A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Osborn, John
OSBORN. (Retired Commander, 1838. f-p., 19; h-p., 35.)
John Osborn was born 17 Feb. 1775.
This officer entered the Navy, 22 Aug. 1793, as A.B., on board the Irresistible 74, Capt. John Henry; and in the early part of the following year was present at the reduction of the French islands in the West Indies, where, at Port-au-Prince, he was employed on shore with the army. Joining next the Bombay Castle 74, Capts. Chas. Chamberlayne, Jas. Macnamara, and Thos. Sotheby, he was afforded an opportunity of sharing, as Midshipman, in Hotham’s second partial action, 13 July, 1795. In Dec. 1796, when the latter ship was wrecked in the river Tagus, Mr. Osborn was struck by lightning while in the act of cutting away the masts, and greatly injured in the head. On his return to England in charge of a prize at the commencement of 1797, he was ordered to join the Ville de Paris 110, bearing the broad pendant at first of Sir Robt. Calder, and the flag, next, of Earl St. Vincent, off Cadiz and in the Mediterranean, where from June, 1799, until May, 1803, he served, as Master’s Mate and Acting-Master, in the Vincejo sloop, Capts. Geo. Long, Robt. Yarker, Geo. Chas. Mackenzie, Jas. Murray Northey, and Jas. Prevost. While in that vessel, besides participating in a variety of cutting-out affairs, he was present at the blockade and surrender of Malta, at the capture of Le Guillaume Tell of 84 guns and 1000 men, and in the operations against the French in Egypt. He was also severely wounded by the passage of a ball through his right arm in an action fought between the Vincejo and two Greek vessels; and in Oct. 1801 he was again wounded while serving on shore in a partially successful attack on the enemy’s batteries at Porto Ferrajo, where the British sustained a loss of 15 (including Capt. Long) killed, 33 wounded, and 77 missing. In Oct. 1803 Mr. Osborn became Master’s Mate of the Repulse 74, Capt. Hon. Arthur Kaye Legge, under whom he witnessed the capture, 13 March, 1806, of the French 80-gun ship Marengo, bearing the flag of Admiral Linois, and 40-gun frigate Belle Poule. His appointments as Lieutenant, a rank he had attained 22 Jan. preceding, were – 26 May, 1806, to the Lucifer bomb, Capt. Robt. Elliot, in the North Sea, where he was superseded from ill health in the ensuing Sept. – 30 Jan. 1807, to the Prince of Orange 74, flag-ship in the Downs of Vice- Admirals Bartholomew Sam. Rowley and Geo. Campbell – and, 18 March, 1808, to the command of the Quail 4. In the latter vessel, until he invalided in Feb. 1813, he was employed in escorting convoys to diflferent places, and in bearing despatches to Sir Edw. Pellew off Toulon. He accepted his present rank 13 Oct. 1838.
Commander Osborn married, 6 Nov. 1806, Miss Johannah Catmore, of Aldborough, by whom he has issue three children.