A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Murley, William
MURLEY. (Commander, 1813. f-p., 13; h-p., 33.)
William Murley entered the Navy, in Jan. 1801, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Belleisle 74, Capts. Wm. Domett, Chas. Boyles, John Whitby, and Wm. Hargood. In that ship, of which he was created Midshipman in the following Sept., he continued employed until Jan. 1806; serving at first in the Channel and Mediterranean, then accompanying Lord Nelson to the West Indies and back in pursuit of the combined fleets, and finally participating, as Signal-Midshipman, in the action off Cape Trafalgar 21 Oct. 1805. In Jan. 1807 he sailed for Buenos Ayres in the Thisbe 28, Capt. Lewis Shepheard; and on his arrival he was received on board the Diadem 64, flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Chas. Stirling. He was thus afforded an opportunity of witnessing, again as Signal-Midshipman, the unsuccessful attack upon Buenos Ayres, and the other operations which immediately preceded the evacuation of Spanish America. On his return to England he successively joined, in the early part of 1808, the Warspite 74, Capt. Hon. Henry Blackwood, and Ville de Paris 110, flag-ship of Lord Gambier, both lying at Chatham. He was made Lieutenant, 29 June in the same year, into the Crocus 14, Capts. Robt. Merrick Fowler, Hon. Wm. Walpole, Rich. Buck, and John Bellamy; and next appointed, 18 Dec. 1810 and 8 May, 1811, to the Medusa 32, Capt. Hon. Duncombe Pleydell Bouverie, and Caledonia 120, bearing the flag of Sir Edw. Pellew. When First of the Crocus, we find him commanding a flat-bottomed gun-boat at the siege of Flushing in 1809 : he served, in the Medusa, off Bordeaux; and in the Caledonia he was present in a partial action with the Toulon fleet 5 Nov. 1813. He left the last-mentioned ship in Jan. 1814, having been awarded the rank of Commander on 29 of the preceding October; and he has since been on half-pay. He married, in June, 1815, Miss Mary Murley, a lady by whom he has issue six children.