A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Willoughby, Nesbit Josiah
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WILLOUGHBY, Kt, C.B., K.C.H. (Rear-Admiral of the White, 1847. f-p., 23; h-p., 34.)
Sir Nesbit Josiah Willoughby, born 29 Aug. 1777, is third son of the late Robt. Willoughby, Esq., of Cossall and Aspley Hall, co. Notts, and of Kingsbury Cliff; co. Warwick (of whose ancestors, one fought at Cressy, another at Poictiers, and a third. Sir Thos. Willoughby, with distinction, at Agincourt), by his second marriage with Barbara, daughter of Jas. Bruce, Esq., of Kinlock, whose wife was a great-grand-daughter of the Earl of Lauderdale. One of Sir Nesbit J. Willoughby’s own brothers, Moncrieffe, a Major in the 27th Foot, died in 1840; a second, Charles, a Captain in the same regiment, perished in the West Indies; and a third, Suttaby, a Lieutenant in the 44th Foot, lost his life in Spain in 1812. Of his half-brothers, the eldest, Lieut.-Colonel Robt. Willoughby, is now of Kingsbury Cliff; another, Thomas Ferrers, was lost in the Sylph sloop, off Long Island, 17 Jan. 1815. Sir Nesbit is uncle, further, of Lieut. Fras. Willoughby, R.N.; and cousin of Commander J. B. Willoughby, R.N. Among his ancestral connexions wo may record the names of Sir Christopher Willoughby, Kt., of Cossall, who was summoned to Parliament as Baron Willoughby de Eresby – of Sir Rich. Willoughby, Kt., who was Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in the reign of Edward II. – of Robert, Lord Willoughby (brother of the before-named Sir Thos. Willoughby), the last English Governor of Paris, one of the greatest soldiers of his age – of Sir Fras. Willoughby, famed for his successful defence of the Castle of Dublin against the partizans of Roger Moore – and of the loyal Lord Willoughby, whose stout opposition to the Parliamentary forces sent to effect the reduction of Barbadoes in 1651 has procured him a page in the history of that troubled period. Sir Nesbit is also related to the present Lord Middleton, Captain R.N.
This officer entered the Navy, 12 May, 1790, as a Volunteer, on board the Latona 38, Capt. Albemarle Bertie, employed on the Home station, where, and off the American coast, he continued to serve until Jan. 1793, latterly as Midshipman, in the same ship, and in the Edgar 74, Capt. Anthony Jas. Pye Molloy, Alligator 28, Capt. Isaac Coffin, and Vengeance 74, Commodore Thos. Pasley. Joining, then, the Orpheus 32, Capt. Henry Newcome, he sailed for the coast of Africa, and there, on 22 and 24 April, 1793, assisted in cutting out four French brigs and a schooner, of one of which vessels he was made prize-master. We next find him, during a cruize off the Isle of France, contributing to the capture, 5 May, 1794, of Le Duguay Trouin, a French frigate of 34 guns, after a sharp action of an hour and 10 minutes, in which the enemy, out of a crew of 403 men, sustained a loss of 21 killed and 60 wounded, and the British, whose total number did not exceed 194, of 1 person killed and 9 wounded. Being in the same ship at the reduction of Malacca in Aug. 1795, Mr. Willoughby commanded a boat on that occasion, in company with another under Lord Camelford, at the boarding of the Dutch ship Constantia, who had worked herself into the mud, was well armed, and had 100 men on board; and in 1796 he further shared in the reduction of Amboyna and Banda, together with their several dependencies. After a prolonged servitude in the East Indies on board the Heroine 32, Capt. Alan Hyde Gardner, and Suffolk 74, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Peter Rainier, he was promoted to a Lieutenancy, 13 Jan. 1798, in the Victorious 74, Capt. Wm. Clark; on leaving which ship, in June, 1799, he assumed command of the Amboyna brig, but for a limited period only, his health soon obliging him to invalid into the Sceptre 64, Capt. Valentine Edwards, for a passage to the Cape of Good Hope. On 19 of the following Sept. Mr. Willoughby, owing to the failure of a previous expedition, took voluntary charge of the boats belonging to the last-mentioned ship, conducted them through a heavy surf, and effected the destruction of L’Éclair privateer, of 10 guns, 4 swivels, and 83 men, moored within a reel of rocks close to the island of Rodriguez. Not long after this affair he performed an act of great generosity in springing overboard, although the attempt proved vain, to save the life of a man. On the destruction of the Sceptre, during a violent gale in Table Bay, 5 Nov. following, Mr. Willoughby, who had the good fortune at the time to be on shore, returned to England, and on 26 Aug. 1800 was appointed to the Russell 74, Capts. Herbert Sawyer and Wm. Cuming, under the latter of whom he fought at the battle of Copenhagen 2 April, 1801. On that memorable occasion, while detached in one of the ship’s boats, he boarded the Proversteen block-ship, of 56 guns, under a heavy fire from the lower deck, kept up in opposition to the wishes of her Commander, who had hauled down her colours in token of submission. Although not supported by more than 30 men, he succeeded in retaining possession of her under most hazardous circumstances until the next morning. The gallantry of his achievement was acknowledged by three cheers from the Russel’s crew. We next, on 17 July, 1803, find him, in a single boat belonging to the Leviathan 74 (which ship, bearing the flag on the Jamaica station of Sir John Thos. Duckworth, he had joined about 12 months previously), and with only 2 Midshipmen and 7 men, boarding and securing, off Cape Donna Maria, after a row of seven or eight miles, a French national armed ship, L’Athenaise, commanded by a Lieut.-de-frégate, and having on board 50 persons, inclusive of several military officers, and who had not heard of the renewal of hostilities. On 30 Nov. 1803, when the French General, Rochambeau, evacuated Cape François, Mr. Willoughby, who had in the mean time removed with Sir J. Duckworth to the Hercule 74, was the instrument under Providence of saving the French 40-gun frigate La Clorinde and 900 souls from the destruction with which they were threatened by the blacks under General Dessalines, who were in possession of Fort St. Joseph, on the rocks immediately beneath which La Clorinde had grounded. Sir John Duckworth, in his official despatch to the Admiralty, narrates the event, and attributes its happy issue to the “uncommon exertions and professional abilities” of Mr. Willoughby.[1] During the operations of 1804 against Curaçoa, where for 25 consecutive days he was exposed to three and four diurnal attacks from the enemy, he again distinguished himself by a display of marked firmness and daring. Landing on that island on 31 Jan., he first of all commanded a party at the storming of Fort Piscadero, mounting 10 Dutch 12-pounders, that had opposed the debarkation of the troops; the day after which event he was placed in charge of the advanced battery, situated about 800 yards to the westward of the town of St. Ann. He had the good fortune, on the morning of 5 Feb., to defeat, with not more than 85 seamen and marines, as many as 500 of the Dutch and French, after a hard fight and a loss of 23 men killed and wounded; and on the 24th, when the British re-emharked, he covered their retreat, assisted at the destruction of Fort Piscadero, and was among the last to leave the shore. During his occupation of the advanced battery, he frequently, for the purpose of inspiriting the depressed portion of his men, took his meals in an awfully exposed situation, under a full shower of the enemy’s missiles. “The earth,” says Mr. James, “was ploughed up all around, and one man, we believe, was killed close to the spot; but still the table and chair, and the daring young officer who sat there, remained untouched. On one occasion Lieut. Sam. Perrot, R.M., was induced to sit himself in the chair: scarcely had he done so, when a shot came, took off his left arm, badly wounded the knee upon which it had been resting, and knocked the table to atoms.” On 14 March, 1804, we find Mr. Willoughby capturing, in command of the Hercule’s boats, La Félicité French privateer, whose fire occasioned them a loss of a Midshipman and 2 men severely_ wounded. When the same ship, on 6 of the following Sept., was caught in a fearful hurricane off the Silver Keys, during which 300 vessels are supposed to have been lost, this meritorious officer, although at the time on the doctor’s list, was the first person – even the oldest seamen being appalled – who summoned courage to mount into the foretop_ and clear away the wreck of the foretopmast, which had been blown over the side, thus saving the lower mast, which already was in a tottering state. In Feb. 1805, having taken command of a merchant schooner of about 30 tons burthen, manned with three passed Midshipmen and 30 Volunteers, he entered the harbour of Santa Martha by means of a ruse de guerre, for the purpose of endeavouring to effect the capture of a Spanish corvette of 20 guns and 130 men, reported to he there. Finding, however, that the vessel had sailed three days previously, he was obliged to put about, but was unable to get clear off without awakening the suspicions of the enemy, who, upon the British repassing their batteries, opened on them a fierce but fortunately a harmless fire. Mr. Willoughby’s next and last appointments as Lieutenant, after his return home with Sir John Duckworth as First of the Acasta 40, were – 11 Aug. 1805, to the Prince 98, Capt. Rich. Grindall – 28 Dec. 1806, to the Formidable 98, Capt. Fras. Fayerman – and 15 Jan. 1807, to the Royal George 100, bearing the flag of his friend Sir J. T. Duckworth. When the Ajax, in Feb. of the latter year, caught fire off the island of Tenedos, it was his fortune to save many from a premature grave; in doing which his boat once became so entangled with the flaming pile as to cause his being severely scorched, and all but involved in the general destruction. After passing the Dardanells, Mr. Willoughby, on 21 of the month last mentioned, was sent from the Royal George with a flag of truce to Constantinople, and a letter from the English Ambassador, Mr. Arbuthnot (who had hitherto failed in obtaining an answer to any of his despatches), to the Grand Vizier, demanding the surrender of all the Turkish men-of-war, with stores sufficient for their equipment. He succeeded in opening a communication, and ttimed to the best account the time he was among the enemy in reconnoitring, and making observations as to their means of defence, their different military positions, their harbour, arsenal, &c. He was the only officer, it may be remarked, who landed at Constantinople after the flight of the British Ambassador and merchants. Prior to the retreat of the expedition he further, on the 27th, commanded a double-banked cutter at the pursuit and capture, off the island of Prota, of a Turkish boat carrying 13 men; immediately preceding the surrender of which 2 of his party were killed by the discharge of two pistols whose fire had been expressly intended for himself. During a land attack made in the course of the same day on a strong party which had sheltered itself in a convent on the above island, he was struck by two pistol-balls, one of which entered his head just above the right jaw, and, from the upward position of his face at the moment, took a slanting direction towards the region of the brain, where it has ever since remained. The other shot cut his left cheek in two, and he lay for six or seven minutes apparently lifeless on the ground; but at the very moment that his companions began to retreat, one of his arms was observed to move, and he was carried off to the ship as one of whom no hopes were entertained. In short, so desperate was his case that the Surgeon of the Royal George also considered him to be mortally wounded, and officially reported him as such for three days afterwards.[2] Even to this day he cannot open his mouth to any considerable extent. Being discharged from the Royal George 13 July, 1807, he proceeded next to the Rio de la Plata as a passenger in the Otter sloop, Capt. John Davies, for the purpose of assuming command of La Fuerte, a Spanish corvette of 28 guns, which had fallen into the hands of the British, at Monte Video, in the preceding Feb. Finding, however, on his arrival that Lieut.-General Whitelocke’s movement had caused her restoration to the enemy, he sailed for the Cape of Good Hope, where, on 10 Jan. 1808, he succeeded Capt. Davies in the command of the Otter – to which vessel he was confirmed by a commission dated 9 April in the same year. On the night of 14 Aug. 1809, being off the Isle of France, Capt. Willoughby entered Black River with three of the Otter’s boats for the purpose of cutting out, notwithstanding the tremendous strength of the enemy’s defences, two merchantmen and a gun-boat: the former were taken, but the armed vessel, owing to the darkness, was not to be found. The Captain and his gallant companions then retired under a murderous fire from the shore, taking along with them one of the prizes, but abandoning the other for the sake of the wounded. The enemy on this occasion, to enable them to distinguish their object, threw up fire-balls of a superior description which illumined the whole river; and they continued to do so every half-minute until the British were out of range. During the operations of Sept. 1809, which led to the capture of St. Paul’s, in the Ile de Bourbon, Capt. Willoughby volunteered and, on the 21st, landed in command of 100 seamen appointed to act in concert with the troops under Lieut.-Colonel Keating, to whom his zeal, activity, and exertions proved of the greatest importance. After possession had been obtained of the first and second batteries, Lambousière and La Centière, he immediately turned their guns against the enemy’s shipping, from whose fire the British suffered much. Having in the end spiked the guns of the two batteries, he removed to a third, whence he continued to fire as before, until victory at length terminated in favour of the invaders a severe action which had been raging between them and a strong body of the French.[3] Previously to the embarkation of the forces he disabled the guns and mortars in the different batteries and on the beach, destroyed their carriages, and blew up their magazines. On the evening of the next day, the 22nd, he again landed in volunteered command of the marines of the squadron and of a few seamen, and effectually burnt an extensive Government store of considerable value. Returning with his boats on the 23rd, Capt. Willoughby once more went on shore, in order to reconnoitre the forces under General Des Brusley, and on that occasion he brought off a French 9-inch brass mortar. On 3 of the following Oct.[4] a descent being made at St. Gilles, also on the Ile de Bourbon, the Captain, after the reduction of one battery had been accomplished, assisted at the storming of a second, which, at the head of his gig’s crew, he was the first to enter. Two batteries, containing 4 long 10-pounders and 9 12’s, a guard-house, and a new public building, were on the same occasion destroyed. As a reward for the distinguished excellence of his conduct throughout the whole of the above attacks on Ile de Bourbon, both by sea and land, he was immediately promoted by the Commander-in-Chief on the station, Vice-Admiral Albemarle Bertie, to the command of the Néréide, a frigate of 38 guns. Towards the close of April, 1810, having discovered in Black River a ship (supposed to be of war) moored in such a position between the formidable land batteries that her stem alone was visible, he worked up towards the anchorage, and discharged several broadsides at her, nearly within point-blank distance, receiving in return a heavy fire of shot and shells from the shore, many of the latter bursting near and without the Néréide. The enemy’s ship was afterwards ascertained to be L’Astrée, a large 40-gun frigate recently arrived from Cherbourg with troops and supplies for the Mauritius. On 1 May, 1810, Capt. Willoughby landed with 105 officers, seamen, and marines, in face of a most destructive fire, at Jacotel, in the Isle of France, where he stormed one battery mounting 2 long 12’s, then triumphantlyattacked a guard-house, protected by 2 6-pounder field-pieces, 40 troops of the line, 26 artillery, and a strong party of militia, and, after half wading, half swimming across a river, ascended a jungle-hill, and further captured 2 guns (12’s), another battery, and the enemy’s colours. Before re-embarking, a fresh and equally successful skirmish took place with a strong party who had been routed from the first battery, but who had since been reinforced. On their way back to the boats the British likewise burnt a signal-house, flag-staif, &c., a mile from the beach. A national schooner, L’Estafette, of 4 guns and 15 men, also fell into their hands, with a mail on board for Bourbon, consisting of nearly 600 pubhc and private letters, disclosing for the first time the military resources, the condition of the mercantile interests, and the views of the inhabitants of both islands. Capt. Willoughby’s attack upon Jacotel was the first ever made upon any part of the Isle of France, and fully established what had been hitherto doubted, the practicability of making a descent upon a more extended scale.[5] In consequence of this achievement the First Lord of the Admiralty, on 5 of the following Sept., justly confirmed the Néréide’s gallant Captain in the command of that frigate. On 15 June, 1810, while on shore at Ile Platte, a small island near the northern extremity of the Mauritius, and in the act of exercising his men at small arms, a musket in the hands of a marine burst, inflicting upon Capt. Willoughby a dreadful wound, supposed at the time to be mortal. His lower jaw on the right side was badly fractured, and his neck so lacerated that the windpipe lay bare. For three weeks he could not speak. The wound, however, at length healed, but not until a painful exfoliation of the jaw had taken place. In July, 1810, having embarked at Rodriguez a light corps of about 500 strong, and conveyed them in the Néréide to the Rivière des Pluies, in Ile de Bourbon, Capt. Willoughby there, on the 7th, superintended the debarkation of the troops under circumstances of great peril, and on the evening of the same day assisted at the capture of the enemy’s battery and post at Ste. Marie.[6] For his share in these and the other operations which led to the surrender of Ile de Bourbon to the British arms, he was especially thanked, and was mentioned in high terms of approbation both by Commodore Rowley and Lieut.-Colonel Keating. After the capture, at a distance of about four miles from Port Sud-Est, of Ile de la Passe, a service he had himself undertaken to effect, but had been anticipated in, in consequence of the bad sailing of his ship, Capt. Willoughby, on 17 Aug., landed with a party of rather more than 200 seamen, marines, and soldiers, at Canaille de Bois, for the purpose of thence proceeding towards Grand Port, and, by the distribution of proclamations among the inhabitants at the intermediate places, of paving the way “for the most important” (as expressed in the House of Commons 13 Feb. 1811) “of all our colonial conquests since the commencement of the war” – the reduction of the Isle of France. This dangerous service, the penalty for which, if taken prisoner, was death, he most effectually performed, and, although he advanced 20 miles into the enemy’s country, he did not lose a single man. During his march he attacked and carried the enemy’s fort at Pointe du Diable, where he spiked 8 24-pounders and 2 13-inch mortars, besides burning their carriages, blowing up the magazines, and embarking a 13-inch brass mortar in a new praam, well calculated for carrying troops and guns over flats. The order, discipline, and forbearance observed throughout the expedition by the British, who were in sight the whole time of a strong body of the enemy under General Van de Masson, tended greatly to conciliate the natives, and to prepossess them in favour of their future conquerors. On the next day, the 18th, they again landed and destroyed the signal-house, staffs, &c., of Grande Rivière, although watched by a body of 700 or 800 men. While the Néréide, on 20 of the same month, was lying off the Ile de la Passe, which island she had been ordered to protect, Capt. Willoughby observed a strange squadron, which proved to be La Bellone and Minerve French frigates, and 18-gun corvette Le Victor, in charge of two prize Indiamen. Knowing that if these three men-of-war, which had but just arrived from Europe, were suffered to form a junction with three other of the enemy’s frigates and a fine corvette then at Port Louis, they would prove far too strong for the British force off the island, which only consisted, besides the Néréide, of the frigates Sirius, Iphigenia, and Magicienne, he endeavoured by a ruse-de-guerre to draw them into Grand Port. Succeeding in the latter object, Capt. Willoughby, whose position rendered it necessary that the enemy should pass close to him, compelled Le Victor to haul down her colours, and exchanged broadsides with the Minerve. He next, however, on being joined by his consorts, to whom he had sent intelligence of this new event, took part in a series of desperate and unhappy operations, which, by 28 Aug., terminated in the self-destruction of the Magicienne and Sirius, and the capture, by the French ships above named, of the Néréide (who had led the squadron into action) and the Iphigenia. The Néréide was taken on the 24th, after she had been reduced to a mere wreck, and had incurred – during a glorious resistance almost unparalleled even in the brilliant annals of the British navy – a loss, out of 281 persons, of about 230 killed and wounded! Among the latter was the chivalrous Willoughby himself, who, to his former wounds, had now to add, besides a splintered cheek, the loss of one eye, torn completely from its socket, and the most serious injury to the other.[7] The consummate gallantry indeed, the utter disregard of self, and the exalted devotion to his country’s interests, which have emblazoned the acts of this hero’s career, in every rank and under every circumstance, but especially those achieved by him in the successive character of Captain of H.M. ships Otter and Néréide, we confess to have never seen surpassed in any of the myriad soul-stirring deeds which have necessarily passed in review before us. The very enemy, into whose power he was thrust by the fortune of war, struck with wonderment at the splendour of his defence, allowed him to retain a life which his fearless distribution of the proclamations, above alluded to, had now placed at their disposal.[8] On his return to England, Capt. Willoughby was surveyed by the College of Surgeons, and in consequence of their report a pension of 300l per annum (increased in 1815 to 550l.) was granted to him 4 Oct. 1811; it being ascertained that he had not only lost an eye, but that his other wounds were more than equal to the loss of a limb. We next, in 1812, find him volunteering into the service of Russia, where he fought against the French, until taken prisoner by the latter after their defeat of General Steingell – a misfortune which was occasioned by an act of generosity in giving up his own horse, and that of his attendant Cossack, to the use of two Russian soldiers who were attempting with bleeding and mangled limbs to withdraw from the scene of slaughter. He then for a time became involved in all the horrors of the retreat from Moscow and on being ultimately sent to France was there detained until the peace. Capt. Willoughby’s exertions in the cause of Russia were to have been rewarded, it was intimated, with the order of St. Anne of the Second Class – a boon, however, which has never been conferred. He subsequently, on 10 Sept. 1818, assumed command of the Tribune 42, in which ship, after serving for some time on the coast of Ireland, he conveyed Rear-Admiral Fahie to the Leeward Islands. He went on half-pay in July, 1822, and has not been since afloat, He attained Flag-rank 28 April, 1847.
Sir Nesbit Willoughby, who was nominated a C.B. 4 June, 1815, has been twice knighted – first by George IV. 30 July, 1827, and again by his warm friend William IV. 21 Aug. 18.32, on which date he was also invested with the insignia of a K.C.H. He was further awarded the Captain’s Good-Service Pension 14 Jan. 1839; and on 30 Nov. 1841 he was appointed a Naval Aide-de-Camp to the Queen. Although the K.C.B., in 1815, was made the reward of officers who had lost a limb or an eye while in command of a frigate in battle, yet was the distinguished officer, whose services we have now endeavoured to sketch, and whose wounds it has been seen more than amounted to the loss of both, allowed to be put off with a simple C.B., an honour, it would appear, he had earned on 10 different occasions. He is the author of a very estimable volume entitled “Extracts from Holy Writ and various Authors, intended as Helps to Meditation and Prayer, principally for Soldiers and Seamen,” published in 1839 for gratuitous distribution amongst the army and navy. Agents – Hallett and Robinson.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1804, pp. 164, 166.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1807, p. 597.
- ↑ Of the Naval detachment serving on shore under Capt. Willoughby, 7 were killed, and 18 wounded, but not a single casualty occurred on board the squadron. – Vide Gaz. 1810, p. 214.
- ↑ Capt. Willoughby had landed with Lieut-Col. Keating the night previously between St. Gilles and St. Luce, attended alone by a black pilot, for the purpose of obtaining information as to the military strength of the latter place. On leaving their boat, they advanced, sword in hand, and without uttering a word, into a village inhabited by blacks, where they remained for upwards of a quarter of an hour, in momentary fear of being discovered by some of the strong French night guards, known to be constantly prowling about, particularly in the creeks and bays where a landing could be effected, and who were then not many hundred yards distant. All the circumstances of this adventure concurred in rendering it hazardous in the extreme.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1810, p. 1325.
- ↑ A schooner, at the landing of the troops, was steered by Capt. Willoughby, who still had the dressings on his wound. – Vide Gaz. 1810, p. 1681.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1810, p. 1977, and Gaz, 1811, p. 261.
- ↑ The Court-martial, which subsequently assembled to try Capt. Willoughby for the loss of his ship, not onlv adjudged him to be most honourably acquitted, but was of opinion that the Néréide had been carried into action in a most judicious, officer-like, and gallant manner; it also expressed its high admiration of the noble conduct of the Captain, Officers, and ship’s company, during the whole of the unequal contest; and was further of opinion that the Néréide was not surrendered to the enemy until she was disabled in every respect, so as to render all further resistance useless.
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