where they fortified themselves in the church and houses. Desirous of sparing the unfortunate inhabitants, Capt. Ussher ceased firing; and at 2 p.m., after having destroyed a privateer of 2 guns and 30 or 40 men, at anchor under the castle, he weighed and ran down to Nersa, for the purpose of concerting plans with the guerillas; on his arrival there he embarked 200 infantry on board his little squadron, and then stood back with them towards Almuñecar, while a body of cavalry hastened thither by a more circuitous route. A calm, however, delaying his progress, the enemy obtained a knowledge of the combined movement that was being made against them, and precipitately fled. The fortifications of the castle were ultimately demolished.[1] Capt. Ussher afterwards intercepted several valuable American merchantmen;[2] which, however, became droits of Admiralty. During the short time he commanded the Euryalus, he was employed chiefly at the blockade of Toulon. His boats, while he was in the Undaunted, were engaged, either alone or in company with those of other ships, in a variety of important operations;[3] and the latter frigate was herself brought into repeated collision with the enemy’s batteries. During the severe winter of 1813 we find Capt. Ussher again stationed oif Toulon; where he was left by Sir Edw. Pellew with a small squadron under his orders to watch the movements of the French fleet. In April, 1814, being close in with Marseilles, in company with the Euryalus 36, Capt. Chas. Napier, he received from that city a deputation, consisting of the mayor and civil authorities, who had come off to inform him of the abdication of Napoleon Buonaparte, and of the formation of a provisional government in the absence of the Bourbons. He therefore landed; but he had not long done so when, through the hands of the late Sir Neil Campbell, who had just arrived from Paris, he received a requisition from Lord Castlereagh that he should forthwith make preparations for conveying the ex-Emperor from the shores of France to Elba. Repairing accordingly to Fréjus, he there, on the evening of 28 April, had the honour of embarking the fallen chief; with whom, at about 8 p.m. on the 30th, he anchored at the mouth of the harbour of Porto Ferrajo.[4] On 3 May Napoleon landed and took upon himself the government of the island. Capt. Ussher, who obtained great credit for the manner in which he acquitted himself of the delicate and important duty which had been confided to him, remained at Elba until the English transports which had brought the ex-Emperor’s troops, horses, carriages, baggage, &c., were cleared and sent to Genoa; whither, although entreated by Napoleon to prolong his stay, he then himself proceeded. In Aug. 1814 he returned to England in the Duncan 74; to which ship he had been, as above, appointed. He was nominated a C.B. 4 June, 1815; awarded, 2 Dec. following, a pension for his wounds of, we believe, 250l. per annum; appointed, 24 July, 1830, Equerry in the Household of Her Majesty Queen Adelaide; created in 1831 a K.C.H. (accompanied with the honour of Knighthood); granted the Captain’s Good-Service Pension 12 March, 1838; and advanced to Flag-rank 9 Nov. 1846. He filled the posts of Commissioner, or Commodore-Superintendent, of Bermuda and Halifax Dockyards from 1831 until 1838, and of Commander-in-Chief at Cork from 1 July, 1847, until the period of his death.
Sir Thos. Ussher published in 1840 a “Narrative of the First Abdication of Napoleon.” He married a daughter of Thos. Foster, Esq., of Grove House. Bucks, niece of Fred. Wm. Foster, Bishop of the Moravian Church at Jamaica, and cousin of the third Lady Holland, by whom he has left issue, with two daughters, three sons, the eldest, Sydney Henry, a Captain R.N., the second, Edw. Pellew Hammett, a First-Lieutenant R.M. (1841), and a third, Wm. Henry Bernard, in the Commissariat. Agents – Messrs. Ommaimey.
UTLAY. (Lieut., 1811. f-p., 15; h-p., 32.)
John Taylor Utlay entered the Navy, 14 Feb. 1800, as Ordinary, on board the Nimble, Lieut.-Commander Jas. Lloyd, employed at first at Dartmouth and next on the coast of Ireland; where he served from April until July, 1802, as Clerk, on board the Express, Lieut.-Commander Robt. Sayes. From Sept. in the latter year until June, 1810, he cruized with the greatest activity and success in the Downs, North Sea, and Channel, as Midshipman and Master’s Mate in the Vixen 14 and Plover 18, both commanded by the present Rear-Admiral Philip Browne; in July, 1810 (the Plover had been commanded intermediately by Capt. Colin Campbell), he removed, as a Supernumerary, to the Salvador del Mundo, flag-ship of Sir Robt. Calder at Plymouth; and on 1 Aug. 1811 he was made Lieutenant into the Hermes 20, commanded by his former Captain, Browne. In the course of the same month he was appointed to the Boyne 98; in which ship and the Ville de Paris 110, bearing each the flag of Sir Harry Burrard Neale, he continued employed otf Brest and L’Orient and in Basque Roads until Aug. 1814. He has since been on half-pay.
V.
VALLACK. (Lieut., 1821. f-p., 25; h-p., 29.)
Joseph Vallack died 3 Aug. 1847, at Milbrook, Devonport, aged 71.
This officer entered the Navy, in 1793, as A.B., on board the Redoubt 20, Capt. Alex. Fraser, attached to the force in the North Sea, where, after serving under Lieut. Daniel Burdwood in the Union, he became Midshipman, 13 Aug. 1794, of the Ranger, Capt. Hardy. From 1795 until 1799 he was stationed in the Channel and on the coast of Ireland in the Atlas 98, Capts. Edm. Dod and Matthew Squire, and, as Master’s Mate, in the Expedition 44, Capt. Sir Thos. Livingstone; and he next, in March, 1800, joined the Thetis frigate, Capt. Henry Edw. Reginald Baker. In her he took part in a variety of operations on the coast of Egypt. He returned to England in 1802 in the Champion 24, Capt. Lord Wm. Stewart; and he was afterwards employed – between March, 1803, and Sept. 1806, on the coast of Spain and in the West Indies and Mediterranean, in the Spartiate 74, Capts. Geo. Murray and John Manley, Martin sloop, Capt. R. H. Savage, and Fervent 12, Lieut.-Commander Edw. Hare – from March, 1807, until Oct. 1815, at Plymouth, in the Salvador del Mundo, flag-ship of Admiral Young, Impregnable 104, Capt. Robt. Hall, and St. George 98, Capt. Nash – from Oct. 1815 until Feb. 1819, on different parts of the Home station, as Admiralty-Midshipman, in the Bacchus 16, Capt. Wm. Hill, Eridanus 36, Capt. Wm. King, Superb 74, Capt. Chas. Ekins, and Severn 50, Capt. Wm. M‘Culloch – in 1819-20, at Newfoundland, in the Drake – and next, until promoted to the rank of Lieutenant 19 July, 1821, again at Plymouth in his former ship the Impregnable, bearing the flag of Hon. Sir Alex. Cochrane. He remained thenceforward on half-pay.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1812, p. 1279.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1812, p. 2290.
- ↑ Those at Carri, 18 March, 1813, will be found mentioned under the head of Capt. Aaron Tozer; at Morjean, 31 March and 2 May, 1813, under Commander Isaac Shaw; at and near Marseilles, 3 and 7 May, 1813, under Capt. Wm. Oldrey; at Cassis, 18 Aug. 1813, under Capts. Sir John Gordon Sinclair and A. Tozer; and at Port Nouvelle, 9 Nov. 1813, under Lieut. Jos. Robt. Hownam. On the occasion of the second affair at Morjean, 2 May, 1813, perceiving that the enemy’s vessels were fastened to the snore by hawsers from their mast-heads, Capt. Ussher immediately volunteered his services, pushed in, and received so heavy a fire of musketry from a party of soldiers posted behind high cliffs, that be had scarcely time to get alongside of the first vessel before his gig filled up to the thwarts – Vide for Carri, Gaz. 1813, p. 1148; for Cassis, Gaz. 1813, p. 2011; for Port Nouvelle, Gaz. 1814, p. 124.
- ↑ During the passage Capt. Ussher was waited on by a deputation from Capraja, praying tliat he would, which he immediately did, take possession of that island.
