Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wise, William Furlong
WISE, WILLIAM FURLONG (1784–1844), rear-admiral, son of George Furlong Wise of Woolston, Devonshire, by Jane, sister of Vice-admiral James Richard Dacres (1749–1810) and of Vice-admiral Sir Richard Dacres (1761–1837), was born at Woolston on 21 Aug. 1784. He entered the navy in February 1797 on board the Astræa frigate with his uncle Richard Dacres, and served, for the most part, with him, or with James Richard Dacres, on the home station, the coast of France, and in the West Indies, till promoted to be lieutenant of the Franchise at Jamaica on 1 May 1804. He continued in the Theseus and afterwards in the Hercule, flagships of James Richard Dacres, commander-in-chief at Jamaica, till promoted (1 Nov. 1805, confirmed 22 Feb. 1806) to be commander of the Drake, from which he was moved in April to the Elk; on 18 May 1806 he was posted to the Mediator, and invalided from her in July 1807. In November 1813 he commissioned the Granicus of thirty-six guns, which after nearly three years on the home station and the coast of Portugal was one of the ships with Lord Exmouth at the bombardment of Algiers on 27 Aug. 1816 [see Pellew, Edward, Viscount Exmouth], in which she took a part beyond what was expected from a frigate, and sustained a loss of sixteen killed and forty-two wounded. On 21 Sept. 1816 Wise was nominated a C.B. In January 1818 he was appointed to the Spartan, which he commanded on the home station and in the West Indies till 1821. He had no further service, but became a rear-admiral on 23 Nov. 1841, and died at his residence in Plymouth, after a week's illness, on 29 April 1844. He married, on 16 June 1810, Fanny, only daughter of William Grenfell.
[Marshall's Roy. Nav. Biogr. v. (suppl. pt. i.) 151; Gent. Mag. 1810 i. 586, 1844 ii. 208, 338; Service book in the Public Record Office.]