and West India, and Cape of Good Hope stations. In April, 1831, having passed his examination in July, 1830, he was appointed Mate of the Rattlesnake 28, Capt. Chas. Graham, fitting for the Pacific, whence he returned in Nov. 1S33. He next, in May, 1834, joined the Childers 18, Capt. Hon. Henry Keppel, with whom he served on the Mediterranean and African stations (nearly four months of the period, as Acting-Lieutenant) until May, 1838. On 28 of the following June he was officially advanced to the rank he at present holds. His last appointments were – 7 May, 1839, to the Seringapatam 42, Capts. John Leith and Wm. Ward Percival Johnson, which ship was paid off on her return from the North America and West India station in Nov. 1841 – and 22 Feb. 1842, to the Isis 44, Capt. Sir John Marshall, at the Cape of Good Hope. On 19 July in the latter year, while engaged in hoisting out the launch at Port Natal, preparatory to the embarkation of the 25th Regiment, Lieut. Noad sustained a dreadful accident in consequence of the hook of the boat’s purchase giving way. He suffered a dislocation of the right hip, had both bones of his leg fractured, and received such severe contusions of the right shoulder and arm that mortification was apprehended. After being buffeted in this lamentable condition at sea for 12 days in very hard weather, he was put on shore and sent to the hospital at Simon’s Bay. In the following Dec. he invalided; and on 2 Oct. 1843 he was awarded a pension. Agent – Joseph Woodhead.
NOBLE. (Lieutenant, 1815. f-p., 8; h-p., 33.)
George Noble was born 11 Oct. 1791, at Glasgow, and died in 1847.
This officer entered the Navy, 24 July, 1806, as Midshipman, on board the Franchise 36, Capt. Chas. Dashwood, in which ship he escorted home from Jamaica a convoy of 10 sail under circumstances of great difficulty, accompanied the expedition of 1807 against Copenhagen, returned with the trade in 1808 to the West Indies, and witnessed the capture, in Dec. of that year, of the town of Samana, St. Domingo, almost the last port of refuge on the station for the enemy’s privateers. After a further servitude in the West Indies on board the Polyphemus 64, Capt. Wm. Pryce Cumby, and Découverte 10, Capts. Joshua Ricketts Rowley and Jas. Oliver, he came home in May, 1811, in the Savage 16, Capt. Wm. Ferrie. With the exception of a short time passed in 1813 in the Kingfisher 18, Capt. Ewell Tritton, he was next, until 1814, employed on board the Milford 74, flag-ship of Sir Thos. Fras. Fremantle in the Adriatic, where he assisted in wresting several towns from the enemy. We may here allude to a very narrow escape from destruction experienced by Mr. Noble. On 10 Oct. 1813, while the Milford was lying at anchor a few miles below Trieste, a howitzer and several pieces of cannon were brought into a neighbouring wood, and a fire immediately opened upon her. At a moment when Mr. Noble was standing on the quarter-deck receiving instructions from the commanding officer, a 5½-inch shell struck the deck at his feet, tearing off one of his coat-pockets in its descent, and scattering its contents in all directions. The remains of a silver snuff-box, which happened to be in it, were subsequently found in the mainchains, and are still in his possession. After this freak, the shell rebounded and, without injuring a soul, burst over the poop, where were assembled upwards of a hundred of the officers, seamen, and marines. On 16 March, 1815, Mr. Noble, who had acted as Lieutenant both in the Kingfisher and Milford, was awarded a commission. He did not again go afloat.
He has left a widow and a large family.
NOBLE. (Vice-Admiral of the White, 1846. f-p., 13; h-p., 47.)
James Noble, descended from a respectable mercantile family settled at Bristol, co. Somerset, is second and only surviving son of a distinguished loyalist, who sacrificed considerable property in the royal cause during the war with America, where, after raising an independent corps, consisting chiefly of Germans employed at the iron-works on his estate in the Bergen County, East Jersey, he received a bayonet wound in his right eye and had his skull fractured in an affair with the Republicans (a calamity which deprived him for upwards of 18 months of the use of his reason, and caused a majority to which he had been nominated to be conferred on another), and was afterwards killed by a party of rebels while holding the appointment of Assistant-Commissary under Sir Henry Clinton. The Vice-Admiral’s eldest brother, Richard, was drowned in La Dorade, a French privateer, prize to the Clyde frigate; and his youngest, Dejoncourt, a Midshipman of the Vanguard 74, fell a victim to the yellow fever in the West Indies.
This officer entered the Navy, in July, 1787, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Impregnable 98, Capt. Sir Thos. Byard, flag-ship at Plymouth of Admiral Graves; and served, between Sept. 1788 and Nov. 1791, latterly in the capacity of Midshipman, in the Termagant sloop, Capt. John Salisbury, Impregnable again, bearing the flag of Sir Rich. Bickerton, and Ferret sloop, Capt. Wm. Nowell, on the Home station. Joining next, in Jan. 1793, the Bedford 74, Capts. Robt. Mann and Davidge Gould, he assisted, and was employed on shore with a party of small-arm men, at the occupation of Toulon, and shared also in the partial actions of 14 March and 13 July, 1795, with the French fleet; on the former of which occasions the Bedford came into close contact with the Censeur 74, and Ça Ira 80, whose fire killed 9 and wounded 17 ’of her people. After serving a short period with Admiral Hotham in the Britannia 100, he was nominated, 5 Oct. 1795, Acting-Lieutenant of the Agamemnon 64, Commodore Horatio Nelson; to which ship the Admiralty confirmed him by a commission bearing date 9 March, 1796. A short time prior to the latter event he had been taken prisoner while conveying despatches to the Austrian camp near Savona. On 25 of the following April, having rejoined his ship, we find him serving in her boats, with those of the Meleager, Diadem, and Peterel, at the bringing off of four vessels, laden with corn, rice, wine, powder, 8 brass guns, and 1600 stand of arms, from under a heavy fire from the enemy’s batteries and musketry at Loano. “It is with the greatest grief I have to mention,” says Nelson, in his report of this affair to the Commander-in-Chief, Sir John Jervis, “that Lieutenant James Noble, a most worthy and gallant officer, is, I fear, mortally wounded.”[1] In July of the same year, Lieut. Noble, who had by that time recovered, and had been transferred with the Commodore to the Captain 74, was invested with the temporary command of La Génie otherwise Vernon gun-brig. Rejoining his heroic chief in the ensuing Oct., he continued to serve with him as his Flag-Lieutenant in the Captain, Minerve of 42 guns and 286 men, Captain again, and Irresistible 74, until 20 March, 1797. In the Minerve, besides witnessing, among other services, the capture of Porto Ferrajo and the island of Capraja, together with the evacuation of Corsica, he assisted, 20 Dec. 1796, at the capture and defeat, in presence of the Spanish fleet, of the Sabina of 40 and Matilda of 34 guns. The former ship struck her colours, after a combat of three hours; and a loss, out of 286 men, of 14 killed and 44 wounded; the other was compelled to wear and haul off at the close of a sharp action of half an hour; the collective loss of the Minerve on both occasions amounting to 7 men killed and 44 wounded. Among the latter was Lieut. Noble severely, in regard to whom Commodore Nelson, in his letter to Sir John Jervis, thus a second time expressed himself:– “You will observe, too, I am sure with regret, amongst the wounded, Lieut. Jas. Noble, who quitted the Captain to serve with me; and whose merit and repeated wounds, received in fighting the enemies of our country, entitle him to every reward
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1796, p, 614.
