Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jumper, William
JUMPER, Sir WILLIAM (d. 1715), captain in the navy, was appointed second lieutenant of the Resolution by Lord Dartmouth on 29 Nov. 1688. On 23 Dec. 1690 he received a commission as first lieutenant of the Duke, and on 17 Feb. 1691–2 he was promoted to command the Hopewell fireship, from which he was shortly after moved into the Soldado, or rather, as the name was even officially written, the Saudadoes. In July 1693 he was appointed to the Adventure of 44 guns, and early in 1694 was moved into the Weymouth of 48 guns. In her he remained during the war, distinguishing himself by the good fortune with which he cruised against the enemy's privateers in the Soundings and on the south coast of Ireland. In April 1698 he was appointed to the Swiftsure, and commanded her at Portsmouth, at Plymouth, and as senior officer in the Downs till December 1701, when, with his ship's company, he was turned over to the Lennox of 70 guns, one of the ships sent out in the following year under the command of Sir George Rooke [q. v.] for the reduction of Cadiz. The troops were landed under cover of the Lennox's broadside; but little more was effected, and on the relinquishment of the attempt, the Lennox, with several of the other ships, returned to England. In 1703 the Lennox was sent out to the Mediterranean in the fleet under Sir Clowdisley Shovell [q. v.], and detached to the Levant in charge of convoy. In 1704, again in the Mediterranean under Rooke, Jumper took a prominent part in the reduction of Gibraltar, being, in conjunction with Captain Hickes, actually in command of the landing party which made itself masters of the Old Mole. A few days later the Lennox was one of the fleet which engaged the Count of Toulouse off Malaga, when Jumper was wounded. On his return to England he received the honour of knighthood. In each of the three following years he was again in the Mediterranean, and returning home in October 1707, was sent on in advance, and arrived at Falmouth on the morning of the 22nd, a few hours before Sir Clowdisley Shovell was lost among the Scilly Islands. A few weeks later, 23 Jan. 1707–8, Jumper was appointed captain resident at Chatham, with an order to act as commander-in-chief in the Medway in the absence of a senior officer. In 1714 he was removed to Plymouth, with the appointment of resident commissioner, in which he died after a few months, on 12 March 1714–15.
[Charnock's Biog. Nav. ii. 418; Memoirs relating to the Lord Torrington (Camd. Soc.), see index; official letters in the Public Record Office.]