Royal Naval Biography/Dundas, James Whitley Deans
JAMES WHITLEY DEANS DUNDAS, Esq.
(Formerly James Deans, Esq.)
[Post-Captain of 1807.]
Nephew to Charles Dundas, of Barton Court, Berkshire, Esq. M.P. for that county.
This officer served for some time as a Lieutenant of the Cumbrian frigate, on the Halifax station, where he assisted at the capture of several armed vessels[1]. His commission as a commander bears date Oct. 8, 1806; and about the same period he was appointed to the Rosamond sloop of war, in which vessel we find him stationed off the Isle of Rugen, attending upon the Hon. Henry Pierrepont, H.M. Ambassador to the King of Sweden, during the siege of Stralsund, in 1807.
After the fall of that city, the Rosamond joined Admiral Gambier’s fleet at Copenhagen, where Captain Deans sustained some injury from the splinters of a shell which burst near him whilst he was employed extinguishing a fire in the dock-yard during the night of the 22d Sept. His active and zealous exertions on that occasion appear to have been very praiseworthy, and did not fail to obtain him the approbation of Admiral Gambler, Sir Samuel Hood, and other superior officers. His promotion to post rank took place on the 13th of the following month; and about the same period he was appointed to act as captain of the Cambrian.
In April, 1808, Captain Deans married Janet, only daughter and heiress of the above mentioned C. Dundas, Esq. and on that occasion he obtained the royal license and authority to take the name and bear the arms of Dundas, in addition to his own.
From March, 1809, until the end of the same year, Captain Dundas commanded the Stately 64, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Thomas Bertie, on the Baltic station[2]. His next appointments were, about Feb. 1812, to the Venerable 74 (pro tempore); and, Sept. following, to the Pyramus 38, in which frigate he brought Sir James Saumarez from Gottenburg to England, at the close of 1812.
During the remainder of the war, Captain Dundas was employed cruising in the Channel, where he captured la Ville de l’Orient French privateer, of 14 guns and 97 men; together with several American letters of marque. We subsequently find him commanding the Tagus frigate, on the Mediterranean station.
Agent.– Messrs. Barnett and King.
addendum.
JAMES WHITLEY DEANS DUNDAS, Esq.
[Captain.]
Was appointed to the Prince Regent 120, flag-ship in the River Medway, Aug. 6th, 18.30; and nominated one of his Majesty’s naval aides-de-camp in Sept. 1831. He paid off the Prince Regent on the 21st Feb. 1832; and in the same year succeeded to the landed property, in Kent and Berkshire, of his deceased father in-law and uncle. Lord Amesbury, whose case is supposed to be the first instance of a peerage having been created and become extinct in the short space of one month.
Captain Dundas represented the borough of Greenwich in the first reformed parliament; and was appointed a deputy lieutenant of the county of Berks in 1834.