SIR JAMES SAUMAREZ,
Baronet; Vice-Admiral of Great Britain; Admiral of the White; Knight Grand Cross of the most Honourable Military Order of the Bath, and of the Royal Swedish Order of the Sword; Doctor of the Civil Law; a Vice-President of the Naval Charitable, and of the Naval and Military Bible Societies.
The Norman descent, claimed by this family, is corroborated by its name, which is evidently of French extraction; and its founder is said to have followed the fortunes of William the Conqueror, from Normandy, and to have finally settled in the island of Guernsey. The original name was de Sausmarez, and is continued to be used by the eldest branch; but a few years since, the de and s were both dropped by the younger branches in England, in order to give it a more anglicised appearance.
The subject of this memoir is the third son of the late Matthew Saumarez, of Guernsey, Esq. where he followed the profession of medicine with great reputation, by his second wife, Cartaret, daughter of James le Marchant, Esq. He was born in that island, March 11, 1757, and commenced his honourable career in the sea service as a Midshipman, in 1770, on board the Montreal, commanded by the late Commodore Alms, and employed on the Mediterranean station, where he continued until 1775; having intermediately served in the Winchelsea and Levant frigates, under the several commands of the late Admirals Goodall and Thompson, and returning home in the latter ship.
Soon after his arrival in England, Mr. Saumarez joined the Bristol, of 50 guns, bearing the broad pendant of Sir Peter Parker, the late Admiral of the Fleet; in which ship he served, June 28, 1776, at the attack of Fort Sullivan, near Charlestown, in South Carolina, where the Bristol had 111 men killed and wounded, including her Captain and several officers; and Mr. Saumarez had a narrow escape, as a large shot from the fort, entering the port-hole, when he was pointing a lower-decker, struck the gun, and killed and
