A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Stone, James (a)
STONE. (Lieut., 1800. f-p., 13; h-p., 40.)
James Stone (a), born 26 Sept. 1775, is one of the 12 children of the late Isaac and Mary Stone, of Sidbury, co. Devon.
This officer entered the Navy, 26 Feb. 1794, as Ordinary, on board the Impregnable 98, Capt. Geo. Blagden Westcott; in which ship, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Benj. Caldwell, he fought and was wounded in Lord Howe’s action 1 June following. He was next, from 28 March, 1795, until 1 March, 1799, employed under the flag of the late Lord Keith, as A.B., Acting Clerk, and Midshipman, in the Monarch 74 and Queen Charlotte 100. While attached to the former ship he landed, as a Volunteer, in the attack upon the Cape of Good Hope in 1795, and was present at the surrender of the Dutch squadron in Saldanha Bay 17 Aug. 1796. During his sojourn on shore, and while encamped with the army at Maysenbergh, he offered in a heavy gale to fetch provisions from the ships in Simon’s Bay. He accordingly put off, but his boat was soon cast away, and he and his crew, being washed out of her, were with difficulty saved. In the Queen Charlotte Mr. Stone continued to serve under the flag, in the Channel, of Sir Chas. Thompson, until 24 March, 1799. He then removed to the Royal George 100, flag-ship of Lord Bridport; and on 31 March, 1800, he was confirmed a Lieutenant, a short time after he had been ordered to act as such, in the Neptune 98, Capt. Jas. Vashon. When lying subsequently in Bantry Bay with a squadron under Rear-Admiral Chas. Morice Pole, the latter having made the signal for a Lieutenant of the Neptune, Mr. Stone, although it blew hard, was immediately sent on board the Admiral’s ship. The gale increasing before he could reach his destination, he was driven in his boat to sea, and after beating about for several hours was thrown on shore, at nine p.m., on Bear Island. Here with his men and a Midshipman he passed the night in a mud cot; and on the following day, to the astonishment of all on board, he rejoined his ship. He had previously, in the Royal George, taken part in an attack made, 2 July, 1799, on a Spanish squadron in Aix Roads. Invaliding from the Neptune in Feb. 1801, he was next, from 4 May in that year until March, 1802, and from 11 Juno following until he again invalided in April, 1804, employed in the Channel and North Sea in the Namur 74, Capt. Hon. Michael De Courcy, and Cruizer 18, Capt. John Hancock. On 14 June, 1803, he volunteered, with two boats, to bring out the French brig and schooner Le Commode and L’Inabordable, of 4 guns each, which had been driven on shore by the Cruizer and Jalouse, near Cape Blanc-Nez. This service, after he had been for an hour exposed to a galling fire from the enemy’s batteries and some field-pieces, he succeeded in accomplishing, although on reaching the vessels he found them scuttled and stuck fast in the mud. He was Senior-Lieutenant of the Cruizer in March, 1804, when that sloop gallantly beat off, and then pursued close under the batteries of Ostend, 13 armed brigs, full of troops, which had been sent from Flushing for the express purpose of either taking or destroying her. In the following month a pulmonary complaint and an attack of rheumatism produced by the arduous nature of his services in the North Sea compelled him, as above stated, to invalid. On his restoration to health he applied, fervently, but in vain, for employment in a sea-going ship; and indeed the only appointments which he ever afterwards succeeded in obtaining appear to have been, 23 Jan. 1824, for three years, to the Ordinary at Portsmouth; and, very recently, to the Volunteer Service at Liverpool.
Lieut. Stone married, first, 15 April, 1805, Hannah Stone, daughter of Mr. Salmon, R.N.; and, that lady dying 10 July, 1832, a second time, 24 Sept. 1835, Susannah, daughter of Lieut. Wm. Colborne, formerly of the 66th Regt., and a near relative of Lord Seaton. By his former marriage he has issue 15 children; by his second he has had two sons.