A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Absolon, William
ABSOLON. (Lieut., 1810. f-p., 36; h-p., 8.)
William Absolon was born 17 July, 1789, at Yarmouth, co. Norfolk.
This officer entered the Navy, 26 Oct. 1803, as Ordinary, on board the Romulus 36, Capts. Woodley Losack and Thos. Burton, of which ship, stationed off Harwich, he soon became Master’s Mate. Removing, in Jan. 1805, to the Circe 32, commanded successively by Capts. Jonas Rose, Joseph Spear, and Hugh Pigot, he assisted at the reduction of the Danish West India islands in Dec. 1807, and was the first to hoist the British colours on the fort at the capture of Marie-galante, 2 March, 1808. On 26 Nov. in the latter year, Mr. Absolon was transferred with Capt. Pigot to the Latona 38; and in Feb. 1809, having chased the French frigate La Junon into the Saintes, was placed in command of the pinnace, with 10 men, for the purpose of reconnoitering the enemy. Finding it impossible, in fulfilment of his instructions, to avoid landing, he fell in, when on the point of re-embarking, with a strong body of militia, and after a sharp engagement, in which one man was killed, and a midshipman and three men wounded, was forced to surrender, and was sent a prisoner to Guadeloupe. In the ensuing May however, having been exchanged, he rejoined the Latona and on the occasion of the capture, on 18 June, of La Félicité French frigate, pierced for 42 guns, but laden with colonial produce, was made second in command of the prize. After a subsequent attachment of three months to the Thisbe 28, and Barfleur 98, flag-ships in the rivers Thames and Tagus of Hon. Sir Henry Edwin Stanhope and Hon. Geo. Cranfield Berkeley, he obtained an Acting-Lieutenancy, 5 Feb. 1810, in the Myrtle 24, Capt. Thos. Innes, to which vessel, commanded afterwards by Capts. Clement Sneyd and Henry Bourchier, he was confirmed by commission, dated 9 June in the same year. He continued to serve off the coast of Portugal, in the Myrtle, until Nov. 1813; and being then appointed under Capt. Bourchier to the First Lieutenancy of the Medina 20, sailed for Newfoundland, whence he returned in Jan. 1815. From 15 March, 1821, until the early part of 1845, he officiated as an officer of the Coast Guard. He has since been unemployed.
Lieut. Absolon married, first, in 1819, Anne Hansen, daughter of H. H. Dearsley, Esq., of Essex; and, secondly, 24 March, 1824, Isabella, daughter of P. Webster, Esq., of Craig, in the co. of Forfar, N.B., by whom he had issue seven children. He is again a widower.