A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Paddon, Silas Hiscott
PADDON. (Commander, 1826. f-p., 23; h-p., 31.)
Silas Hiscott Paddon was born 12 May, 1774, at Abotasham, near Bideford.
This officer entered the Navy, at the close of 1793, as A.B., on board the Isca hired-vessel, Lieut.-Commander Philip Jones, employed, until 1797, in the conveyance of men from Bristol, Swansea, and Appledore to Plymouth. Joining, in the course of the latter year, the Viper cutter of 12 guns, Lieut.Commanders John Pengelly, Nathaniel Foster, and Jeremiah Coghlan, he made a voyage in that vessel to Sierra Leone, and during a term of nearly four years was actively employed as Midshipman on the coast of France. Under Lieut. Pengelly he assisted at the capture, 26 Dec. 1799, of Le Furet French privateer of 14 guns and 57 men; and under Lieut. Coghlan he contributed, on the night of 29 July, 1800, to the cutting-out, by a single boat containing 20 men, of a fully- prepared and desperately-defended gun-brig, La Cerbère of 7 guns and 87 men, moored with springs on her cables in a naval port of difficult access, within pistol-shot of three batteries, surrounded by several armed craft, and not a mile distant from a 74, bearing an Admiral’s flag, and two frigates. The enemy in this brilliant exploit had 6 men killed ,and 20 (including every officer) wounded; and the British, who were twice beaten back in their endeavours to board, 1 killed and 10 wounded. Among the latter was Mr. Paddon,[1] who received two pike-wounds under the ribs of his right side, also two in his left side and through his left leg, and two sword-wounds, one in the left hand and the other on the head. So long was he confined to his cot by these severe injuries that he lost the opportunity of appearing before the Board at Greenwich for the purpose of passing the examination necessary to entitle him to the receipt of a pension. On being paid off, after having further aided at the capture of Le Héro privateer of 14 guns and 73 men, and the defeat of the Tapageur corvette of 16 guns, he was received, at the close of 1801, on board the Cambridge 74, flag-ship of Sir Thos. Pasley at Plymouth; and in the course of 1802 he became in succession attached to the Centaur 74, bearing the flag of Vice-Admiral Jas. Rich. Dacres, Diamond frigate, Capt. Edw. Griffith, and Nimble cutter, Lieut.-Commander Jeremiah Coghlan. In Dec. 1803 he sailed for the Mediterranean on promotion in the Hindostan store-ship, Capt. John Le Gros. Being accidentally burnt out of that vessel in the Bay of Rosas, 2 April, 1804, he was under the necessity of joining for short periods, in the course of the same year, the Juno and Seahorse frigates, Triumph and Superb 74’s, Capts. Sir Robt. Barlow and Rich. Keats, Madras 54, Capt. Chas. Marsh Schomberg, and Thisbe 28, Capt. Lewis Shepheard. In the latter vessel Mr. Paddon, whose advancement to the rank of Lieutenant had taken place on 20 of the month last mentioned, returned to England; joining, on his arrival, the Zealand 64, flagship at the Nore of Rear-Admiral Bartholomew Sam. Rowley. In May, 1806, he obtained command of the Cuckoo schooner, in which vessel we find him accompanying the expedition of 1809 to the Walcheren, and employed on the Channel and North Sea stations until wrecked, near Haarlem, 4 April, 1810. On that occasion he received several severe contusions in the back and chest, broke his right shoulder-blade and two of his ribs (the effects of which continue to this hour), and, worse than all, was doomed to experience the anguish of witnessing his infant son perish at his side. On his return to England, after a few months of captivity, he was appointed, 29 Oct. 1810, to the Prince Frederick, flag-ship of Sir Edw. Buller and Sir Thos. Byam Martin at Plymouth, where he remained until paid off in Feb. 1815. He was afterwards, in 1815-16, intrusted with the command of a Signal-station; and on 27 March, 1826, having memorialized George IV., he was advanced to the rank he now holds. He has since been on half-pay.
Commander Paddon is at present a Commissioner of Pilotage at Padstow. He has been twice married – the second time, 19 Feb. 1833, to Miss P. Richards, of Padstow. By his first marriage, which took place in 1802, he had issue four children, all of whom, including the one above alluded to, are since dead. In Nov. 1840 he was admitted to the out-pension of Greenwich Hospital.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1800, p. 897-8.