10,000l. sterling. He held, at the time, the rating of Midshipman. In March, 1803, three months after he had left La Déterminée, he joined the Sceptre 74, Capts. Sir Arch. Dickson and Joseph Bingham, and sailed for the East Indies, where he continued until obliged by ill health to invalid in June, 1806. Becoming attached, in Aug. 1807, to the Prince of Wales 98, bearing the flag of Admiral Gambier, he took part in that ship, and, as Acting-Lieutenant in the Thunder bomb, Capts. Geo. Cocks and Jas. Caulfeild, in the operations connected with the attack upon Copenhagen. He was confirmed Lieutenant 11 Sept. 1807; and subsequently appointed – 31 May, 1808, to the Hound bomb, Capt. Nicholas Lockyer, under whom, and the flag of Rear-Admiral Rich. Goodwin Keats, he witnessed the embarkation from Nyeborg of the Spanish troops under the Marquis de la Romana – 22 Sept. 1809 (after five months of half-pay occasioned by indisposition) to the Mosquito sloop, Capt. Robt. Pettet, employed off Heligoland and up the river Elbe – in July and Oct. 1810, Feb. and Sept. 1811, and Jan. 1812, to the command, in the Mediterranean, of the Orion transport, Epervier, Pylades, and Epervier – 5 Aug. 1813 (12 months after the Epervier had been paid off), to the Aeolus 32, Capt. Stephen Popham, on the coast of North America – and, 18 Feb. 1814, to the Naval Establishment on the Lakes of Canada, where, from Aug. to Dec. following, we find him commanding the Netley schooner. He invalided home in Jan. 1815; and on 19 Sept. following, as a reward for services he had performed on the Canadian Lakes, was advanced to his present rank. He has since been on half pay.
POYNTZ. (Admiral of the White, 1841.)
Stephen Poyntz died 12 May, 1847, at his seat, Bedhampton, near Portsmouth, aged 78. He was descended from the Right Hon. Stephen Poyntz, of Midgham, co. Berks, whose daughter married John, first Earl Spencer, grandfather of the present peer.
This officer entered the Navy, 11 March, 1784, on board the Blenheim, Capt. Boxer, lying at Plymouth. In the course of the same year he sailed for the coast of Africa in the Grampus, Capt. Thompson; and, in 1785-6, he served at Newfoundland in the Winchelsea, Capt. Pellew. After cruizing for a few months on the Halifax station in the Adamant 50, Capt. Knox, he was there, 1 Jan. 1791, made Lieutenant into the Thisbe, Capt. George. He next, in Jan. 1793, joined the Leda frigate, Capt. Campbell, attached to the force in the Mediterranean. He attained the rank of Commander, 31 Oct. 1795, in the Childers sloop, on the Channel station; was made Post, 5 Dec. 1796, into the Camilla 24, also employed in the Channel; and was subsequently appointed – 16 Aug. 1797, to the Solebay 32, in the West Indies – 1 Jan. 1801, to the Beaulieu 40, in the Channel, where he remained vmtil May, 1802 – 7 Aug. 1804, to the Melampus 36, on the Home and West India stations – 14 Oct. 1806, for two months, to the Tartar 32, at Halifax – and 13 Feb. 1810, to the Edgar 74, in which ship he served in the Baltic until the following Dec. In the Childers Capt. Poyntz effected the capture, 14 Sept. 1796, of La Bonne Espérance privateer, of 2 swivels and 25 men; and, in company with the Melampus, Capt. Graham Moore, aided in taking, 13 Nov. following, Aetna corvette, of 18 guns, pierced for 20. During his command of the Solebay he made prize, in the course of 1798, of the privateers Augustine of 2 guns and 23 men, Destin of 4 guns and 46 men, and Prosperite of 8 guns and 61 men; besides gallantly enforcing the surrender, 24 Nov. 1799, off the island of St. Domingo, of a French squadron, consisting of L’Egyptienne armed store-ship, of 20 guns and 137 men, Eole ship-corvette, of 18 guns and 107 men, Levrier brig-corvette, of 12 guns and 96 men, and Vengeur schooner, of 8 guns and 91 men. Capt. Poyntz was in command of the Beaulieu in 1801, when the boats of that ship and of the Doris and Uranie frigates cut out La Chevrette corvette, of, 20 guns and 350 men, one of the most surprising exploits of the kind ever achieved.[1] In the Melampus we find him capturing two brigs, each carrying two long 24-pounders, one 18-pounder, and 50 men, most of them soldiers;[2] four luggers of one long 18-pounder and 25 men each, from Bordeaux bound to Brest; and a Spanish privateer, the Hydra, of 28 guns and 192 men, 3 of whom were killed and several wounded before she surrendered.[3] In Sept. 1806, being in the same ship in company with the Belleisle and Bellona 74’s, he contributed to the destruction, off Cape Henry, of the French 74 L’Impétueux. He became a Rear-Admiral 12 Aug. 1819, a Vice-Admiral 22 July, 1830, and a full Admiral 23 Nov. 1841.
Admiral Poyntz married in Oct. 1802. Agents – Hallett and Robinson.
PRAED. (Vice-Admiral of the White, 1846. f-p., 23; h-p., 44.)
Bulkeley Mackworth Praed is related to the Praeds, of the firm of Praeds and Co., bankers, of Fleet-street, London; and a protégé of the late Earl St. Vincent.
This officer entered the Navy, 21 Sept. 1780, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Canada 74, Capt. Sir Geo. Collier, stationed in the Channel, where he continued employed in the Nonsuch, Capt. Truscott, until 1782. He served next, from 1786 until promoted to the rank of Lieutenant 1 Sept. 1793, nearly the whole time as Midshipman, in the Jupiter, Commodores Sir Rich. Bickerton and Wm. Parker, Sybil, Capt. Rich. Hussey Bickerton, Solebay, Capt. Holloway, Culloden 74, Capt. Collins, and London, Romney, and Princess Royal, flagships of Rear-Admiral Goodall, in the West Indies, Channel, and Mediterranean. During the occupation of Toulon we find him officiating as Aide-de-Camp to the officer last mentioned, as well as to Lord Hood. He was subsequently employed on the Home station in La Perle frigate and Atlas 98, in command of the Crash gun-brig, and in the Overyssel 64, flag-ship of Admiral Peyton. In the Crash Mr. Praed accompanied the expedition under Sir Home Popham against the locks and sluicegates of the Bruges Canal, in May, 1798,[4] and was captured by the enemy on the coast of Holland 26 Aug. following. He was made Commander, 21 Aug. 1799, into the Firm sloop; and after having served for two years and eight months in that vessel on the English coast, was advanced, 29 April, 1802, to Post rank. His last appointment was, 4 July, 1803, to the Durham district of Sea Fencibles, in which he continued until the abolition of that service in 1810. He became a Rear-Admiral on the Retired List 10 Jan. 1837; was transferred to the Active List 17 Aug. 1840; and promoted to his present rank 9 Nov. 1846.
PRATT. (Lieutenant, 1825.)
James Pratt entered the Navy 13 July, 1808; passed his examination in 1815; served on board the Britomart 10, Capt. Robt. Riddell (now Carre), at the bombardment of Algiers, 27 Aug, 1816; obtained his commission 27 May, 1825; was employed in the Coast Blockade, as Supernumerary-Lieutenant of the Hyperion 42, Capt. Wm. Jas. Mingaye, from 27 July following until March, 1831; and has since been in command of a station in the Coast Guard. In 1840 he received a silver medal from the Shipwreck Institution, and the thanks of the Royal Humane Society, for his exertions in saving the crews of three vessels wrecked on the beach between Bearshide and Black Rock, co. Cornwall.
