A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Sleigh, John
SLEIGH. (Lieutenant, 1815. f-p., 16; h-p., 22.)
John Sleigh was born in Oct. 1796, and died about the commencement of 1848.
This officer entered the Navy, 1 Feb. 1809, as Third-cl. Boy, on board the Amsterdam 20, Capt. Edw. Wallis Hoare, stationed on the coast of Ireland, where he attained the rating of Midshipman in Feb. 1810, and removed, in the following Dec, to the Helena sloop, Capt. Henry Haynes. He served next, from May, 1811, until Aug. 1814, in the Statira 38, Capt. Hassard Stackpoole, in the West Indies and North America; and from March, 1815, until March, 1816, as Master’s Mate, in the Alceste and Weser troop-ships, commanded on the station last named and at Portsmouth by Capt. Dan. Lawrence. On 3 April, 1813, being then in the Statira, he assisted in the boats of a squadron containing 105 men, under the orders of Lieut. Jas. Polkinghorne, at the capture, 15 miles up the Rappahannock river, of four schooners, carrying in the whole 31 guns and 219 men – an exploit whose achievement inflicted on the British a loss of 2 men killed and 11, including himself, wounded, and on the enemy of 6 killed and 10 wounded.[1] On leaving the Weser Mr. Sleigh, who had been on another occasion wounded, took up a commission bearing date 2 Nov. 1815. He was afterwards, from 16 Nov. 1832 until 1836, employed in the Coast Guard; and from 9 Oct. 1841 until 1847 in command of the Semaphore at Haslemere, Haste Hill.
He married, in Oct. 1818, a daughter of Robt. Swayne, Esq., of Bantyre, co. Cork, and cousin of the late Earl of Listowell, by whom he has left issue six children.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1813, p. 995.