A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Robins, Thomas Lowton (b)
ROBINS. (Commander, 1821. f-p., 21; h-p., 28.)
Thomas Lowton Robins (b) entered the Navy, in 1798, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Teazer gun-brig, Lieut.-Commander Thos. Lowton Robins. Continuing in that vessel until paid off in April, 1802, he accompanied in 1799 the expedition to Holland; was present in an attack made in July, 1800, on four French frigates lying in Dunkerque Roads, one of which, La Désirée of 40 guns, was taken [errata 1]; and (besides sharing in an affair with the Boulogne flotilla) witnessed the victory gained by Lord Nelson at Copenhagen 2 April, 1801. After serving for about 12 months in the Prévoyante store-ship, Master-Commander Wm. Brown, he joined, in Aug. 1803, the Victory 100, in which ship, bearing the flag of Lord Nelson, he pursued the combined squadrons of France and Spain from the Mediterranean to the West Indies, and, on his return, fought as Master’s Mate at the battle of Trafalgar. For his conduct in that instance he was created a Lieutenant of the Victory by a commission bearing date 22 Oct. 1805. Joining next, in Feb. 1806, the Pallas 32, Capts. Lord Cochrane, Geo. Miller, Henry Manaton Ommanney, Geo. Fras. Seymour, Wm. Hugh Dobbie, and Hon. Geo. Cadogan, he was on board that ship, and was mentioned by Lord Cochrane for his conduct, at the destruction, in May following, of the semaphores along the French coast; and also when, in the course of the same month, she made a single-handed attack, under a heavy fire from the batteries on Ile d’Aix, on the French 40-gun frigate La Minerve, in company with three 18-gun brigs.[1] On the latter occasion the British vessel, while preparing to board, ran foul of her opponent, and by the shock was nearly reduced to a wreck. Under Capts. Seymour and Cadogan Mr. Robins was present, in 1809, at the destruction of the French shipping in Aix Roads and in the operations connected with the expedition to the Scheldt. His appointments, after he left the Pallas, were, in the capacity of Senior Lieutenant – 20 Oct. 1809, to the Manilla 36, Capts. G. F. Seymour and John Joyce, under the latter of whom he was wrecked on the Haak Sand, near the Texel, 28 Jan. 1812 – 11 July, 1814, after two years and four months of captivity in France, to the Royalist 16, Capts. Thos. Parry Jones Parry, Thos. Wolrige, and Houston Stewart, on the Home and West India stations – and, 3 April, 1816, to the Salisbury 58, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral John Erskine Douglas at Jamaica, whence he returned to England and was paid off in the spring of 1818. He attained his present rank 19 July, 1821; and was lastly, from May until Oct. 1827, employed in experimentally cruizing, as Second-Captain, in the Galatea 42, flag-ship of Sir Thos. Masterman Hardy.
Commander Robins is Governor of Oxford Castle. He is married and has issue. Agent – J. Hinxman.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1806, p. 684.