WILSON RATHBORNE, Esq
A Companion of the Most Honorable Military Order of the Bath.
[Post-Captain of 1802.]
This officer is the son of a Clergyman of the established Church, and a grandson of Commodore J. Wilson, who served with great credit during Queen Anne’s wars.
He was born near Loughrea, co. Galway, Ireland, July 16, 1748; entered the naval service as a Midshipman on board the Niger of 32 guns, in Sept. 1763; and continued in that frigate, under the respective commands of his patron Sir Thomas Adams, Bart., and Captain Andrew Wilkinson, till the latter end of 1768, when he rejoined the former officer in the Boston, a ship of similar force, employed on the American station.
In 1769, Mr. Rathborne removed with his friend into the Romney of 50 guns, bearing the broad pendant of Commodore Samuel Hood,, in which ship he returned to England under the command of Captain Robert Linzee, who had been appointed to her on the death of Sir Thomas Adams, in 1770. On her arrival in England, the Romney was ordered to the Downs with the flag of Rear-Admiral John Montagu, with whom Mr. Rathborne continued till the spring of 1771, when he was discharged into the Royal William of 80 guns, at the particular request of her Captain, the late Lord Hood.
We next find him in the Hunter sloop of war, commanded by Captain Thomas Mackenzie[1], under whom he served on shore at Quebec, with the rank of a first Lieutenant in the naval battalion, composed of the crews of the King’s ships and merchant vessels, during the siege of that important fortress by the American army, in the winter of 1775[2]. He re-
- ↑ See Vol. I, note ‡ at p. 654.
- ↑ The Hunter, after cruising for some time on the Irish station, was sent with despatches to Boston, where she arrived shortly after the memorable battle of Bunker’s Hill. See Vol. I, note * at p. 166. During the ensuing winter she was hauled on shore at Quebec, and her crew attached to the naval battalion, whose important services were duly acknowledged by Sir Guy Carleton, in his despatches announcing the retreat of the enemy, after a desperate, though ineffectual attempt to carry the place
