A Naval Biographical Dictionary/West, Henry (a)
WEST. (Commander, 1831. f-p., 16; h-p., 30.)
Henry West is second son of the late Rev. Edw. Matthew West, Rector of Clifton Mabank, and Vicar of Bradford-Abbas and Haydon, co. Dorset, by Anne, daughter of the late Rev. Edw. Cotes, Vicar of Sherborne and Caundle-Bishops, both in Dorsetshire, and many years chaplain to his great-uncle, William, Lord Digby.
This officer entered the Navy, 22 May, 1801, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Resistance 38, Capts. Henry Digby and Hon. Philip Wodehouse; in which frigate he continued, we are told, until, after having cruized in the Channel, and visited Quebec and Lisbon, she was wrecked, near Cape St. Vincent, 31 May, 1803. He then, in the course of the latter year, joined in succession (he had attained the rating of Midshipman in Aug. 1801) the Victory 100, flag-ship of Lord Nelson, Termagant sloop, Capt. Robt. Pettet, and Amphion 32, Capt. Sam. Sutton. In the Amphion he assisted at the capture of three Spanish frigates laden with treasure, and the destruction of a fourth, off Cape St. Mary, 5 Oct. 1804, and accompanied Lord Nelson in the following year to the West Indies and back, in pursuit of the combined fleets of France and Spain. Being again, 12 Oct. 1805, placed under the command of Capt. Digby, as Master’s Mate in the Africa 64, he was afforded an opportunity of sharing in that ship, and was severely wounded, in the action fought, nine days later, off Cape Trafalgar.[1] From the Africa he removed, in Feb. 1806, to the Uraine 38, Capt. Christopher Laroche, stationed in the Channel; where, in the following Nov., he joined the Lavinia 40, Capt. Lord Wm. Stuart. In 1807, while in charge of a prize, he was captured by a Spanish corvette off Ushant, and taken to Bilboa, at which place and at St. Sebastian he was detained a prisoner until the French made themselves masters of the latter city, on the abdication of Charles IV. He then escaped to St. Andero, and was sent home by the British Consul-General with despatches from the Junta of Oviedo to Mr. Canning, at that time Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, who afterwards employed him on a mission to Corunna. On 16 Aug. 1808 he was made Lieutenant into the Merope sloop, Capt. Michael Dodd; and on 14 Jan. 1809 and 24 April, 1813, he was appointed to his former ship the Lavinia, Capts. Lord Wm. Stuart and Geo. Digby, and, as First-Lieutenant, to the Jaseur sloop, commanded by Capt. Geo. Edw. Watts, by himself as Acting-Commander (from 9 until 30 Oct. 1814), and by Capts. Nicholas Pateshall and Nagle Lock. The Lavinia was one of ten frigates which, accompanying the expedition to the Walcheren, forced the passage between the batteries of Flushing and Cadsand 11 Aug. 1809. She served afterwards off Lisbon and in the Mediterranean. In Nov. 1813, being then in the Jalouse off the Delaware, Mr. West was despatched with a flag of truce to the town of Lewes, for the purpose of inquiring into the circumstances attendant upon the detention of an officer who had been sent on shore with some prisoners. On landing he was treated with every indignity, and all but one of his boat’s crew were enticed to desert. With that one man he succeeded in a tempestuous night in regaining his ship, but so worn out in body and mind by the exertions he had undergone that a debilitating fever ensued, the effects of which lasted for many years. When subsequently stationed in the Chesapeake, Mr. West assisted at the capture of the towns of Benedict and Marlborough, and, with the boats of the Jaseur under his orders, took and destroyed more than 30 vessels of different descriptions. On one occasion, 2 May, 1814, in a single boat, with only 6 men, he brought out from under a battery the Grecian, a privateer, mounting 4 guns (pierced for 20) and 5 swivels, with a complement of 27 men[2] – an exploit for which he received a letter of thanks from Sir Alex. Cochrane, the Commander-in-Chief. During the time he acted as Commander of the Jaseur, Mr. West carried despatches and escorted some transports from Halifax and Shelburne to Castine. The Jaseur being paid off in Aug. 1816, he did not again go afloat until appointed, in Feb. 1831, to the Windsor Castle 76, Capt. Hon. Duncombe Pleydell Bouverie, employed on the Cork and Lisbon stations. He was advanced to his present rank 25 June following; and has since been on half-pay.
Commander West married, first, in 1822, his cousin, the only daughter of the Rev. Henry Cotes, Vicar of Bedlington, co. Durham; and, secondly, 29 April, 1828, Frances Anne Hussey, youngest daughter of the late Sam. Huthwaite, Esq., of Hartley Lodge, co. Northumberland. Agents – Messrs. Chard.