Piémontaise of superior force. On being superseded from her, in consequence of a change in the administration, he returned home a passenger in the Albion 74, Capt. John Ferrier; which ship, when near the Cape of Good Hope, was caught in a violent gale and half dismasted, while several ships under her convoy actually foundered. Capt. Sneyd accepted his present rank 1 Oct. 1846.
He married, first, 27 Oct. 1813, Helen, third daughter of Roger Swetenham, Esq., of Somerford Booths, near Congleton, Cheshire, by whom (who died 16 March, 1821) he had issue one son and two daughters; and, secondly, Eliza Catherine, daughter of John Cotton, Esq., of Etwell, co. Derby.
SNOW. (Lieutenant, 1815.)
Robert Snow died in 1848.
This officer entered the Navy, 21 March, 1805, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Saracen sloop, Capts. Jas. Prevost and Buckland Stirling Bluett; in which vessel he was for nearly six years and a half employed on the Home, South American, West India, and Mediterranean stations. In July, 1807, he was present as Midshipman in the unsuccessful attack made by Lieut.-General Whitelocke on Buenos Ayres. In Sept. 1811 he joined, for three months, the Queen 74, Capt. Lord John Colville; and from Feb. 1812 until presented in Aug. 1815 with a commission bearing date 21 Feb. in that year, he served in the West Indies and North America, nearly the whole time in the capacity of Master’s Mate, in the Dragon 74, Capts. Fras. Augustus Collier and Robt. Barrie. Under the latter officer he participated in a variety of very gallant performances, and accompanied a highly successful expedition up the Penobscot. His last appointments afloat, we believe, were, in Dec. 1825 and March, 1826, to the Superb 78, and Melville 74, both commanded, at Portsmouth, by Capt. Henry Hill. For several years prior to his death he inspected the Powder Magazine at New Zealand. Agents – Messrs. Chard.
SOADY. (Commander, 1822. f-p., 19; h-p., 28.)
Joseph Soady was born about 1788.
This officer entered the Navy, 15 Sept. 1800, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Edgar 74, Capt. Edw. Buller, whom he followed as Midshipman, in March, 1801, into the Achille 74, commanded afterwards by Capt. John Okes Hardy. In those ships he continued employed in the Channel until June, 1802. In March, 1803, he again joined Capt. Buller on board the Malta 84; and in her, after sharing in Sir Robt. Calder’s action 22 July, 1805, he proceeded to the Mediterranean; whence in June, 1807, he returned to England in the Comus of 32 guns, Capt. Conway Shipley. In March of the latter year he appears to have assisted in the boats at the destruction of a large transport laden with ordnance stores, which had been wrecked near Cadiz. He was made Lieutenant, 17 Aug. 1807, into the Colossus 74, Capts. Jas. Nicoll Morris and Thos. Alexander, employed in the Channel and again in the Mediterranean; and was subsequently appointed, – 4 Sept. 1812 and 12 Oct. 1814, to the Surprise 38, Capts. Sir Thos. John Cochrane and Geo. Wm. Henry Knight, and Nymphe 38, Capt. Hugh Pigot, on the North American and West India stations – 16 Sept. 1816, to the Superb 74, Capt. Chas. Ekins – 9 Oct. 1818, to the Révolutionnaire 46, Capt. Hon. Fleetwood Broughton Reynolds Pellew, fitting for the Mediterranean, whence he invalided in Dec. 1819 – and, 20 July, 1822, to the Pandora 18, Capt. Fred. Hunn, at Newfoundland. In the Colossus and her boats he aided at the defence, in 1808-10, of the fortress of Rosas and the city of Cadiz, and was frequently in action with the enemy’s gun-vessels and batteries. In a gallant but unsuccessful attack made, 27 Dec. 1811, by the boats of the Colossus and Conquestador 74, commanded by himself and by Lieut. Stackpoole, on a convoy in Basque Roads, protected by three gun-brigs, an armed lugger, and several pinnaces, his own boat was the only one, and that most miraculously, that escaped falling into the hands of the enemy. He contributed, about the same period, to the capture and destruction of several vessels to the southward of Ile d’Aix. In 1814 we find him employed up the Patuxent in the boats of the Surprise, and on shore with the Naval brigade in the attack upon Baltimore. Towards the close of the same year he accompanied, as First-Lieutenant of the Nymphe, the expedition against New Orleans; and on 27 Aug. 1816, he fought, in the Superb, at the battle of Algiers. On that occasion, the Captain and the Senior-Lieutenant having been placed hors de combat the command of the ship devolved upon Mr. Soady, who succeeded in extricating her from the perilous position she at the time held, and, after refitting her, brought her to England. He attained his present rank 26 Dec. 1822; and since 9 July, 1830, has filled the appointment of Superintendent of the shipping belonging to the Ordnance department.
Commander Soady married, 29 Aug. 1822, Rosetta, third daughter of the late Mr. Gray, surgeon, of Kingsand, co. Cornwall, by whom he has issue.
SOMERVILLE. (Retired Commander, 1841. f-p., 14; h-p., 36.)
George Field Somerville is son of the late Capt. Philip Somerville, R.N.
This officer entered the Navy in 1797, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Havick, Capt. Bartholomew, attached to the force on the Home station, where he removed, in the following Nov. to the Eugénie, commanded by his father, became Midshipman, in May, 1799, of the Osprey sloop, Capt. John Watts, and was again, from July, 1800, until April, 1802, and from Dec. in the latter year until Feb. 1805, employed with Capt. Somerville, part of the time as Master’s Mate, in the Eugénie and the Nemesis 28. He was nominated then Sub-Lieutenant of the Nimble brig, Lieut.-Commander Thos. Delafour; was made full Lieutenant, 7 May, 1805, into his former ship the Nemesis, still commanded by Capt. Somerville, on the Newfoundland station; and was subsequently appointed – 22 April, 1807, and 6 July, 1808, to the Hussar 38, Capt. Robt. Lloyd, and Ulysses 44, Capts. Christopher John Williams Nesham, Wm. Maude, Edw. Woolcombe, and Hon. Warwick Lake – 11 Nov. 1809, to the Circe 32, Capt. E. Woolcombe, under whom he assisted at the defence of Cadiz – and, 12 May, 1813, after two years of half-pay, to the Rota 38, in which ship he served with his father on the coast of North America and in the West Indies until April, 1814, when he invalided. In the Hussar Mr. Somerville witnessed the attack upon Copenhagen; and while Senior of the Ulysses he co-operated in the reduction of Martinique, and commanded a flat-bottomed boat in the expedition to the Scheldt. He accepted his present rank 16 Sept. 1841.
He is married and has a son, Philip Hodge, a Commander R.N. Agents – Goode and Lawrence.
SOMERVILLE. (Lieutenant, 1814. f-p., 19; h-p., 17.)
James Bowen Somerville entered the Royal Naval College, 11 Nov. 1811; and embarked, 27 May, 1814, as a Volunteer, on board the Ajax 74, Capts. Robt. Waller Otway and Geo. Mundy; in which ship, after escorting a body of troops from Bordeaux to Quebec, he proceeded to the Mediterranean. In July, 1816, and June, 1817, he became Midshipman (a rating he had attained on board the Ajax) of the Eridanus 36, Capt. Wm. King, and Severn 40, Capts. Wm. M‘Culloch, both on the Home station; and on 9 Nov. 1821, at which period he had been serving for some time in the Leander 50, flag-ship of Hon. Sir Henry Blackwood in the East Indies, he was made Lieutenant into the Liverpool 50,, Capt. Fras. Augustus Collier. He returned home in 1822 in the Samarang 28, Capt. John Norman Campbell; and was subsequently appointed – 1 Oct. 1824, to the Coast Blockade, as Supernumerary-Lieutenant of the Ramillies 74, Capt. W. M‘Culloch – 21 Jan.
