Encounter, and Whiting gun-brigs, Lieut.-Commanders John Geo. Nops, Talbot, and Orkney. On 23 of the month last mentioned he was promoted to the full rank of Lieutenant, and placed in command of the Neptune hired brig on the coast of Ireland, where, from April, 1808, to Jan. 1809, he had charge of a division of gun-vessels. During the remainder of the war he served in the West Indies and on the coasts of Portugal, France, and Spain, in the Druid frigate, Capts. Sir Wm. Bolton, John Louis, John Williams, and Thos. Searle, Redpole 10, Capt. John Macdonald, and Abergavenny, Capt. Fahie. He was afterwards appointed – 2 Aug. 1820, to the Forte 44, Capt. Sir Thos. John Cochrane, lying at Chatham – 24 Jan. 1824, to the Water- Guard service – next, to the command of the Harpy Revenue-cruizer – 8 Sept. 1829, to that of the Skipjack schooner at Jamaica, where he was superseded in March, 1831 – and, 18 Sept. 1839, as Additional-Lieutenant, to the Niagara 20, Capt. Williams Sandon, on the lakes of Canada. In the spring of 1840 he returned to England. He accepted his present rank 16 Sept. 1841, and was admitted, in April, 1845, to the out-pension of Greenwich Hospital. Agents – Messrs. Stilwell.
ROCHE. (Commander, 1838. f-p., 22; h-p., 19.)
Joseph Roche entered the Navy, 12 May, 1806, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Majestic 74, Capts. Joseph Hanwell, Geo. Hart, Valentine Collard, Matthew Forster, Fred. Watkins, and Thos. Harvey, in which ship, bearing the flag at first of Vice-Admiral Thos. Macnamara Russell, he was for three years and nine months actively employed on the North Sea and Baltic stations – the chief part of the time in the capacities of Midshipman and Master’s Mate. He saw much boat-service in the Great Belt, and was often engaged either in protecting British or in attacking Danish convoys. On 23 July, 1810, having removed to the Nemesis 28, Capt. Wm. Ferris, he contributed, in the boats of that ship and of the Belvidera 36, to the spirited capture, on the coast of Norway, of two Danish gun-vessels, the Bolder and Thor (carrying 2 long 24’s, 6 6-pounder howitzers, and 45 men), and the destruction of a third. In command of one of three boats from the Nemesis alone we find him, in the early part of 1811, present at the cutting-out of a 10-gun schooner from under a fire from the Dutch fort of St. Jago d’Elmina, on the coast of Guinea. In the course of the same year he joined the Namur 74, bearing the flag of Vice-Admiral Thos. Wells at Sheerness, and Crocodile 28, Capts. John Rich. Lumley and Wm. Elliott; and, in July, 1812, he participated in an attempt made by four boats belonging to the latter ship, carrying 62 volunteers, under Lieut. Wm. John Cole, to bring out in open day four armed vessels, together with a convoy, lying beneath the batteries in the Bay of Paros, on the coast of France. The boat of which Mr. Roche had charge on this occasion was sunk by a shot from a national brig. After he had been for a few months borne on the books of the Sabrina and Rodney, flag-ships of Vicce-Admiral Geo. Martin at Lisbon, and had had command of their tenders, he was nominated, 29 March, 1814, Acting-Lieutenant of the Richmond 14, Capt. Edw. O’Shaughnessy. He was confirmed to that vessel 4 May following; and was subsequently appointed – 21 Nov. 1814 and 12 Aug. 1816, to the Akbar 50 and Niger 38, Capts. Chas. Bullen and Sam. Jackson, with whom he served on the Home and North American stations until Sept. 1817 – 3 Feb. 1820, as First, to the Harlequin 18, Capts. Chas. Christopher Parker and John Weeks, on the coast of Ireland, where, in the spring of 1823, a few months before he was paid off, he made prize in the boats, during a calm and after an arduous chase, of a smuggling lugger, an exploit for which he received the public thanks of the Commander-in-Chief – 15 April, 1824, and 5 March, 1825, as a Supernumerary, to the Ramillies 74 and Hyperion 42, Coast-Blockade ships, Capts. Wm. M‘Culloch and Wm. Jas. Mingaye – in Sept. 1826, after 10 months of half-pay, to the Victory 104, flag-ship of Sir Geo. Martin at Portsmouth – 2 Jan. 1829, as Senior, for nearly 10 months, to the Ranger 28, Capt. Wm. Walpole, in the West Indies – and, 6 Sept. 1835, to the command, which he retained until Aug. 1838, of the Seaflower cutter, employed in protecting the Jersey fisheries. Since he left the latter vessel he has been on half-pay. His last promotion took place 28 June, 1838.
Commander Roche married, at Brighton, 17 Nov. 1825, Caroline Susanna, daughter of the late Arthur Robinson, Esq., M.D., of Broadwater.
ROCHFORT. (Commander, 1828. f-p., 18; h-p., 30.)
Robert Rochfort, born in 1789, is second son of the late Henry Rochfort, Esq., an officer in the 28th Regt., Assistant-Commissary-General on the Irish establishment, by Henrietta, daughter of John Hill, Esq., of Barnhill, co. Carlow. Three of his uncles (the eldest, George, a General of Artillery) were also in the army; his grandfather, Arthur Rochfort, LL.D., was M.P. for Westmeath; his grand-uncle, Robert Rochfort, likewise M.P. for that co., was created, 29 Nov. 1756, Earl of Belvedere; and his great-grandfether, the Right Hon. Geo. Rochfort, M.P., who married a daughter of the third Earl of Drogheda, filled the office of Chief Chamberlain of the Court of Exchequer. The father of the latter gentleman, Robert Rochfort, was appointed Attorney-General in 1695, chosen Speaker of the House of Commons in Ireland in the following Aug., and constituted, in June, 1707, Chief Baron of the Exchequer. Commander Rochfort, the present male representative of the house of Rochfort, which has been seated in Ireland since the days of Strongbow, is second-cousin of the late Capt. Wm. Rochfort, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy, 27 Sept. 1799, as A.B., on board the Haerlem 64, Capt. Geo. Burlton, with whom he continued employed in the Mediterranean in the Africaine 38, and as Midshipman in the Success 32, until paid off in April, 1802. He next, in March, 1803, joined the Calcutta 54, Capt. Daniel Woodriff, in which ship, on his return from escorting convicts to Van Diemen’s Land, he proceeded as Master’s Mate to St. Helena for convoy. During her passage home the Calcutta, after having beaten the French 40-gun frigate Armide, was attacked, 26 Sept. 1805, and, at the end of a gallant action of three-quarters of an hour, productive to her of a loss, out of 343 men, of 6 killed and 6 wounded, unavoidably captured, by the 74-gun ship Majestueux, part of a squadron under the orders of Rear-Admiral Allemand. Mr. Rochfort remained, we believe, a prisoner in France until Oct. 1809. On 26 April, 1811 (two months after he had been ordered to act as such), he was confirmed a Lieutenant in the Mutine brig, Capt. Nevinson de Courcy, on the Brazilian station, whence, in June, 1812, he invalided. In June, 1813, and Feb. 1814, he joined the Chesapeake frigate and Fantome 20, Capts. Alex. Gordon and John Lawrence, both on the coast of North America; and from 29 Sept. in the latter year until 4 July, 1815, he commanded, in the Bay of Fundy, the Landrail cutter, in which vessel he beat off five American privateers of superior force. He afterwards commanded (on the Plymouth station) the Lapwing Revenue-cruizer from 4 March, 1819, until 1822; and the Bittern 10 from 31 Dec. 1825 until advanced to his present rank 10 March, 1828. He has since been on half-pay.
Commander Rochfort married, 12 Sept. 1814, Maria, daughter of Geo. Leonard, Esq., of Dover Castle, in Sussex Vale, New Brunswick, North America, Superintendent of Trades and Fisheries, and has issue one daughter. Agents – Messrs. Ommanney.
ROCHFORT. (Captain, 1826. f-p., 14; h-p., 30.)
William Rochfort died 21 Dec. 1847. He was second son of Gustavus Rochfort, Esq., formerly of
