A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Woodley, William
WOODLEY. (Commander, 1816. f-p., 10; h-p., 31.)
William Woodley, born 4 Feb. 1793, is son of Wm. Woodley, Esq., at one time Governor-General of the Leeward Islands, and afterwards of Berbice, by Mary, daughter of John Mardenborough, Esq., of St. Christopher’s.
This officer entered the Navy, about the commencement of 1806, as Midshipman, on board the London 98, Capt. Sir Harry Burrard Neale; and on 13 March in the same year was present, in company with the Amazon 38, at the capture, during a cruize to the westward, of the French 80-gun ship Marengo, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Linois, and 40-gun frigate Belle Poule, after a long running fight in which the London sustained a loss of 10 men killed and 22 wounded. In Oct. 1808 he removed to the above-named Amazon, commanded by the present Sir Wm. Parker; and after sharing in much service performed by the boats of that ship, he joined the Caledonia 120, bearing the flag of Lord Gambier; under whom we find him witnessing the celebrated attack made by Lord Cochrane on the French shipping in Aix Roads. He was subsequently employed in the Lavinia 40, Capts. Lord Wm. Stuart and Henry Digby, on the Mediterranean station. While there he contributed to the destruction of a fort situated on an island in the Bay of Rosas; and he served also in the boats and on shore at the capture of a fort and of the materials for two frigates on the coast of Corsica. About the period of his promotion to the rank of Lieutenant, which took place 25 June, 1812, he was appointed to the Boyne 98, bearing the flag of Sir H. B. Neale in the Channel: he served next, from Oct. 1812 until July, 1815, chiefly in the East Indies, in the Daedalus 38, Capt. Murray Maxwell (in which frigate he was wrecked, 2 July, 1813, near the island of Ceylon), Minden 74, flag-ship of Sir Sam. Hood, as First-Lieutenant in the Theban 36, Capt. Sam. Leslie, and in the Malacca 36, Capt. Hon. Donald Hugh Mackay; and in Aug., 1815 he was appointed, for five months, to the Royal Charlotte yacht, Capt. Geo. Scott. He attained the rank he now holds 11 March, 1816; and has since been on half-pay.
Commander Woodley married a sister of Lieut. John Wright, R.N. Agents – Messrs. Ommanney.