has never been conferred. He subsequently, on 10 Sept. 1818, assumed command of the Tribune 42, in which ship, after serving for some time on the coast of Ireland, he conveyed Rear-Admiral Fahie to the Leeward Islands. He went on half-pay in July, 1822, and has not been since afloat, He attained Flag-rank 28 April, 1847.
Sir Nesbit Willoughby, who was nominated a C.B. 4 June, 1815, has been twice knighted – first by George IV. 30 July, 1827, and again by his warm friend William IV. 21 Aug. 18.32, on which date he was also invested with the insignia of a K.C.H. He was further awarded the Captain’s Good-Service Pension 14 Jan. 1839; and on 30 Nov. 1841 he was appointed a Naval Aide-de-Camp to the Queen. Although the K.C.B., in 1815, was made the reward of officers who had lost a limb or an eye while in command of a frigate in battle, yet was the distinguished officer, whose services we have now endeavoured to sketch, and whose wounds it has been seen more than amounted to the loss of both, allowed to be put off with a simple C.B., an honour, it would appear, he had earned on 10 different occasions. He is the author of a very estimable volume entitled “Extracts from Holy Writ and various Authors, intended as Helps to Meditation and Prayer, principally for Soldiers and Seamen,” published in 1839 for gratuitous distribution amongst the army and navy. Agents – Hallett and Robinson.
WILLS. (Lieut., 1815. f-p., 9; h-p., 32.)
John Wills (b) entered the Navy 26 Nov. 1806, as Third-cl. Boy, on board the Alphea schooner, Lieut.-Commander John Manton, employed in the Channel and at Newfoundland. In May, 1807, he attained the rating of Midshipman; and in March, 1808, he removed to the Polyphemus 64, Capts. Peter Heywood and Wm. Pryce Cumby, under the latter of whom we find him, in the following year, present at the blockade and surrender of the city of St. Domingo. In Oct. 1810, having returned with convoy to England in the Daedalus 32, Capt. Sam. Hood Inglefield, he was received on board the Caesar 80, Capt. Wm. Granger, stationed off Lisbon, he served afterwards in the Mediterranean, on the north coast of Spain, and at Madeira and Plymouth, in the Druid 32, Capts. Thos. Searle and Fras. Stanfell, Lyra 10, Capts. Robt. Bloye, Campbell, Dillon, and O’Reilly, Levant 20, Capts. Hon. Alex. Jones and Hon. Geo. Douglas, and Tay 20, Capt. Bloye. He assisted in the Druid at the defence of Tarifa; and in the Lyra at the defence of Castro and the siege of St. Sebastian. Since the receipt of his commission, which bears date 7 Sept. 1815, he has been on half-pay.
WILLS. (Captain, 1835. f-p., 28; h-p., 27.)
Thomas George Wills died 11 May, 1847.
This officer entered the Navy, in 1792, as a Volunteer, on board the Windsor Castle 98, Capt. Thos. Byard, in which ship, bearing the flags in succession of Admirals Philip Cosby, Robt. Mann, and Robt. Linzee, he served at the occupation of Toulon and in Hotham’s partial actions 14 March and 13 July, 1795. In Feb. 1797 he removed to the Cambridge 74, guard-ship at Plymouth; he served next, from the following Dec. until Feb. 1798, in the Saldanha frigate, Capt. Geo. Burlton, on the Western station; and in Oct. 1801, after he had been for rather more than three years attached as Midshipman, in the Channel and Baltic, to the Russel 74, Capts. Sir Henry Trollope, Herbert Sawyer, and Wm. Cuming, part of Lord Nelson’s fleet at the battle of Copenhagen, he joined the Wasp 18, Capt. Chas. Bullen, and sailed for the coast of Africa, where he assisted in affording protection to Sierra Leone at a time when its existence as a British colony was threatened by a powerful combination of the native chiefs. In July, 1802, he became Admiralty-Mate, on the Home station, of the Acasta 40, Capts. Jas. Athol Wood and Jas. Oswald. He was afterwards, from 30 June, 1804, until 10 May, 1814, a prisoner-of-war in France. He was promoted during that period to the rank of Lieutenant by a commission bearing date 22 Jan, 1806. In July, 1814, he was appointed to the Chatham 74, Capt. David Lloyd, lying at Chatham; and in the ensuing Sept. to the Trent, flag-ship at Cork of Sir Herbert Sawyer, who placed him in command, 8 Dec. in the same year, of the Castilian sloop. He served in the Trent again from Jan. until Dec. 1815; in the Coast Blockade, as First of the Severn 50, Capt. Wm. M‘Cullooh, from 15 March, 1817, until promoted to the rank of Commander 27 May, 1820; and in the Coast Guard from 6 July, 1830, until promoted to Post-rank 7 Jan. 1835.
Capt. Wills had been left a widower 5 May, 1844. His only son, Wm. Burrows Wills, a Lieutenant R.N. (1843), died 27 March in the latter year, while serving on the coast of Africa in the Alert sloop, Capt. C. J. Bosanquet.
WILLSON. (Commander, 1841. f-p., 21; h-p., 23.)
John Willson was born 19 Dec. 1782.
This officer (who had been apprenticed to the merchant-service in Oct. 1797, and had made one voyage in an Indiaman to China, and another to Hudson’s Bay in a ship belonging to that Company) was impressed into the Navy, 19 Nov. 1803, as A.B., on board La Chiffonne 36, Capts. Chas. Adam and Patrick Campbell, under the former of whom we find him, in June, 1805, present, in company with the Falcon sloop. Clinker gun-brig, and Francis armed cutter, and assisting, after a chase of nine hours (during which the British suffered much from the incessant fire of the forts along shore), in driving under the batteries of Fécamp a division of the French flotilla, consisting of 2 corvettes and 15 gun-vessels, carrying in all 51 guns, 4 8-inch mortars, and 3 field-pieces, accompanied by 14 transports. He was at other times in action with the enemy in the neighbourhood of Boulogne; and was in the boats under the First-Lieutenant, the late Sir Robt. Hall, at the capture of a Spanish guard-boat and the cutting out of a galliot in the Bay of Algeciras. In May, 1806, he removed to the Milan 38, Capt. Sir Robt. Laurie; and after serving for four years and four months in that frigate, the greater part of the time as Midshipman and Master’s Mate, on the coast of North America and in the West Indies, he successively, 12 Sept. and 22 Nov. 1810, joined, in the capacity last mentioned, the Hibernia 120 and Centaur 74, Capts. J. Nash and John Chambers White. In the latter ship and her boats he cooperated in the defence of Tarragona until its fall in June, 1811. He was nominated Second-Master of the Centaur 15 Aug. 1811; and he served as such in the Ajax 74, with Capts. Sir R. Laurie, Robt. Waller Otway, and Geo. Mundy, from 19 Dec. in the same year until promoted to the rank of Lieutenant 8 Feb. 1815. He was stationed during that period off Toulon, in Basque Roads, and on the north coast of Spain, and made a voyage to Quebec. He was in the boats at the capture of the small island of Santa Clara, near St. Sebastian, 26 Aug. 1813; he commanded there at the capture, 18 and 21 Oct. following, of a French brig and chasse-marée; and he aided in taking, 17 March, 1814, L’Alcyon national brig of 16 guns and 120 men. He was employed as First-Lieutenant in the Redpole 10, Capts. Patrick Duff Henry Hay and Rich. Anderson, and Samarang 28, Capt. David Dunn, on the Channel, Mediterranean, and Cape of Good Hope stations, from 24 Nov. 1820 until 17 Dec. 1823, and from 12 Jan. 1825 until 28 April, 1828; and he held command, from 31 Jan. 1839 until 25 April, 1842, of the Aetna 6, between Shetland and St. Sebastian, and as a receivmg-ship in the river Mersey. He has since been on half-pay. The commission he now holds bears date 23 Nov. 1841.
Through the recommendation of Capts. Henry Eden and P. D. H. Hay, an application was made in 1832, and again in 1834, by Capts. Lord Wm. Paget and Geo. Henderson, to the effect that Commander Willson might be appointed First of the ships they commanded, the North Star 28 and
