A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Wigley, John Gwyn
WIGLEY. (Commander, 1841. f-p., 27; h-p., 21.)
John Gwyn Wigley was born 25 July, 1786.
This officer entered the Navy, 24 Aug. 1799, as Midshipman, on board the Trusty 50, Capts. Geo. Bowen and Alex. Wilson, employed at first in the expedition to Holland and next on the Mediterranean station. Uniting in 1801 in the operations against the French in Egypt he assisted in a boat at the landing of the troops in Aboukir Bay, served with the flotilla on the Lakes, and was wounded in the head by a dragoon in the battle of 21 March, in which Sir Ralph Abercromby was killed. Pleased with the conduct he had displayed Capt. Wilson, on being removed to the Alexandria, a frigate captured at Alexandria, took him with him. In June, 1802, a few weeks after the latter ship had been paid off, he joined the Centaur 74,[1] Capt. Robt. Bendall Littlehales; under whom we find him, on his arrival in the West Indies, present, in June, 1803, at the reduction of Ste. Lucie. In the course of the same year, as a reward for his good behaviour, he was rated Master’s Mate of the Emerald 36, Capt. Lord Jas. O’Bryen. He aided, in the boats of that frigate, in cutting out a merchant-ship from under the protection of an 18-gun brig and several batteries in the island of Martinique. He participated too in an attack made, in a bay at Guadeloupe, on a flotilla of 11 or 12 armed schooners, carrying 1400 troops destined for the invasion, which was completely frustrated, of the island of Antigua. After a severe struggle, in which all but one of the boats were sunk, three of the enemy’s vessels were captured and brought out. On 13 March, 1804, Mr. Wigley was present at the boarding and carrying, by the armed sloop Fort Diamond, manned with 30 volunteers under Lieut. Thos. Forrest, of the French privateer Mosambique of 10 18-pounder carronades and 60 men, beneath a battery close to Pearl Rock, Martinique; and in the ensuing May he landed, and assisted in silencing the batteries, in the successful attack upon Surinam. In April, 1805, having returned to England, he was received as a Supernumerary on board the Royal William, flagship of Sir Geo. Montagu at Spithead; and in the following Sept. he joined, again as Master’s Mate, the Kent 74, bearing the flag of Vice-Admiral Edw. Thornbrough in the Channel. While he was at the maintop of the latter ship during a heavy gale, a block fell upon his skull from the topmasthead and wounded him severely. On 30 Aug. 1806, at which period he had been serving for a short time on board the Hibernia 120, flag-ship of Earl St. Vincent off Lisbon, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. His next appointments were – 24 Oct. 1806, to the Hermes sloop, Capt. Edw. Reynolds Sibly, whom he accompanied to South America – 17 March, 1808, after seven months of half-pay, to the Aboukir 74, Capts. Geo. Cockburn and Geo. Parker, in the North Sea – and 2 Oct. 1809, to the Manilla 36, Capts. Geo. Fras. Seymour and John Joyce. He was detached in the boats of the Aboukir to man some armed transports during the bombardment of Flushing, at which he received a splinter wound. While belonging to the Manilla he was employed in command of a party of seamen in dismantling the forts on the banks of the Tagus, when the British army retreated to the lines at Torres Vedras. The manner in which he executed this service procured him the thanks of the Admiral. On 28 Jan. 1812, the Manilla was wrecked on the Haak Sand, near the Texel. After they had been for two days in a most perilous position her officers and crew were rescued by the enemy, to whom however they became prisoners. At the end of the war Mr. Wigley regained his liberty. His last appointments were – 5 June, 1819, and 24 Jan. 1821, as First-Lieutenant to the Créole 42 and Superb 78, Capts. Wm. Bowles and Adam Mackenzie, both in South America – 10 Oct. 1822, to the Hornet Revenue-cruizer, on the coast of Ireland, in which vessel he was very active in the suppression of smuggling – 9 April, 1828, to the command of the Pike 12, on the same station, where he remained until Dec. 1831, and made more seizures than all the eight or ten sloops there employed – and 5 March, 1837, to the charge, which he retained until 15 Nov. 1841, of the Semaphore at Kingston. He was advanced to his present rank 23 Nov. 1841.
Commander Wigley married 20 Dec. 1817, and has issue one son and a daughter.
- ↑ The Centaur for a short time bore the flag of Admiral Dacres at Plymouth.