A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Somerville, William
SOMERVILLE. (Retired Commander, 1840. f-p., 20; h-p., 36.)
William Somerville, born 3 July, 1775, is son of the late Mr. John Somerville, R.N., who was gunner of the Guardian, when that ship ran foul of an island of ice on her passage to New South Wales in 1788.
This officer entered the Navy, 20 April, 1791, as A.B., on board the Catherine yacht, Capt. Sir Geo. Young; in which vessel and in the Mary and Princess Augusta yachts, Capts. Hon. P. Perceval, Wm. Browell, and Edw. Riou, he continued employed in the river Thames until transferred, in May, 1796, to the Isis 50, Capts. Robt. Watson and Wm. Mitchell. During that period he assisted in fitting out a variety of frigates and other vessels. In the Isis he was present as Master’s Mate in the action off Camperdown 11 Oct. 1797; on which occasion he was placed on board one of the prizes and sent with her into Sheerness. On 19 Dec. ensuing he accompanied the grand procession of thanksgiving to St. Paul’s. He was made Lieutenant, 17 Dec. 1798, into the Babet 20, Capt. Jemmett Mainwaring; was next, in Oct. 1800 (about three months after he had invalided from the Babet), appointed to the Atalante sloop, Capt. Anselm John Griffiths; and was subsequently placed in command – 15 Aug- 1801, of the Raison 20, lying at Sheerness, where he remained until April, 1802 – 10 March, 1803, of the Enterprise receiving-ship off the Tower – and, 19 June, 1806, of the Vigilant 64, prison-ship at Portsmouth. While serving in the Babet, in the boats of which ship he was at different times actively employed on the coast of France, he accompanied the expedition to Holland (where he landed with the army and witnessed the surrender of the Dutch squadron under Rear-Admiral Storey), and 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. On 29 Jan. 1801, Mr. Somerville, then in the Atalante, was severely wounded in the right thigh in boarding a Spanish privateer; in consequence whereof he was under the necessity of being sent to the hospital at Plymouth. On leaving the Enterprise in May, 1806, he was presented at the hands of Alderman Lucas, Captain-Commandant of the River Fencibles, with a piece of plate valued at 50 guineas, as a token of the acknowledgments of that corps for the very essential services he had on all occasions rendered it. He resigned command of the Vigilant 16 Nov. 1812; was admitted to the out-pension of Greenwich Hospital 3 Oct. 1825; and accepted his present rank 1 Oct. 1840.
From Feb. 1813 until April, 1815, Commander Somerville superintended the Marine Society’s ship. He has been twice married and has had issue three sons and two daughters.