vanced to the rank of Commander by commission bearing date 8 May following, a few weeks after he had been placed in charge of the prize, for the purpose of conducting her to England. His last appointments were – 7 June, 1813, to the Rosario 10, on the Home station, where he served until paid off in Dec. 1818 – and, 31 Aug. 1820, to the post, which he retained for nearly five years, of Inspecting-Commander in the Coast Guard. He attained his present rank 1 March, 1822; and accepted the Retirement 1 Oct. 1846.
Capt. Peake (who was for four years a Special Magistrate at the Cape of Good Hope) has been twice married; the first time to a daughter of Sir Jas. Brabazon Urmston, Superintendent of Cargoes at Canton. By both marriages he has issue. Agents – Messrs. Stilwell.
PEARCE. (Commander, 1842. f-p., 22; h-p., 12.)
Edward Stokes Pearce entered the Navy, 29 Oct. 1813, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Sultan 74, Capt. John West. In March, 1815, after having served on the coast of France and in the West Indies, he joined the Ajax 74, Capt. Geo. Mundy, on the Mediterranean station; where, and at Halifax and in the North Sea, he continued employed as Midshipman and Master’s Mate in the same ship and in the Dee 24, Wye 28, and Alert 18, Capts. Sam. Chambers, John Harper, and Chas. Farwell, until Jan. 1821. In the following month (he had passed his examination 11 April, 1820) he returned to the Mediterranean in the Dispatch 18, Capts. Wm. Clarke Jervoise and Edw. Hinton Scott; he was next, from Nov. 1824 until May, 1831, borne on the books of the Hyperion 42, Coast Blockade ship, Capt. Wm. Jas. Mingaye; and he was then for a few weeks employed in the Samarang 28, Capt. Chas. Henry Paget. During six years of the period he belonged to the Hyperion he commanded her tender the Highflyer. His sole appointments as Lieutenant, a rank he attained 25 June, 1831, were – 2 March, 1837, to the Princess Charlotte 104, bearing the flag in the Mediterranean of Hon. Sir Robt. Stopford, under whom he assisted at the bombardment of St. Jean d’Acre – and 8 Feb. 1842, after six months of half-pay, to the command of the Lightning steamer. Since his promotion to his present rank, 7 May, 1842, he has been on half-pay.
PEARNE. (Lieut., 1824. f-p., 37; h-p., 2.)
William George Pearne was born 12 May, 1795.
This officer entered the Navy, 1 Feb. 1808, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Erebus 18, Capt. Wm. Autridge, stationed in the Baltic; where, in June, 1812, he became Midshipman of the Dictator 64, Capt. Jas. Pattison Stewart. In 1809 a prize-sloop of which he had charge was run over in a snowstorm, on her passage from Carlskrona to Hull, by a timber-laden brig, and immediately went down, barely allowing him to effect his escape; and in 1811, while acting as Master of another prize, he had the misfortune to be captured by four Danish gun-boats on the coast of Norway; in consequence whereof he was detained a prisoner for a period of nearly 12 months, and underwent great privations. On leaving the Dictator in Oct. 1812, he joined the Pelican 18, Capts. John Fordyce Maples and Thos. Mansell; in which vessel, and in the Saturn 56, Capts. Jas. Nash and Thos. Brown, Ferret 14, Capt. Jas. Stirling, and Erne 20, Capt. Hon. Wm. John Napier, we find him, until Aug. 1815, employed on the West India, American, and Home stations. While attached to the Saturn, Mr. Pearne assisted at the blockade of New York, and was frequently sent with prizes into port; and when in the Ferret he contributed to the capture, 18 July, 1815, of an armed cutter, a praam-brig, and a gun-vessel, together with a convoy reposing under the protection of a fort, which the British destroyed, in the harbour of Corrijou – an exploit detailed in our memoir of Vice-Admiral Sir Chas. Malcolm. With his name, from Aug. 1815 until Aug. 1818, on the books of the Rochfort 74, Capt. Sir Archibald Collingwood Dickson, Mr. Pearne was actively employed as Master’s Mate in a variety of tenders and boats in the protection of the revenue. On one occasion he possessed himself, off the Start, of a smuggler, the Charles, of Morlaix, having on board a hundred tubs of contraband spirits. After a servitude of two years and eight months on the Channel and Irish stations, as Admiralty-Midshipman in the Pigmy cutter, Lieut.-Commander Wentworth Parsons Croke, as Second-Master in the Falmouth 20, Capt. Henry Theodosius Browne Collier, and again as Admiralty-Midshipman in the Spencer 74, flagship of Sir Josias Rowley, he was appointed, 31 May, 1821, Chief Mate of the Vandeleur Revenue-cruizer, Lieut.-Commander Chas. Fred. Napier. In the following Nov., the Vandeleur being at the time at anchor in a disabled state off Kilrush, Mr. Pearne, acting upon information he had received, proceeded with the crew to a place called Kilkee, 13 miles distant, where he arrived in time to seize a boat with 13 bales of tobacco and a chest of tea belonging to a smuggling lugger. Another part of the cargo, amounting to 437 bales, was afterwards landed on the island of Arran, and secreted in caves underground. These being, however, discovered through the exertions of Mr. Pearne, he succeeded with only 24 men, in capturing the whole of the property, notwithstanding that several hundred persons had assembled for the purpose of rescuing it. He had the gratification in consequence of receiving a flattering letter of approbation from the Commander-in-Chief, Sir J. Rowley. After having had command for a long time of the Vandeleur owing to the illness of Lieut. Napier, he was promoted to his present rank 21 Jan. 1824. His appointments have since been – 21 Oct. 1826 and 19 Feb. 1830, to the Ramillies and Talavera Coast Blockade ships, both commanded by Capt. Hugh Pigot – 15 April, 1831, to the Coast Guard at Walmer, in Kent – 11 Oct. 1834, to the command of the Dove Revenue-cruizer – and 26 Sept. 1837, again to the Coast Guard, in which service he still continues. In command of the Antelope, tender to the Ramillies, he piloted a Russian squadron from the Texel to the Downs in Aug. 1827; and in the Dove he had the good fortune to make prize, among other vessels, of a yawl, a schooner of 65 tons, a sloop of 39 tons, and a Cawsand boat of 20 tons. His efforts in staying the progress of a fire which broke out on one occasion in the citadel at Plymouth obtained for him the thanks of Sir Willoughby Cotton, who at the time held command of that place.
Lieut. Pearne married, in May, 1827, Julia Edgecombe, daughter of the late Lieut. John Luckraft, R.N., by whom he has issue a son and three daughters.
PEARS. (Lieut., 1829. f-p., 20; h-p., 7.)
Charles Wethered Pears entered the Royal Naval College 3 Feb. 1820; and embarked 20 Feb. 1822, as a Volunteer, on board the Ranger 28, Capt. Peter Fisher; under whom, in 1824, he served at the blockade of Algiers. Joining, in Nov. of that year, the Boadicea frigate, Commodore Sir Jas. Brisbane, he united, in Sept. 1825, in the hostilities in progress against the Burmese, and until the end of the war was employed in command of a gunboat on the river Irawady. On leaving the Boadicea he was received, in Aug. 1826, on board the Warspite 76; in which ship, in the summer of the following year, he returned to England. After having further served, as Mate, in the Éclair 18, Capt. Spencer Lambert Hunter Vassall, Victory 104, Capt. Hon. Geo. Elliot, Asia 84, Capt. Edw. Curzon, and Raleigh 18, Capts. John Burnet Dundas, Geo. Haye, and Sir Wm. Dickson, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant 27 June, 1829, and appointed to the Alacrity 10, Capt. Joseph Nias, on the Mediterranean station. He afterwards joined – 30 April, 1830, the Talbot 28, Capt. Rich. Dickin-
