class, near Cherbourgh. His post commission bears date Mar. 21, 1812.
Captain Symes married, May 13, 1815, Miss Sarah Phelps, of Crewkerne, co. Somerset.
HON. WILLIAM HENRY PERCY.
[Post-Captain of 1812.]
This officer, the sixth son of the Earl of Beverley, was born Mar. 24, 1788; and he appears to have entered the navy, as a midshipman on board the Lion 64, Captain Henry Mitford, in May, 1801. After making a voyage to and from Canton, he was removed to the Medusa 32, in which active frigate he served under Captain (now Sir John) Gore, from Nov. 1802 until her return from Bengal, early in 1806[1], He then joined the Fame 74, Captain R. H. A. Bennett; and subsequently the Tribune 36, Captain Thomas Baker. His first commission bears date July 6, 1807.
From the latter date. Lieutenant Percy successively served in la Decade frigate, and the Hibernia a first rate, Captains John Stuart and Robert Jenner Neve, on the Channel, Irish, and Mediterranean stations, till his promotion to the rank of Commander, May 2, 1810.
We next find the subject of this memoir commanding the Mermaid 28, armed en flute, and employed in conveying troops to Portugal and Spain. He was made a Post-Captain Mar. 21, 1812; and appointed to the Hermes of 20 guns, April 4, 1814. The circumstances which led to the destruction of that ship, on the coast of West Florida, are thus detailed by him in two official letters addressed to Sir Alexander Cochrane, commander-in-chief on the North American station:–
“H.M.S. Hermes, Pensacola Bay, Sept. 9, 1814.
“Sir,– I have the honor to detail my proceedings since I last addressed you from the Havannah; which place I left in company with H.M. sloop Carron, on the 6th day of August.
“We arrived at the entrance of the Apalachicola river, on the 13th of the same month; where having landed the detachment of marines under