Royal Naval Biography/Byam, William Henry
WILLIAM HENRY BYAM, Esq.
[Post-Captain of 1811.]
This officer is the only son of Lieutenant Edward Byam, R.N. who served under Rodney on the glorious 12th April, 1782, and shortly afterwards perished in la Ville de Paris, the largest ship that had then ever been taken from the enemy. His mother was the daughter of William Gunthorpe, of the island of Antigua, Esq. The Byams are descended from an ancient Somersetshire family, whose estates were confiscated by Cromwell, in consequence of their attachment to Charles I. Their paternal ancestor was one of four brothers who took up arms in support of the royal cause; three of whom fell at the decisive and well-disputed battle of Naseby (1645). After the restoration of Charles II. the surviving brother was appointed Governor of Surinam; and subsequently Captain-General of all the Caribbee Islands. Captain Byam’s great-grandfather, the Hon. Edward Byam, Governor of Antigua, married Lydia, widow of Samuel Martin, of Green Castle, in the same island, Esq. and only daughter of Colonel John Thomas, of whom mention is made in our memoir of Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Byam Martin.
Mr. William Henry Byam, was born in London, Feb. 17, 1776; and he entered the naval academy at Portsmouth, about Sept. 1789, under the patronage of the late Sir Henry Martin, Bart, a descendant of the above mentioned Colonel John Thomas, and at that time Commissioner of Portsmouth dock-yard[1].
On the 6th Nov. 1792, Mr. Byam was discharged into the Europa 50, bearing the broad pendant of Commodore Ford, under whom he served at the capture of Jeremie, Cape Nichola Mole, and Port-au-Prince, in the island of St. Domingo, Sept. 1793, and June 1794[2]. His promotion to the rank of Lieutenant took place Nov. 6, 1795; on which occasion he was appointed to the Irresistible 74, Captain (now Sir George) Martin, then about to sail for the Leeward Islands, in company with a large naval and military force, under the orders of Rear-Admiral Christian and Sir Ralph Abercromby, the failure of whose attempt to get clear of the British channel has been noticed at p. 296 of Suppl. Part I.
In Jan. 1796, Lieutenant Byam removed to the Vengeance 74, Captain Thomas Macnamara Russell; by whom he was entrusted with the command of a detachment of seamen landed to co-operate with the army at the siege of St. Lucia[3]: he likewise assisted at the capture of Trinidad; and again commanded a party of seamen on shore at the unsuccessful attack of Porto Rico, in 1797[4].
Lieutenant Byam’s next appointment was, Oct. 1799, to be first of the Hornet sloop, Captain John Nash; in which vessel he was very actively employed on the Leeward Islands’ station during the remainder of the war. From Aug. 1803, until Jan. 1804, he appears to have served as senior Lieutenant of l’Africaine frigate, commanded by Captain (now Rear-Admiral) Manby[5].
At the commencement of the latter month. Lieutenant Byam joined the Courageux 74, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Dacres, and then on the point of sailing with a large fleet of merchantmen bound to the West Indies. Four days after her departure from St. Helen’s, the wind, which had hitherto been fair, shifted to the S.W. and between the 15th and 28th Jan. it blew one of the most tremendous gales ever experienced, dispersing the convoy, and reducing the flag-ship to a mere wreck thereby compelling her to bear up for Plymouth, where she arrived with the remnant of her scattered charge, on the 1st of February.
The Courageux requiring to be docked, Rear-Admiral Dacres then hoisted his flag in the Française frigate, and prosecuted his voyage in that ship, accompanied by the subject of this memoir, whom we shortly afterwards find commanding the Osprey sloop, on the Leeward Islands’ station: his commission as a Commander bears date Sept. 4, 1804.
Captain Byam’s next appointments were, Dec. 1, 1804, to the Busy, of 18 guns; and Oct. 1805, to the Bermuda, a brig of similar force: the latter vessel was wrecked on the Memory Rock, Little Bermuda, April 22, 1808. He subsequently commanded the Opossum, of 10 guns, at Surinam, Halifax, Jamaica, and the Caribbee islands: his post commission bears date Jan. 24, 1811. In the course of that year the Thetis frigate, then under his command, had 7 midshipmen, the clerk, and 73 of her crew carried off by the yellow fever.
Although Captain Byam never had the good fortune to meet with an hostile vessel of equal force to his own, we are informed that he always cruised with considerable success against the enemy’s privateers and merchantmen. The last service he performed, was that of escorting home a very valuable Jamaica fleet, at the commencement of the late war between Great Britain and America, for which he received the personal thanks of Lord Melville, who happened to be at Chatham when the Thetis arrived there. We should here remark, that very great anxiety had been felt for the safety of this convoy, as it was known that our newly declared enemy had sent out a strong squadron, under Commodore Rodgers, purposely to intercept it[6].
Captain Byam married, Oct. 11, 1813, his first cousin, Alicia, daughter of the late Hon. Anthony Wyke, one of the Members of H.M. Council for Montserrat, and Judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court of that island.
Agent.– John Chippendale, Esq.