A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Pridham, William Downman
PRIDHAM. (Lieut., 1815. f-p., 12; h-p., 31.)
William Downman Pridham entered the Navy, 21 Feb. 1804, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Diomede 50, Capt. Hugh Downman, with whom, after having served as Midshipman off Boulogne and at the blockade of the Texel, he removed to the Diadem 64, bearing the broad pendant of Sir Home Popham, and sailed with the expedition to the Cape of Good Hope. In Jan. 1806 he was transferred to the Espoir sloop, Capt. Henry Hope, and sent home with the despatches announcing the reduction of that colony. He was subsequently employed in her with great activity in the Adriatic, where he saw much boat service and assisted at the capture of many of the enemy’s vessels. In 1807 he was made prisoner, marched across Italy, and lodged in a fortress. Being exchanged, however, in the course of the same year, he was received on board the Aurora 28, Capts. Geo. Fras. Seymour and John Duer; in which vessel, on her arrival in the West Indies, we find him present, as Master’s Mate, at the capture of the town of Samana, in the island of Hayti, also of the city of San Domingo, and of the islands of Guadeloupe, St. Martin’s, and St. Eustatius. On his return to England he joined, in Oct. 1810, the Puissant 74, guardship at Spithead; and he was next, in the early part of 1811, again placed under the orders of Capt. Downman on board the Princess Caroline 74. Continuing in that ship until Feb. 1814, he escorted several convoys through the Great Belt, and often came into contact with the enemy. On one occasion, when in command of a boat with 10 men, he succeeded in cutting out a Danish galliot with a body of troops on board, moored close under the batteries at Hoornbeck, in Zealand. On leaving the Princess Caroline he was sent on promotion to the Lakes of Canada in the Dover troop-ship, Capt. Davies. After there serving for nine months as Master’s Mate in the Prince Regent 56, Commodore Sir Jas. Lucas Yeo, and for three as Acting-Lieutenant in the St. Lawrence 98, Commodore Sir Edw. W. C. R. Owen, he returned in the summer of 1815 to England in the Sovereign transport, and, on his arrival in Sept. of that year, found that he had been awarded a commission dated 1 of the preceding July. His last appointment was, 29 May, 1816, to the Prometheus sloop, Capt. Wm. Bateman Dashwood, under whom he fought at the battle of Algiers 27 Aug. following. In the course of the next month he invalided.
Including the services above recorded, we find that Lieut. Pridham during the war was two-and-twenty times actually engaged with the enemy; that he assisted at the reduction of six colonies, the capture and destruction of one line-of-battle ship, eight frigates, five corvettes, five privateers, and 40 sail of gun-boats, galleys, and other armed vessels; and that he was twice comprised in the thanks of Parliament. He is the author of ‘Scenes in the Adriatic in 1806-7,’ and of ‘The Journal of a Visit to Algiers under Lord Exmouth in 1816.’ He married, in 1825, the only daughter of John Meadway, Esq., of Grove House, Dorset, and has issue one son and two daughters.