Royal Naval Biography/Pilfold, John
JOHN PILFOLD, Esq.
A Companion of the Most Honorable Military Order of the Bath.
[Post-Captain of 1805.]
This officer is the second son of the late Charles Pilfold, Esq. by Bathia, daughter of William White, Esq. both of Horsham, co. Sussex, of which place he is a native.
Mr. Pilfold first went to sea as a Midshipman on board the Crown 64, bearing the broad pendant of the Hon. William Cornwallis, in which ship he continued from Oct. 1788, until her return from the East Indies, in May, 1792.
Soon after his arrival at Spithead he joined the Brunswick 74, then commanded by Sir Roger Curtis, Bart., and forming part of the fleet of observation under Lord Hood: but subsequently commanded by Captain John Harvey, and attached to the grand fleet under Earl Howe, by whom he was received into the Queen Charlotte on promotion, through the recommendation of his dying commander, whose particular notice he had attracted during the lengthened contest between the British and French forces, which terminated with such glory to the former on the memorable first of June, 1794[1].
On the 14th Feb 1795, Mr. Pilfold received an order from Earl Howe to act as a Lieutenant on board the Russel 74, which appointment was immediately confirmed by the Admiralty; he consequently bore a part in Lord Bridport’s action off l’Orient, June 23d following, on which occasion three French line-of-battle ships were compelled to surrender; the Russel sustaining a loss of 3 men killed and 10 wounded.
Mr. Pilfold’s next appointment was, Sept. 1795, to the Kingsfisher sloop of war, in which vessel he continued for a considerable time, under various commanders, and assisted at the capture of several privateers, principally on the Lisbon station, where he received the thanks of Earl St. Vincent for his spirited conduct in suppressing a daring mutiny among her crew, several of whom were slain before subordination could be restored, as will be seen by reference to our memoir of Rear-Admiral Maitland, with whom he was then serving as first Lieutenant.
During his continuance in the Kingsfisher, Lieutenant Pilfold was successively appointed to his old ship, the Russel, and to the Commerce de Marseilles, a first rate, at the request of Sir Hugh C. Christian and Sir Charles M. Pole; but the kind intentions of those distinguished officers towards him were frustrated in consequence of no other gentleman being sent to supply his place, which rendered it impossible for him to obtain bis discharge from that vessel. In 1798, however, we find him on board the Impetueux 7B, of which ship he also became first Lieutenant previous to her being paid off at Plymouth, April 14, 1802. A gallant action performed by him in the Morbihan river, June 6, 1800, called forth the marked approbation of Earl St. Vincent, then commanding the Channel fleet, and is thus noticed by his own Captain, the present Viscount Exmouth, in his public letter to that noble Admiral, reporting the transactions of a squadron employed in co-operation with the French royalists[2]:–
“On the 4th the Thames, Cynthia, and small force, attacked the S.W. end of Quiberon, silenced the forts, which were afterwards destroyed hy a party of troops landed under Major Ramsay; several vessels were brought off, and some scuttled; the only loss 2 killed and 1 wounded on board the Cynthia. * * * * On the 6th, before day, we succeeded in an attempt upon the Morbihan, from whence were taken 2 brigs, 2 sloops, 2 gun-vessels, and about 100 prisoners; a corvette, l’Insolente of 18 guns was burnt, with several other small craft, the guns all destroyed, and the magazine blown up.
“Three hundred of the Queen’s regiment were employed upon this service; and the gun-launches and naval force were under the direction of Lieutenant John Pilfold of this ship, who boarded the corvette with much bravery, and performed the service with much judgment and officer-like conduct; the loss was only one seaman killed in his boat, and some slight hurts.”
At the renewal of the war, in 1803, Lieutenant Pilfold was appointed to the Hindostan 54; and subsequently to the Dragon and Ajax third rates; of which latter ship he was first Lieutenant in the action off Ferrol, July 22, 1805; and commanding officer in the glorious battle off Cape Trafalgar, on the 21st Oct. in the same year, his Captain (William Brown) being then absent attending the trial of Sir Robert Galder for his conduct on the former day.
According to Mr. James’s account of the Trafalgar fight, the Ajax was only approaching l’Intrepide French 74, when that ship surrendered. Captain Brenton, in his view of the hostile fleets, places the Orion close to l’Intrepide, but takes no notice of the Ajax. This, we think, is giving too much credit to one officer at the expence of another. The fact is, Lieutenant Pilfold had been long engaged with l’Intrepide (as well as Captain Codrington, who was lying on his starboard quarter); but the enemy having hauled up athwart hawse of the Ajax, enabled the Orion to drop alongside, which obliged Lieutenant Pilfold to make way for fear of entangling the whole. He ultimately towed the prize to windward of the fleet, but was obliged to cut her adrift in the fatal gale which succeeded that unparalleled victory, and she was finally destroyed by the Britannia[3], as was the Argonauta, a Spanish 80, by the Ajax.
Passing over the intermediate step of rank, the subject of this sketch was made a Post-Captain, Dec. 25, 1805; and soon after presented with a gold medal for his services on the above occasion. In April, 1808, our late Monarch was graciously pleased to grant him an honorable augmentation to his family arms; and he obtained the insignia of a C.B. at the first establishment of that order in June 1815.
Captain Pilfold married, June 20, 1803, Mary Anne Horner, daughter of the late Thomas South, of Donhead, co. Wilts, Esq., and niece of the late Thomas Homer, of Mells Park, in Somersetshire, Esq., by whom he has issue two daughters. One of his sisters is the lady of Sir Timothy Shelley, Bart., another is married to Thomas Grove, of Fern, Esq., and a third is the widow of the Rev. Gilbert Jackson, D.D.
Agent.– Harry Cook, Esq.
- ↑ See Vol. I. note at p. 613 et seq. and memoir of Captain Rowland Bevan. N.B. The Brunswick had no less than 158 officers aad men killed and wounded. Mr. Pilfold was then serving as Masters Mate.
- ↑ See Vol. I. p. 219.
- ↑ See vol. I. p. 207.