325
EDGELL—EDMONDS—EDMONSTONE.
18, Capt. Jones, Jupiter 50, flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Willoughby Thos. Lake, Wolf 18, Capt. Geo. Hayes, and Dartmouth 46, Capt. Sir Thos. Fellowes, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant 3 June, 1828. Joining, 7 July, 1831, the Imogene, Capt. Price Hamilton [errata 1], Mr. Edgell eventually proceeded to China, where, in forcing the passage of the Boca Tigris, he received two contusions on the left leg and arm, 9 Sept. 1834. On his return to England, he was appointed, 29 Aug. 1835, to the Rodney 92, Capt. Hyde Parker, under whom he was very efficiently employed on the coast of Spain until the receipt of his second promotal commission, 10 Jan. 1837. He assumed command, 9 May, 1845, of the Siren 16, on the Mediterranean station, and, on 9 Nov. 1846, was advanced to his present rank. He is now on half-pay.
Capt. Edgell married, 14 June, 1845, Miss Caroline Rossiter, of Highcliff House, co. Bucks. Agents – Collier and Snee.
EDGELL. (Rear-Admiral of the Red, 1840. f-p., 25; h-p., 42.)
Henry Folkes Edgell was born 13 Aug. 1767, and died, 14 June, 1846, at his seat, Standerwick Court, co. Somerset. He was son of the late Chaffin Edgell, Esq., by Lucretia Eleanor Rishton, grand-daughter of Martin Folkes, Esq., President of the Royal Society. He had lost three brothers in the military service of their country, Charles, a Major, and Martin and Beddison, both Captains. This officer entered the Navy, 15 March, 1780, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Bienfaisant 64, Capt. John Macbride. In that ship, when off Kinsale, he assisted at the capture, 13 Aug. following, of the Comte d’Artois privateer, of 64 guns and 664 men, which struck, at the close of an action of an hour and 10 minutes, in which the British had 3 men killed and 22 wounded, and the enemy 21 killed and 35 wounded. After further contributing to the capture of the Comtesse d’Artois, a small French privateer, Mr. Edgell accompanied his Captain, as Midshipman, into the Artois frigate, and in the course of 1781 was present in the action off the Dogger Bank, and also in a very warm contest of 30 minutes which terminated in the capture, by the Artois alone, of two Dutch privateers, each mounting 24 nine-pounders. Between 1784 and the receipt of his first commission, 16 Nov. 1790, he next served, on the Irish, Channel, and Newfoundland stations, chiefly as Master’s Mate, in the Druid 32, Capt. Macbride, Swallow 16, Capt. David Maokay, and Salisbury 50, flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Milbanke. In July, 1795, Mr. Edgell (who, for the last two years and a half, had been again employed under his patron, then Vice-Admiral Macbride, in the Cumberland and Minotaur 74’s) became Signal-Lieutenant to Vice-Admiral Hon. Wm. Waldegrave, in the Barfleur 98, the barge of which ship he commanded at the capture, in Tunis Bay, of the French ships Némésis of 28, and Sardine of 22 guns, 9 March, 1796. After sharing in the battle off Cape St. Vincent, 14 Feb. 1797, he successively followed the same Flag-officer, as First-Lieutenant, into the Flora 36, Latona 38, and Romney 50; and, while in the Flora, he witnessed the capture of L’Incroyable privateer, of 24 guns and 220 men. Being promoted to the command, 5 March, 1798, of the Pluto sloop, Capt. Edgell continued to serve in that vessel, on the Newfoundland station, until Aug. 1802, when, having superintended the cession of the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon to the French, and been advanced to Post-rank by commission dated 29 April, 1802, he returned to England. We afterwards find him, in 1804-5, commanding the Romney Marsh district of Sea Fencibles, and on 30 Sept. 1808, appointed to the Cornelia 36. Proceeding in that frigate to India, he there co-operated in the reduction of the Isle of France, where for some time he commanded the blockading squadron off Port Louis, and was also at the capture of Java, in 1810-11. Capt. Edgell came home in the Piedmontaise 38, in Sept. 1812; and remained thenceforward on half-pay. He assumed Flag-rank 17 Aug. 1840.
The Rear-Admiral, who was a Magistrate and Deputy-Lieutenant for co. Somerset, married, in 1802, Miss O’Keefe. He has left by that lady an only son, the present Capt. Harry Edm. Edgell, R.N.
EDMONDS. (Retired Commander, 1843. f-p., 16; h-p., 33.)
Thomas Edmonds entered the Navy, 22 July, 1798, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Pluto sloop, Capts. Henry Folkes Edgell and Henry Barwell, on the Newfoundland station, where, until Feb. 1806, he further served, as Midshipman, in the Isis 50, flag-ship of Vice-Admiral Jas. Gambier, Camilla 20, Capt. Bridges Watkinson Taylor, and Isis again, bearing the flag of Sir Erasmus Gower. He then became Sub-Lieutenant of the Explosion, Lieut.Commander Edw. Elliott, and, being promoted, while in the Vanguard 74, Capt. Alex. Fraser, to the rank of full Lieutenant, 28 April, 1807, was next appointed in succession, on various stations, to the Childers sloop, Capts. Thos. Innes, Fras. John Nott, Wm. Henry Dillon, and Joseph Packwood, Arethusa 38, Capts. Robt. Mends and Fras. Holmes Coffin, Dauntless 18, Capt. Daniel Barber, Cornwall 74, Commodore Edw. W. C. R. Owen, and Thracian 18, Capt. John Carter. On 14 March, 1808, while under Capt. Dillon in the Childers, whose force consisted, with a crew of 65 men, of only 14 12-pounder carronades, Mr. Edmonds assisted in ultimately beating off, after an intermittent action of six hours’ duration, and a loss to the British of 2 men killed and 8 wounded, the Danish man-of-war brig Lougen, of 20 guns and 160 men. Under Capt. Mends we find him most actively employed in co-operation with the patriots on the north coast of Spain, where, with the exception of Castro, he witnessed the destruction, in the summer of 1810, of all the batteries from St. Sebastian to St. Andero, on which were found altogether about 100 pieces of cannon. He left the Thracian in Jan. 1814; and did not afterwards go afloat. His acceptance of his present rank took place 17 Jan. 1843. Agents – Messrs. Stilwell.
EDMONSTONE. (Commander, 1841. f-p., 21; h-p., 4.)
William Edmonstone, born 29 Jan. 1810, is eldest son of the late Sir Chas. Edmonstone, Bart., of Duntreath, co. Stirling, by his second wife, Louisa, daughter of Beaumont, second Lord Hotham, sister of the late Vice-Admiral Sir Henry Hotham, G.C.B., and niece of Admiral Lord Hotham. He is half-brother oi the present Sir Archibald Edmonstone, Bart.
This officer entered the Royal Naval College 5 Sept. 1822; and embarked, in Oct. 1823, as a Volunteer, on board the Sybille 48, Capt. Sam. John Pechell, whom he accompanied to the Mediterranean. On returning to that ship, after having been detached for some months into the Medina 20, Capt. Timothy Curtis, he appears to have been dangerously wounded in the face and arm, while employed in the boats, in a desperate action with some pirates, off the island of Candia, 18 June, 1826. Mr. Edmonstone, whom we next find joining the Columbine 18, Capt. Wm. Symonds, and subsequently proceeding to India with Lord Wm. Bentinck, the Governor-General, in the Undaunted 46, Capt. Augustus Wm. Jas. Clifford, obtained his first commission 23 Feb. 1829. He was afterwards appointed – 14 May, 1829, to the Seringapatam 46, Capt. Hon. Wm. Waldegrave, in South America – 7 June, 1832, 11 Feb. 1833, and 18 March, 1836, to the Belvidera 42, Alfred 50, and Vanguard 80, commanded on the Mediterranean station by Capts. Hon. Rich. Saunders Dundas, Robt. Maunsell, and Sir Thos. Fellowes – 30 April, 1839, to the Impregnable 104, flag-ship at Plymouth of Sir Graham Moore – and, 26 July, 1840, to the command, in the Mediterranean, of the Weasel 10. He acquired
