A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Tilley, James
TILLEY. (Lieut., 1812. f-p., 26; h-p., 26.)
James Tilley was born in 1781, in co. Somerset.
This officer entered the Navy, 21 May, 1795, as Fst.-cl. Boy, on board the Pallas 32, Capt. Hon. Henry Curzon; and on 16 and 17 June following was present in Admiral Hon. Wm. Cornwallis’ celebrated retreat. In July of the same year he removed to the Royal George 100, bearing the flag of Lord Bridport in the Channel; and from Aug. 1799 until April, 1802, he served at Woolwich, in the Downs, and at Sheerness, in the William armed-ship, Capt. Henry Combe, Vesuvius bomb, Capt. Sam. Warren, Zealand 64, Capt. Henry Lidgbird Ball, and Unité 36, Capt. Thos. Harvey. In June, 1804, he was received as Master’s Mate on board the Romulus 36, armée en flûte, Capt. Thos. Burton, under whom we find him, during the next two years, employed off Harwich and in the conveyance of troops home from Cuxhaven. He then in succession, in Aug. and Sept. 1806, joined the Ardent 64 and Magnificent 74, both commanded by Capt. Geo. Eyre. In the latter ship,[1] after serving off Bayonne, Cadiz, and Toulon, he united, in Nov. 1808, in the defence of the fortress of Rosas, when besieged by the French, and was actively engaged in landing and re-embarking the seamen and marines under a heavy fire of cannon and musketry. In Oct. 1809 he assisted at the reduction of the islands of Zante, Cephalonia, and Cerigo; in March, 1810, he served on shore with a detachment of seamen at the capture of Santa Maura; and in 1811-12 he co-operated with the patriots on the coast of Catalonia and north coast of Spain. Having acted as a Lieutenant of the Magnificent from 4 Aug. 1810 until 11 Jan. 1811, Mr. Tilley, who had passed his examination in June, 1806, was officially promoted to that rank 21 March, 1812. He continued in the Magnificent, latterly on the West India station, until Aug. 1815, and was the officer sent in 1814, in charge of one of her boats, with a flag of truce to Douarnenez Bay to meet the French deputation and announce the abdication of Buonaparte and the restoration of Louis XVIII. With the exception of a few months in 1823, he served, from Aug. 1819 until Dec. 1826, as District and Divisional Lieutenant in the Coast Blockade, with his name on the books of the Severn 50 and Ramillies 74, Capts. Wm. M‘Culloch and Hugh Pigot. During that period he made not less than 70 seizures. He has since been on half-pay.
Lieut. Tilley married, in 1826, Ann, relict of Alexander Greet, Esq., sister-in-law of Thos. Young Greet, Esq., many years Mayor and Chamberlain of the borough of Queenborough, in the Isle of Sheppey, and mother of the present Lieut. Wm. Greet, R.N., by whom he has had issue a son, Edwin, educated at the Royal Naval School, and a daughter, Ann, who died, at the age of 14, at the Royal Naval Female School at Richmond. Agents – Messrs. Chard.
- ↑ Commanded alternately by Capts. Willoughby Thos. Lake and John Hayes.