. 1805, at which period he was serving on board the Fury bomb, he was appointed Sub-Lieutenant of the Flamer gun-brig, Lieut.-Commander Jas. Storey; and on 30 Jan. 1806, as a reward for meritorious conduct he had displayed off Boulogne, he -was promoted, on the recommendation of Lord Keith, to a full Lieutenancy in the Lynx sloop, Capt. John Willoughby Marshall, attached to the force in the North Sea. Quitting that vessel in the summer of 1807, he served, during the next four years, on the St. Helena, Home, and West India stations, in the Agincourt 64, Capt. Henry Hill, Resolution 74, Capt. Geo. Burlton, Nymphe 38, Capt. Hon. Josceline Percy, Neptune 98, Capt. Jas. Athol Wood, Elk sloop, Capt. Jeremiah Coghlan, Hyperion 36, Capts. Thos. Chas. Brodie and Wm. Pryce Cumby, and Polyphemus 64, flag-ship of Vice- Admiral Bartholomew Sam. Rowley. In 1811, owing to the circumstance of Capt. Brodie and two of his officers having been taken captive in their boats by the black commandant at Gonaives, St. Domingo, in consequence of protection afforded by the former to an English merchant who had been detained a prisoner for an alleged breach of blockade, Lieut. Morgan, then Senior of the Hyperion, anchored the ship as soon as possible with one broadside to the batteries and the other to a Haytian frigate, and succeeded by his threatening demeanour in forthwith obtaining their release. In April, 1812, nine months after the state of his health had obliged him to invalid from the West Indies, he assumed command of the Barbara schooner, of 111 tons, 10 12-pounder carronades, and 50 men; and in that vessel he continued employed for upwards of two years on the Irish, Downs, Baltic, and Plymouth stations. He contrived, during the period, to beat off, 11 Feb. 1813, a detachment of seven luggers, carrying from 8 to 14 guns each, after more than an hour’s close action, fought in the neighbourhood of Boulogne. On the following day he drove a lugger on shore and destroyed her; and he subsequently, among a host of dashing affairs, cut out a ship of 400 tons, two galliots, and a sloop, laden with corn, from the harbour of Aalbourg, although hotly pursued by nine Danish armed vessels 13 April, 1813 – brought to and examined, 18 June following, a licensed Danish merchantman, under the fire of three national brigs and five gun-boats, close inshore off Christiansand – engaged, 3 July, the Norge, a cutter-rigged praam, mounting 2 long 32-pounders and 6 18-pounder carronades, with a complement of 80 men, supported by several other armed vessels, near Fladstrand – and on 11 Aug. came a second time into action with the Norge, through whose fire, and that of nine gun-boats in her company, the Barbara sustained severe damage. On 6 Oct. in the same year, 1813, a very gallant exploit was performed a few miles to the southward of Wingo Sound, where, by a five-oared boat under the command of Lieut. Rich. Banks of the Forward gun-brig, and by the Barbara’s four-oared gig under Lieut. Morgan, a Danish cutter, mounting one howitzer, with a complement of 25 men, was boarded and carried in spite of a fierce resistance, in which the enemy sustained a loss of 5 men killed and their commander badly wounded, and the British of 2 killed and 3 (including Lieut. Morgan severely) wounded. During her stay in the Baltic, a period of nine months, the Barbara captured and destroyed not less than 2544 tons of the enemy’s shipping, navigated by 136 seamen; and, in conjunction with the Hawke privateer, of Hastings, made prize of a Danish privateer, and re-took a ship from under the batteries on Lessee Island and the fire of 13 gun-boats and 10 privateers.[1] So much activity and gallantry on the part of Lieut. Morgan could not do otherwise than elicit strong expressions of approbation from his successive Commanders-in-Chief; the late Admirals Sir Geo. Hope and Sir Graham Moore. Quitting the Barbara about June, 1814, he was next employed in command, from April to Sept. 1815, and from the latter date until Feb. 1818, of the Aggressor gun-brig and Picton schooner, on the Irish station. He obtained a second promotal commission 19 July, 1821; and afterwards officiated as an Inspecting-Commander of the Coast Guard at Whitby and Newhaven, from 1827 to 1830, and from 16 March, 1831, until promoted to Post-rank 15 Jan. 1836. On leaving the Whitby district in June, 1830, he was presented by his officers with a handsome piece of plate “as a grateful testimony of his kind and gentlemanly conduct towards them.” He has not been employed since his last promotion.
Capt. Morgan is a Knight of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order, and is the Senior Captain of 1836. He married, 24 July, 1833, Eliza, daughter of T. C. Faulconer, Esq., of Newhaven.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1813, p. 2167.