79
BICKFORD—BIDDULPH—BIGLAND—BIGNELL.
in the following August, accompanied the force sent to the Walcheren, during the operations against which island he appears to have been employed in a flat-bottomed boat with the van frigates off Bathz. After oiiiciating for a few months as Supernumerary-Midshipman of the Puissant 74, sheer-hulk at Spithead, Capt. Robt. Hall, he became attached, in Feb. 1810, to the Blake 74, Capt. Edw. Codrington; and, during his continuance in that ship, was much engaged on harassing night-duty at the defence of Cadiz, and was present at the siege of Tarragona in May and June, 1811. From the Blake Mr. Bickerstaff removed, 3 Sept. 1812, to the Caledonia 120, bearing the flag of Sir Edw. Pellew on the Mediterranean station, where he came frequently into collision with the French fleet, and with the enemy’s batteries on the Iles d’Hières. Having passed his examination 12 Aug. 1811, he became Acting-Lieutenant, 4 Jan. 1814, of the Aigle 36, Capt. Sir John Louis, and, being confirmed in the appointment by commission dated 16 March in the same year, co-operated in the reduction of Genoa, and was otherwise actively employed in the Mediterranean, and subsequently on the coast of North America, until paid off, 17 Aug. 1815. Since that period, with the exception of a command in the Coast Guard, which he held from 27 March, 1829, until 10 Oct. 1834, Mr. Bickerstaff has been unemployed.
BICKFORD. (Lieutenant, 1841.)
Joseph Grant Bickford entered the Navy 19 Oct. 1828; passed his examination 4 Dec. 1834; and was promoted while serving as Mate on the Lisbon station of the Ganges 84, Capt. Barrington Reynolds, 23 Nov. 1841. His appointments have since been – 30 Nov. 1841, to the Rodney 92, Capt. Robt. Maunsell, attached to the force in the Mediterranean – 19 Oct. 1843, to the Iris 26, Capt. Geo. Rodney Mundy, on the East India station – and, 11 Oct. 1845, and 15 Oct. 1846, to the Retribution steam-frigate, and Vengeance 84, both commanded by Capt. Stephen Lushington, under whom he is now employed. Agents – Messrs. Stilwell.
BIDDULPH. (Lieut., 1809. f-p., 16; h-p., 28.)
Edward Biddulph entered the Navy, 12 Sept. 1803, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Indefatigable 46, Capts. Graham Moore and John Tremayne Rodd, under the former of whom he was present as Midshipman, 5 Oct. 1804, in an action off Cape St. Mary, which terminated in the capture of three Spanish frigates laden with treasure, and the destruction of a fourth. He removed, in Dec. 1807, to the Foxhound 18, Capt. Pitt Burnaby Greene; and, being next appointed Master’s Mate of the Ville de Paris 110, and Caledonia 120, bearing the flags of Lords Gardner and Gambler, was present in the last-mentioned ship at the destruction, in April, 1809, of the French squadron in Basque Roads. During the ensuing expedition to the Scheldt, Mr. Biddulph, who had been lent to the Sceptre 74, served on shore with a party of seamen at the investment of Flushing. He obtained a commission on 5 Oct. in the same year, and was subsequently appointed – 2 Jan. 1810, to the Onyx 10, Capts. John Parish, Gawen Wm. Hamilton, Chas. Phillips, and Chas. Squire, in which vessel, and in the gun-boat service, he took part in the defence of Cadiz; besides destroying, on the beach of Conil, with the boats of the Onyx and Desperate under his orders, an enemy’s brig, protected at the time by a battery and musketry[1] – 30 Nov. 1813, to the Elephant 74, Capt. Fras. Wm. Austen, at Portsmouth – 14 May, 1814, to the Hebrus 36, Capt. Edmund Palmer, on the coast of North America – 22 July following, to the Florida 20, Capt. Nat. Mitchell, on the same and West India stations, whence he returned home, and was paid off, 5 April, 1815 – and, 6 May, 1819, to the Menai 26, Capt. Fairfax Moresby. In the latter ship Lieut. Biddulph continued until she was placed out of commission in Sept. 1823, and during that period visited St. Helena, assisted, in 1820, in landing a troop of emigrants in Algoa Bay, and was very actively employed in suppressing the slave-traffic on the eastern coast of Africa. He has since been on half-pay.
BIGLAND, K.H. (Captain, 1821. f-p., 16; h-p., 31.)
Wilson Braddyll Bigland, born 20 July, 1788, at Bigland Hall, the seat of his ancestors since the Norman Conquest, is son of the late Geo. Bigland, Esq., of Bigland, by his second wife, Sarah, daughter of John Gale, Esq., of Whitehaven, High Sheriff for Cumberland, and sister of the late Wilson Braddyll, Esq., of Conishead Priory.
This officer entered the Navy, 21 Oct. 1801, as Third-cl. Vol., on board the Theseus 74, Capt. John Bligh, with whom, on proceeding to the West Indies, he served, as Midshipman, in 1803-4, at the blockade of Cape François – the reduction of Port Dauphin, where two forts and a 28-gun ship, La Sagesse were taken from the enemy – the capture of the French squadron with the remains of General Bochambeau’s army from Cape François – and the unsuccessful attempt on Curaçoa. In March, 1805, some months after his transference with Capt. Bligh to the Surveillante 38, he had the misfortune to be taken prisoner, while in charge of a prize-schooner, on the coast of Vera Cruz; and, on being released by a royal order from the Court of Madrid, in Aug. 1807, he was sent to Jamaica, whence, after a brief attachment to the Shark, receiving-ship, Capt. Christopher Bell, he returned home, early in 1808, in the Chichester, store-ship, Capt. Jas. Tait. On 5 March in the same year Mr. Bigland, who had passed his examination but a few days previously, was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, and from that date until 31 Dec. 1813, he continued to serve with the present Sir Geo. Cockburn, almost uninterruptedly, in the Pompée 80, Belleisle, Implacable, and Alfred 74’s, Grampus 50, and Marlborough and Sceptre 74’s. During that period he served on shore, with a party of seamen from the Pompée, at the reduction of Martinique, in Feb. 1809, on which occasion he was in temporary command of the seamen’s battery at the moment the enemy first hoisted the white flag of capitulation – obtained, in August following, while in the Belleisle, the public acknowledgments of Commodore Cockburn for his courage and zeal as his aide-de-camp at the siege of Flushing[2] – was actively employed, from 1810 to 1812, in the Implacable and Alfred, at the defence of Cadiz – and, in the Marlborough and Sceptre, was a participator, as Flag-Lieutenant to his patron, in most of those gallant achievements on the shores and up the rivers of North America with which the name of Cockburn is identified. He returned to England with Sir John Borlase Warren, in the St. Domingo 74, at the commencement of 1814, and, on 15 June in that year, while acting in command of the Jasper 10, was presented with a second promotal commission. Capt. Bigland’s subsequent appointments were, between 3 Aug. 1818, and his advancement to Post-rank, 6 March, 1821, to the Parthian 10, Ontario 18, and Bann 20, in all of which he was most efficaciously employed in the protection of British trade in the West Indies. He then, until Aug. of the latter year, commanded the Euryalus 42. His acceptance of the retirement took place 1 Oct. 1846.
Capt. Bigland was nominated a K.H. 25 Jan. 1836. He married, 18 Jan. 1822, Emily, second sister of the present Capt. Sir Hen. John Leeke, R.N., Kt., K.H., and has had issue two sons and a daughter. His eldest son, George Selsey, an Ensign in the 46th regiment, was killed by falling down the hatchway of the Java transport, when embarked with his regiment at Gibraltar, for passage to Barbadoes, 23 Jan. 1842. Agents – Messrs. Chard.
BIGNELL. (Commander, 1815. f-p.,19; h-p., 33.)
George Bignell, born 1 Dec. 1786, is son of the
