Royal Naval Biography/Maude, James Ashley
HON. JAMES ASHLEY MAUDE.
A Companion of the Most Honorable Military Order of the Bath, and Knight of the French and Russian Orders of St. Louis and St. Anne.
[Post-Captain of 1814.]
This officer is the third son of Cornwallis, second Viscount Hawarden, an Irish peer, by his third wife, Anne Elizabeth Stanley, sister to the first Viscount Monck. His ancestor, Christopher Maude, a member of the Irish House of Commons, emigrated from Yorkshire, and settled at Hawarden, co. Tipperary, about the year 1639.
He was born Nov. 6, 1786; made a lieutenant. Mar. 29, 1805; and appointed to the Ville de Paris, of 110 guns, bearing the flag of Lord Collingwood, on the Mediterranean station, in the spring of 1809. His spirited conduct while serving as a volunteer at the capture and destruction of a French convoy in the bay of Rosas, on which occasion he was slightly wounded, is highly spoken of by the commander-in-chief, whose official letter we have given at p. 157 et seq. His commission as a commander bears date Oct 22, 1810.
On the 15th Feb. 1812, Captain Maude was appointed to the Nemesis 28, armée en flûte, in which ship we find him very actively employed on the coast, of America, until his promotion to post rank. Mar, 11, 1814. He next obtained the command of the Favourite 20, and in her brought home the ratification, by the President and Senate of the United States, of the treaty of peace, concluded at Ghent, between Great Britain and America, with which he arrived at the Foreign office, Mar. 13, 1816. He was subsequently employed on the East India station. His last appointment was Feb. 9, 1825, to the Glasgow 50, in which frigate he conveyed Lord Strangford to Cronstadt, and afterwards proceeded to the Mediterranean.
The Glasgow was one of the British squadron at the battle of Navarin, Oct. 20, 1827[1]; and in consequence thereof, Captain Maude was nominated a C.B. &c. &c. as above. He returned home, Aug. 18, 1828.
the subject of this sketch married, Oct. 18, 1817, Albina Broderich, second daughter of his Grace the Archbishop of of Cashel.
Agents.– Messrs. Stilwell.
HON. JAMES ASHLEY MAUDE.
A Companion of the Most Honorable Military Order of the Bath, and Knight of the French and Russian Orders of St. Louis and St. Anne.
[Post-Captain of 1810.]
(See Suppl. Part III. p. 249, et seq.)
Addendum.
This officer is the third son of Cornwallis, first Viscount Hawarden, by his third wife, Isabella Elizabeth Stanley, sister to the first Viscount Monck. His ancestor, Christopher Maude, a member of the Irish House of Commons, emigrated from Yorkshire, and settled at Dundrum, co. Tipperary, about the year 1639.
Mr. James Ashley Maude entered the royal navy in 1799, as midshipman on board the Barfleur 98, Captain James Richard Dacres; and shortly afterwards joined the Prince, another second-rate, then bearing the flag of Sir Roger Curtis, and employed in the blockade of Cadiz; but subsequently the flag of Sir Charles Cotton, and attached to the Channel fleet. We next find him proceeding to join the Queen Charlotte 110, bearing the flag of Lord Keith, which noble ship, however, was accidentally destroyed by fire, near the island of Capreja, Mar. 17th, 1800, only two or three days previous to his arrival at Leghorn[2].
After this providential escape, Mr. Maude followed his lordship into the Minotaur 74; and was present, in that ship, at the blockade and consequent surrender of Genoa, in the summer of 1800[3]. On the 3d Aug. 1801, being then in the Phoenix 36, Captain (now Sir Lawrence W.) Halsted, he also witnessed the capture of a French 40-gun frigate, la Carrere, near Elba; and on the 2d Sept. following, the destruction of la Bravoure 46, and re-capture of a British 32, the Success, near Leghorn[4].
The Phoenix returned home from the Mediterranean in June 1802; and Mr. Maude appears to have subsequently served under Captain Lord William Stuart, in the Crescent frigate, on the North Sea and Channel stations. His first appointment as lieutenant was. Mar. 29th, 1805, to the Namur 74, commanded by Captain L. W. Halsted, in which ship he assisted at the capture of a French squadron, consisting of one 80 and three 74’s, the former bearing the flag of Mons. Le Manoir le Pelley, Nov. 4th, 1805[5].
Shortly after this event. Lieutenant Maude was appointed to the Lavinia 40, in which frigate he continued, under Captains Lord William Stuart and John Hancock, on the Channel, Oporto, and Mediterranean stations, until Jan. 1809. By the latter officer he was frequently employed in boats on the southern coast of France, where we find him making several successful attacks upon the enemy’s trade. His spirited conduct at the capture and destruction of a French convoy in the Bay of Rosas, Oct, 31st, 1809, on which occasion he was slightly wounded, is thus spoken of by Lord Collingwood, to whose flag-ship he had been removed from the Lavinia:
“Many officers in the fleet were desirous of being volunteers in this service. I could not resist the earnest request of Lieutenants Lord Viscount Balgonic, the Hon. James Ashley Maude, and the Hon. William Waldegrave, of the Ville de Paris, to have the command of boats, in which they displayed that spirit which is inherent in them[6].”
In Nov. 1809, Lieutenant Maude received an order to act as commander of the Wizard sloop, in which vessel he was first employed, under Captain the Hon. C. Elphinstone Fleeming, of the Bulwark 74, in destroying all the batteries between Tarifa and Gibraltar, with the concurrence of the Spanish authorities; and subsequently, in convoying some transports laden with corn, from Sardinia to Cadiz. Whilst performing the latter service, he suffered severely from the effects of fever, and was consequently obliged to invalid. His commission as commander bears date Oct. 22d, 1810.
We now lose sight of Captain Maude until Feb. 15th, 1812, when he was appointed to the Nemesis 28, armed en flûte. In this ship, after escorting troops to Lisbon and Catalonia, he convoyed a fleet of transports to North America, where he was very actively employed, under the immediate orders of Rear-Admiral (now Sir George) Cockburn ; particularly at the capture of Portsmouth and Ocracoke Island, in North Carolina, July 12th, 1813. In the rear-admiral’s official letter, on this occasion, it is stated, that Captain Maude, “with much laudable zeal,” attended to render him his personal assistance wherever circumstances might require it[7].
When on his return from the Halifax station. Captain Maude fell in with the Action sloop, and assisted in capturing a French schooner privateer, of 14 guns and 95 men. He paid off the Nemesis, at Plymouth, in Mar. 1814; obtained post rank on the 11th of the same month; and was next appointed, Oct. 18th following, to the Favorite 26. In the beginning of 1815, he took out the treaty of peace, concluded at Ghent, between Great Britain and America; and on the 13th March, only nineteen days after his departure from Washington, he arrived at the Foreign Office with the ratification of the same, by the President and Senate of the United States.
After the battle of Waterloo, Captain Maude was despatched to India, with the intelligence of Napoleon’s overthrow; and he appears to have reached Madras on the same day that the overland express arrived there. In July, 1816, he discovered several islands on the southern side of the Persian Gulph, previously unknown to European navigators. In June, 1817, the Favorite, then at Deptford, and about to be paid off, he commanded a division of boats, under the orders of Captain Andrew King, at the opening of Waterloo Bridge, by his late Majesty George IV.
Captain Maude’s next appointment was. May 15th, 1824, to the Dartmouth 42, fitting out for the Jamaica station; where his boats, under the command of Lieutenant Henry Warde, captured two piratical vessels ; one mounting a long 12-pounder on a pivot, and manned with about fifty well armed desperadoes, some of whom were killed, and twelve taken prisoners to Havannah.
Whilst thus employed in the protection of trade on the coast of Cuba, Captain Maude was recalled home, to take the command of the Glasgow 50, his appointment to which ship bears date Feb. 9th, 1825. In Oct. following, he took out Viscount Strangford, H.M. ambassador to the Court of St. Petersburgh; and on his return from Cronstadt, towards the end of November, was sent to join the squadron in the Tagus, under the orders of Lord Amelius Beauclerk. He subsequently proceeded to the Mediterranean, and there received the insignia of a C.B. and the Orders of St. Louis and St. Anne, for his conduct at the battle of Navarin, Oct. 20th, 1827. The following are extracts of his commander-in-Chief’s official letter to the Lord High Admiral, reporting the issue of that action:
“The French frigate Armide was directed to place herself alongside the outermost (Turco-Egyptian) frigate, on the left hand entering the harbour; and the Cambrian, Glasgow, and Talbot next to her, and abreast of the Asia, Genoa, and Albion; the Dartmouth and the Musquito, the Rose, the Brisk, and the Philomel, were to look after six fire-vessels, at the entrance of the harbour. * * * * Captain Fellowes executed the part allotted to him perfectly; and with the able assistance of his little, but brave detachment, saved the Syrene (French flag-ship) from being burnt by the fire-vessels. And the Cambrian, Glasgow, and Talbot, following the fine example of Capitaine Hugon, of the Armide, who was opposed to the leading frigate of that line, effectually destroyed their opponents, and also silenced the batteries.”
Captain Maude continued on the Mediterranean station until Aug. 1828; and paid off the Glasgow, at Chatham, on the 8th of the following month.
This officer married, Oct. 18th, 1817, Albinia, second daughter of his Grace the Hon. Charles Brodrick, D.D., the Archbishop of Cashel.