A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Philipps, John George
PHILIPPS. (Commander, 1814. f-p., 18; h-p., 33.)
John George Philipps was born in Sept. 1783. His father, the late J. Y. Philipps, Esq., was many years M.P. for the borough of Caermarthen.
This officer entered the Navy, in May, 1796, as a Vol., on board the Russel 74, Capt. Thos. Larcom, bearing the flag of Vice- Admiral John Macbride in the North Sea. Removing, in the following Sept., to the Minotaur 74, Capt. Thos. Louis, he served in that ship, as Midshipman, at the battle of the Nile 1 Aug. 1798; and, continuing in her until March, 1802, was present on shore at the capture of Naples, Civita Vecchia, Rome, &c., co-operated in the siege of Genoa, and took part in the operations of 1801 in Egypt. He also, 3 Sept. 1800, served in one of eight boats which brought out from Barcelona Roads, after having sustained a loss of 3 men killed and 5 wounded, the Spanish corvettes Esmeralda and Paz of 22 guns each, although defended by a heavy fire from four strong batteries, 10 gun-boats, two schooners, armed between them with 4 long 36-pounders, and a fort upon Mount loni, which threw shells. The enemy in the affair had 3 men killed and 21 wounded. On leaving the Minotaur, as above, Mr. Philipps joined the Ardent 64, Capt. Wm. Nowell, on the Home station; where, and on the coast of North America, we find him, until March, 1806, employfed in succession, the greater part of the time as Acting-Lieutenant and Lieutenant, in the Argonaut and Leander, flagships of Admiral Bartholomew Samuel Rowley and Sir Andrew Mitchell, Cambrian 40, Capt. Wm. Bradley, and Avenger sloop, Capt. Thos. White. His official promotion took place while he was in the latter vessel, 8 Feb. 1805; His subsequent appointments were – in March, 1806, to the Lavinia 40, Capt. Lord Wm. Stuart, employed in the Channel and on the north coast of Spain – 8 Dec. 1807, to the Pilot 18, Capt. Hon. Wm. Walpole, lying at Portsmouth – 25 March, 1808, to the Speedy sloop, Capt. Rich. Henry Muddle, at Newfoundland – in March, 1809, to the Majestic 74, Capt. Thos. Harvey, in the Baltic – and, in Jan. 1810, and April, 1811, to the Redpole 10, Capt. Cohn Macdonald, and Monmouth 64, bearing the flag of the late Sir Thos. Foley, both in the Downs. Becoming, in May, 1814, Signal-Lieutenant to the officer last mentioned, he was lent soon afterwards to the Royal Sovereign yacht, Capt. Sir John Poo Beresford, to assist in escorting Louis XVIII. from Dover to Calais. He was advanced to his present rank 22 Oct. following; and has since been on half-pay.
Commander Philipps is a Magistrate and Deputy-Lieutenant for co. Caermarthen. He married, in Feb. 1808, and has issue nine children. One of his sons, Griffith Grismond, is a Lieutenant, and another, Geo. Vaughan, a Midshipman in the R.N.