A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Tomlinson, Nicholas
TOMLINSON. (Vice-Admiral of the White, 1841. f-p., 27; h-p., 48.)
Nicholas Tomlinson died 6 March, 1847, at Middleton House, near Lewes, co. Sussex. He was third son of the late Capt. Robt. Tomhnson, R.N., by Sarah, only daughter of Dr. Robinson, President of the College of Physicians, and grand-daughter of Dr. Robinson, Bishop of Carlisle. He was descended from Colonel John Tomlinson, of Burntcliffe Thorn, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, who was conspicuous for the part he took in the civil wars during the reign of Charles I. Two of his nephews, Nicholas Robinson and Robert Cosby Tomlinson, are Lieutenants R.N.
This officer entered the Navy, 15 March, 1772, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Resolution 74, Capts. Wm. Hotham and Chaloner Ogle, of which ship, stationed at Chatham and Spithead, his father was Senior-Lieutenant. Removing, in Jan. 1776, to the Thetis 32, Capts. Michael Graham and John Gill, he made two voyages in that frigate to St. Helena, and, after cruizing oif the coasts of France and Spain, proceeded to the coast of North America. In March, 1779 (he had left the Thetis in the preceding Dec), he joined the Charon 44, Capts. Hon. John Luttrell and Thos. Symonds; to the former of whom he acted as aide-de-camp at the storming, 19 Oct. following, of the strong fortress of St. Fernando de Omoa, in the bay of Honduras, where 250 quintals of quicksilver and several Spanish ships, whose cargoes were estimated at 3,000,000 dollars, fell into the hands of the victors. Under Capt. Symonds Mr. Tomlinson assisted, in company with the Bienfaisant 64, at the capture, 13 Aug. 1780, off Kinsale, of the Comte d’Artois French privateer of 64 guns and 644 men. In the early part of 1781, having accompanied Brigadier-General Arnold, in command of a gun-boat, on an expedition up the rivers of Virginia, he was for 30 or 40 days, while so employed, in constant action with the enemy. On 10 Oct. 1781 the Charon, engaged at the time in the defence of York Town, was destroyed by hot shot from the enemy’s batteries; and from that period until the surrender of the army under Earl Cornwallis, Mr. Tomlinson was employed on shore in command of one of the British advanced batteries, and behaved in a manner that gainedhim his Lordship’s personal thanks. In the following Dec. he returned to England in a cartel with Capt. Symonds; and on 23 March, 1782, he was made Lieutenant into the Bristol 50, Capts. Jas. Gambier and Jas. Burney. In April, 1783, a few days after the Bristol had arrived with convoy in Madras Roads, Mr. Tomlinson, who was First-Lieutenant and had volunteered to repair to the assistance of the Duke of Athol Indiaman, was blown up in that ship and received a severe contusion in his breast and left side, besides being otherwise much injured.[1] In the ensuing June he was present, off Cuddalore, in Sir Edw. Hughes’ fifth and last action with M. de Suffrein. He was subsequently appointed, in the capacity of Lieutenant – 4 Sept. 1784, to the Juno 32, Capt. Jas. Montagu, for a passage to England, where he arrived in March, 1785 – 23 June, 1786, for three years and nine months, to the Savage sloop, Capts. Rich. Rundle Surges and Dickinson, on the Scotch station – in June, 1790, during the Spanish armament, to the Impress service at Greenook – 11 July, 179-3, to the Regulus 44, Capt. Edw. Bowater, on the Portsmouth station – 15 July, 1794, to the command (five months after ill health had obliged him to leave the Regulus) of the Pelter gun-vessel – 23 Sept. 1795, to the Glory 98, Capt. Theophilus Jones, lying at Spithead – and, 22 Oct. following, to the command of the Vésuve gun-brig. In the Juno, Savage, Regulus, and Glory he was First-Lieutenant. While attached to the Savage he jumped on one occasion overboard and saved the life of Mr. Campbell, a young gentleman who could not swim; and on another he hastened in a small boat, at imminent hazard, to the aid of a fisherman who had been overset in a heavy gale. On quitting the Impress service he obtained command, through the recommendation of Lord Hawke, of a ship-of-the-line belonging to the Russian navy; but on the prospect of a rupture between England and France he returned to his own service, and was appointed, as above, to the Regulus. During his command of the Pelter, Mr. Tomlinson performed a variety of dashing exploits. In a single boat he boarded and carried, in open day, a lugger lying within pistol-shot of a battery at a place where the adjacent sand-hills were lined with troops. He endured a skirmish subsequently with three armed vessels (two of them equal in force to the Pelter) under a battery in the road of Etaples; in July, 1795, while co-operating with the Royalists in Quiberon Bay, he so distinguished himself, particularly by the manner in which he saved a body of troops from falling a sacrifice to republican fury, that he was publicly thanked by Sir John Borlase Warren on the quarter-deck of La Pomone; and on 10 Aug. following, having silenced a battery at the mouth of the river Crache, he took one of a fleet of chasse-marées which had there sought protection. Previously to the latter affair the Pelter, in company with three other gun-vessels, had destroyed a corvette of 24 guns and a national cutter in the Morbihan river. Worn out by the fatigue they had undergone, 30 of her crew, out of 50, were at length obliged to keep to their hammocks, and the health of the remainder, including their Commander, was so much impaired that the vessel was obliged to be towed home by the Robust 74. On 30 Nov. 1795 Mr. Tomlinson, then in the Vesuve, was promoted to the command of La Suffisante sloop of 14 guns. In her, after a chase of 11 hours and an action of 30 minutes, he made prize, 27 May, 1796, between Ushant and the Main, of La Revanche French national brig of 12 long 4-pounders and 85 chosen men if and in the following month, besides re-taking six valuable British merchantmen;[2] he captured La Patriote and Le Morgan privateers (the latter mounting 16 guns), and an American ship and Danish brig, the one laden with contraband stores, the other with French property. In the conflict with La Revanche, fought, as it was, on a lee shore, Capt. Tomlinson acquired much honour; one only of his crew was wounded, while the enemy sustained a loss of 2 killed and 7 wounded. Of so much importance, indeed, was the capture of La Revanche and the other vessels considered, that the Committee for Encouraging the Capture of French Privateers, &c., and the Court of Directors of the Royal Exchange Assurance, each voted him a piece of plate, valued at 50 guineas. On 1 Aug. 1796 he attacked a French convoy, consisting of a brig mounting 16 guns, two cutters of 14 guns each, and 17 sail of merchantmen, eight of which were destroyed. He afterwards captured a large ship laden with rice and wine, and two other French vessels; a Dutch vessel laden with wine, and a ship with masts and spars; and four Spanish vessels. One of the latter he gave up to the prisoners. As a reward for the services we have here recorded, Capt. Tomlinson was advanced to Post-rank 12 Dec. 1796. In Nov. 1798 his name was struck off the list of Captains, in consequence of a complaint lodged by two of his brother officers at the Admiralty, that he had, when embarked on board the Lord Hawke (a privateer belonging to himself), and chased by the frigates they commanded, made use of their private signals. In consideration, however, of the distinguished conduct he eventually displayed as a volunteer on board the London 98, flag-ship of Sir Hyde Parker, in the attack upon the Danish line of defence before Copenhagen, he was restored to his former rank, with seniority from 22 Sept. 1801. From July, 1803, until June, 1809, he was employed in the Sea Fenciblea at Maiden and Southend, co. Essex. He was then ordered to fit out and command a division of fire-ships, intended to accompany the expedition to the Scheldt. On the evacuation of the Walcheren in the ensuing Dec. he was spoken of in high terms by Capt. Graham Moore, the senior officer present, for the assistance he afforded at the destruction of the arsenal, basin, and sea-defences of Flushing.[3] While returning home in charge of the vessels laden with fire-ship stores, the one in which he was embarked was wrecked, but he was enabled to make room for and save all the valuable part of the cargo, by throwing overboard the bevins (Bakers’ fagots dipped in tar) from the other ships.[4] He resumed his appointment in the Sea Fencibles at Southend in Jan. 1810, but resigned it in the following month, on the corps being broken up, and was not afterwards employed. He was placed on the retired list of Rear-Admirals 22 July, 1830; transferred to the active list 17 Aug. 1810; and promoted to the rank of Vice-Admiral 23 Nov. 1841.
Prior to the attack made by Lord Cochrane in 1809 on the French squadron in Aix Roads, Vice-Admiral Tomlinson submitted to the Admiralty a plan, which was adopted, for conducting fire-ships when leading down to attack the enemy. He married, in 1794, Elizabeth, second daughter and co-heiress of Ralph Ward, Esq., of Forburrows, by whom, who died in 1839, he had issue four sons and four daughters. His eldest son, James Ward, is a Lieutenant R.N.; his second was killed at Ningpo in 1842, in command of the 18th Royal Irish. Agents Goode and Lawrence.