A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Willis, James Wyndham
WILLIS. (Lieut., 1809. f-p., 12; h-p., 32.)
James Wyndham Willis entered the Navy, 16 March, 1803, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Hydra 38, Capt. Geo. Mundy, employed in the Channel and Mediterranean. In March, 1805, ho was lent to the Phoebe frigate; he was subsequently taken prisoner and detained for three months at the island of Majorca. Rejoining the Hydra in April, 1806, he was in her, during the next three years and four months, engaged in a variety of service on the coasts of Spain and Portugal. On 7 Aug. 1807, with the assistance of her boats, the Hydra obtained possession, in a very gallant manner, of three armed polacres (the Prince Eugène of 16 guns and 130 men, Belle Caroline of 10 guns and 40 men, and Rosario of 4 guns and 20 men) lying in the narrow harbour of Begu, on the coast of Catalonia, under the fierce defence of a battery mounting 4 26-pounders, of a tower, and of a considerable land force. After serving for a short time under Lord Collingwood in the Ville de Paris 110, Mr. Willis was made Lieutenant, 13 Dec. 1809, into the Conqueror 74, Capt. Edw. Fellowes; he invalided home from the Mediterranean in June, 1811; and he was appointed next – 24 March, 1812, to the Stirling Castle 74, Capts. Sir Jahleel Brenton and Augustus Brine, employed in the Channel and off Rochefort – 2 April, 1813, to the Mosquito sloop, Capt. Jas. Tomkinson, stationed in the West Indies, and on the coast of Brazil – and 24 Nov. 1813, to the Charybdis sloop, Capt. Jas. Clephan, under whom he shared in the attack on New Orleans. He has been on half-pay since 24 Aug. 1815.