A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Robins, William Stocker
ROBINS. (Lieut., 1815. f-p., 12; h-p., 28.)
William Stocker Robins was born 13 Nov. 1791.
This officer entered the Navy, 1 Feb. 1807, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Hyacinth 18, Capts. John Davie and John Carter; and during upwards of four years that he continued in that vessel assisted in blockading two French frigates in the Scheldt, and was for a long time employed in South America, particularly in the Rio de la Plata, where he was present when the Buenos Ayreans declared their independence of the mother country. On the Hyacinth being paid off in May, 1811, he became Midshipman (a rating he had previously attained) of the Hannibal 74, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Philip Chas. Durham, previously to following whom into the Christian VII. 80 he served in the Baltic, and was stationed with five sail-of-the-line off the Texel for the purpose of intercepting the expected departure of a Dutch squadron. After he had for eight months performed the duties of Master’s Mate in the Cossack 22, Capt. Wm. King (in which vessel, it appears, he was wounded in the leg at the defence of Cadiz, where he remained until the siege was raised), he joined, in Nov. 1812, the Kent 74, Capt. Thos. Rogers, lying at Plymouth, at which port he removed, as a Supernumerary, in Jan. 1813, to the Salvador del Mondo. Being again, in the ensuing March, placed under the orders of his former Captain, Carter, in the Thracian 18, he was at first employed in that vessel, with three others of a similar description, in blockading five brigs-of-war at Christiansand, on the coast of Norway. On 7 Feb. 1814 he contributed to the capture, off St. Valery, of the French privateer Emille of 14 guns and 42 men; and on subsequently proceeding to the West Indies he was actively employed in the boats, and was on one occasion slightly wounded in the head in endeavouring to suppress the trade of the United States. In Oct. 1815, at which period he had been acting for more than seven months as Lieutenant of the Thracian, he took up a commission bearing date 17 March in that year. From Feb. 1821 until April, 1824, he filled an appointment in the Coast Guard in the Isle of Wight. He has not been since employed.
Lieut. Robins married, for the first time, in June, 1819. Being left a widower in Jan. 1822, he married, a second time, 15 April, 1823, Anne, relict of Commander Thos. Linthorne, R.N. (1798), of Poole, co. Dorset. By that lady, who died in March, 1837, he has issue two children.