A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Spurway, John
SPURWAY. (Lieut., 1814. f-p., 10; h-p., 33.)
John Spurway was born 28 Feb. 1791.
This officer entered the Navy, 6 Sept. 1804, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Windsor Castle 98, Capts. Davidge Gould and Chas. Boyles, stationed in the Channel; and from April, 1806, until Aug. 1812, was employed in the Belleisle and Northumberland 74’s, Capts. Wm. Hargood and Hon. Henry Hotham. In the Windsor Castle he assisted, as Midshipman, at the blockade of Brest; and in the Belleisle, after pursuing a French squadron to the West Indies, and encountering a violent hurricane, he contributed, 14 Sept. 1806, to the destruction, off Cape Henry, of the 74-gun ship Impétueux. In 1809, being at the time in the Northumberland, he aided, with a party of seamen, in refitting in Carthagena harbour, and in then conveying in safety to Gibraltar, the Ferdinand VII., a Spanish three-decker; and on 22 May, 1812, he was present, in company with the Growler gun-brig, at the destruction, at the entrance of L’Orient, of the French 40-gun frigates L’Arienne and L’Andromaque, and 16-gun brig Mamelouck, whose united fire, conjointly with that of a heavy battery, killed 5 and wounded 28 of the Northumberland’s people. After he left the latter ship Mr. Spurway served – from Dec. 1812 until April, 1813, in the Surprise 38, Capt. Sir Thos. John Cochrane, in the West Indies – from Aug. 1813 until Jan. 1814, latterly as Master’s Mate, in the Devonshire 74, Capt. Ross Donnelly – from 8 April, 1814, until he invalided 4 Oct. following, as Acting-Lieutenant, in the Emulous 14, Capt. Wm. M‘Kenzie Godfrey, again in the West Indies – and from 22 Feb. until 1 June, 1815, as Lieutenant (he had taken up, on leaving the Emulous, a commission dated 8 July, 1814), in the Myrmidon 20, Capts. Wm. Paterson and Robt. Gambier, on the Channel station. He has since been on half-pay.