Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Senhouse, Humphrey Fleming
SENHOUSE, Sir HUMPHREY FLEMING (1781–1841), captain in the navy, baptised on 6 June 1781, was third son of William Senhouse (1741–1800), lieutenant R.N., surveyor-general of Barbados and the Leeward Islands, by Elizabeth, daughter of Samson Wood, speaker of the Barbados assembly. His grandfather, Humphrey Senhouse of Netherhall, Cumberland, married Mary, daughter and coheiress of Sir George Fleming [q. v.], bishop of Carlisle. He entered the navy in January 1797 on board the Prince of Wales, flagship of Rear-admiral (Sir) Henry Harvey [q. v.], in the West Indies. In November 1797 he was moved into the Requin brig, in which he came for the first time to England towards the end of 1799. From March 1800 to April 1802 he served in the Fisgard under the command of Captain (afterwards Sir) Thomas Byam Martin [q. v.], and Captain (afterwards Sir) Michael Seymour [q. v.] On 7 April 1802 he passed his examination, and two days afterwards was promoted to be lieutenant of the Galgo. In May 1803 he was appointed to the Conqueror with Captain (afterwards Sir) Thomas Louis [q. v.] With Israel Pellew [q. v.], who relieved Louis in April 1804, he served in the Mediterranean, in the voyage to the West Indies, and in the battle of Trafalgar, till January 1806. He then went out to the West Indies in the Elephant, was put on board the Northumberland flagship of Sir Alexander Forrester Inglis Cochrane [q. v.], and in September 1806 was appointed to command the Express on the Spanish Main and among the Leeward Islands till March 1808, when he joined the Belleisle as flag-lieutenant to Sir Alexander Cochrane. Cochrane sent him home with despatches in the following July. On 26 Jan. 1809 he rejoined the admiral, now in the Neptune, and served through the reduction of Martinique. For this, on 7 March, he was promoted to the Wolverene, which, and afterwards the Ringdove and Supérieure, he commanded in the West Indies till the following December. In 1810–12 he commanded the Recruit at Gibraltar, Newfoundland, and Halifax; and in 1812–14 the Martin on the Halifax station.
On 12 Oct. 1814 he was advanced to post rank, and from April to September 1815 commanded the Superb on the coast of France, as flag-captain to Sir Henry Hotham [q. v.] He was again with Hotham in the Mediterranean, as flag-captain in the St. Vincent, which he commanded from 1831 to 1834. On 13 April 1832 he was nominated a K.C.H., and was knighted on 5 June 1834. In April 1839 he commissioned the Blenheim, which he took out to China, where he died, on 14 June 1841, of fever contracted by fatigue and exposure during the operations at Canton. He was buried at Macao. Fifteen days after his death he was nominated a C.B. He married, in 1810, Elizabeth, daughter of Vice-admiral John Manley, and left two daughters.
[O'Byrne's Nav. Biogr. Dict. p. 1049 n.; Marshall's Roy. Nav. Biogr. vii. (suppl. pt. iii.) 405; Times, 8, 9 Oct. 1841; Gent. Mag. 1841, ii 654; service-book in the Public Record Office.]