Royal Naval Biography/Sotheby, Charles
CHARLES SOTHEBY, Esq.
[Post-Captain of 1812.]
This officer received his first commission in 1802; obtained the rank of Commander, Jan. 8, 1810; and was made post, Feb. 28, 1812. His last appointment was. May 18, 1824, to the Seringapatam frigate, fitting for the Mediterranean.
In May, 1825, Captain Sotheby, accompanied by the Alacrity brig, demanded satisfaction from the Bey of Rhodes, for an outrage committed against the British consul, by some Egyptian troops, who broke into his house, and robbed him of 11,000 piastres. The Bey admitted the fact, but refused to make restitution, or even to avow it in writing. Captain Sotheby, therefore, thought proper to embark the Consul and his family, telling the Bey, that if he did not comply within a given time, he would fire on the town. The time having elapsed, and the required document being still withheld, a shot was fired into the Bey’s own house, and a flag of truce sent to try its effect. the Turk had not anticipated so prompt an execution of the threat, and the acknowledgment was no longer refused. The Consul’s flag was consequently again displayed, and Captain Sotheby left the Alacrity there to take care that his Majesty’s representative received no ill treatment on account of this spirited proceeding.
In Sept. 1826, the boats of the Seringapatam, under Lieutenant William Burnett, and a party of marines commanded by Lieutenant Parker, of that corps, captured and destroyed three piratical vessels, at Andros, without sustaining any loss.
Captain Sotheby married, in 1810, the Hon. Jane Hamilton, third daughter of the late Lord Belhaven and Stenton, which lady died Sept. 18, 1820.