A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Nepean, Evan
NEPEAN. (Captain, 1841. f-p., 22; h-p., 27.)
Evan Nepean, born 15 Aug. 1785, at Devonport, is second son of Lieut.-General Nicholas Nepean, who died in 1823, by Francina only daughter of Major Wedikind, of the 11th Hanoverian Regt.; and nephew of the Right Hon. Sir Evan Nepean, Bart., M.P., who died 2 Oct. 1822, having held the offices of Secretary to the Admiralty, Secretary of State for Ireland, a Lord of the Admiralty, and Governor of Bombay. Capt. Nepean is brother (with the present Lieut. John Nepean, R.N.) of Capt. Chas. Wedikind Nepean, of the 7th Madras Native Infantry, and also of Thos. Rudolph Nepean, Midshipman R.N., who was drowned in 1801 while serving with the late Admiral Jas. Macnamara in the Cerberus 32.
This officer entered the Navy, 17 Jan. 1798, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Anson, of 46 guns and 327 men, Capt. Philip Chas. Durham; during a servitude of seven months in which ship he was employed cruizing in the Bay of Biscay, and participated, in company with the Phaeton 38, in a night-action with the French frigate La Charente, While attached next, between July, 1799, and Feb. 1802, to the Phaeton, commanded by Capt. Jas. Nieoll Morris, he went through a great variety of service, escorted Lord Elgin as Ambassador to Constantinople, assisted in landing troops at the siege of Malta, joined in the successful operations against Genoa, and aided in making prize of a large number of privateers and other vessels. He also, 28 Oct. 1800, contributed in the boats under Lieut. Fras. Beaufort to the cutting out after an obstinate engagement, of the Spanish polacre-rigged ship San Josef, carrying 14 brass guns, 34 seamen, and 22 soldiers, moored under the protection of 5 guns in the fortress of Fuengirola, near Malaga; a most spirited performance, in which the enemy sustained a loss of 19 men wounded, and the British of 1 man killed and 4 wounded. In March, 1802, Mr. Nepean, who had been sent home in the prize under the command of Lieut. Huish, but had again joined the Phaeton, was received as Midshipman on board the Cambridge 74, Capt. Chas. Henry Lane, lying at Plymouth; and in the course of the same year he was in succession transferred to the Salvador del Mundo 112 and Hussar 38, the latter commanded by Capt. Philip Wilkinson, under whom, while returning to England from Ferrol with despatches, he had the misfortune to be wrecked on the southernmost part of the Saintes, on the night of 8 Feb. 1804. Being reduced in consequence to the necessity of surrendering with the rest of his shipmates to the French fleet in Brest Harbour, he was detained a prisoner en parole in France, first at Verdun and then at Arras and at Amiens, until June, 1814. On 9 of that month he was placed on board the Prince 98, Capt. Geo. Fowke, at Portsmouth; and in Aug. of the same year he passed his examination. In Aug. 1815, being at the time in the Albion 74, Capt. Philip Somerville, he took up a commission dated 13 of the preceding Feb., and he was next, in July, 1821, appointed to the Euryalus 42; in which vessel he remained as commanding officer, fitting her out intermediately for the pennant of the present Sir Augustus Wm. Jas. Clifford, until removed, in the ensuing Oct., to the Liffey 50, Commodore Chas. Grant. Proceeding to India, he was there, 22 Oct. 1823, advanced to the rank of Commander, and immediately sent home as Acting-Captain of the Madagascar 46. During the passage he was for three weeks exposed to a furious north-wester, which entailed so much fatigue that the greater part of the crew was placed on the sick-list, and scarcely enough left to work the ship. From 10 April, 1835, until the spring of 1836, when the rotten and defective state of his vessel compelled him prematurely to return, we find Capt. Nepean commanding the Serpent 16 in the West Indies; on which station he captured a slaver, and a vessel carrying 180 desperadoes who had been guilty of piracy. His last appointment was, 9 May, 1839, to the Comus 18, again on the West India station, where he was principally employed in affording protection to British trade during the revolutionary movements at New Grenada. For several months after the death of Vice-Admiral Sir Thos. Harvey he performed the duties of senior officer at Jamaica. He returned home on the occasion of his elevation to Post-rank, 23 Nov. 1841.
Capt. Nepean married, 7 June, 1825, Mary, daughter of Capt. Stuart, R.N., of Montagu Square, London, by whom he has issue. Agents – Burnett and Holmes.