side, he is descended from Colonel John Tomlinson, of Burntcliffe Thorn, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, who bore a conspicuous part in the civil wars, during the reign of Charles I.
Mr. Tomlinson’s earliest patrons were the late Earl of Carhampton and Captain (afterwards Lord) Hotham, with the latter of whom he first went to sea, about 1772, in the Resolution 74, of which ship his father was, at that time, senior Lieutenant. He subsequently served as a Midshipman on board the Thetis frigate and Charon of 44 guns, on the American and West India stations.
In 1779, Mr. Tomlinson acted as aid-de-camp to the Hon. Captain Luttrell, at the siege of St. Fernando de Omoa, and was one of those who scaled the walls of that fortress[1]; he also assisted at the capture of le Compte d’Artois French privateer, of 64 guns and 644 men, Aug. 13, 1780[2]. Early in 1781 we find him commanding a gun-boat, and accompanying Brigadier-General Arnold on an expedition up the rivers of Virginia. Whilst thus employed, he was almost daily engaged with the enemy, and frequently two or three times in the same day, for upwards of two months.
The Charon was burnt by hot shot from the enemy’s bat-
- ↑ See Vol. I. p. 97. N.B. A singular circumstance is officially related of a sailor, named Peter Finley, who singly scrambled over the wall of Fort Omoa, with a cutlass in each hand. Thus equipped, he fell in with a Spanish officer just roused from sleep; and who, in the hurry and confusion, had forgotten his sword. The tar disdaining to take advantage of an unarmed foe, and willing to display his courage in single combat, presented the officer with one of the cutlasses, telling him he scorned any advantage, and adding that they were now on an equal footing. The astonishment of the officer at such an act of generosity, and the facility with which a friendly parley took place, when he expected nothing else but to be cut in pieces, could only be rivalled by the admiration of his countrymen when he related the affair. Upon this circumstance being mentioned to the commander-in-chief (Sir Peter Parker), he appointed this intrepid fellow to be Boatswain of a sloop-of-war. We are sorry to add, that Finley’s subsequent conduct brought him to an ignominious end. On the 22d Feb. 1791, he was mulcted of all his pay, and adjudged to serve before the mast, for attempting to embezzle the stores in his charge; and on the 23d of the following month, was sentenced to be hanged at the yard-arm, for stabbing Mr. Bruton, Master’s-Mate of the Ferret, the ship from which he had so recently been dismissed.
- ↑ See Vol. I. p. 501.
