Royal Naval Biography/Belchier, Nathaniel

2350481Royal Naval Biography — Belchier, NathanielJohn Marshall


NATHANIEL BELCHIER, Esq.
[Commander.]

Obtained the rank of lieutenant in 1794; served as such under Captain (now Sir Robert Waller) Otway, in the Trent 32; and commanded the boats of that frigate at the capture and destruction of a Spanish ship and three schooners, lying in shoal water, under the protection of a five-gun battery, at Porto Rico, in Mar. 1799. He afterwards served on the coast of Egypt, and was presented with the Turkish gold medal, in common with his brother officers. We next find him first of the Thetis frigate. Captain George Miller, by whom he is highly spoken of in an official letter addressed to the senior officer off Guadaloupe, reporting the capture of a French national corvette, le Nisus, and the destruction of the fortifications of the port of Des Hayes, Dec. 12th, 1809[1]. He was advanced to the rank of commander, while serving as first lieutenant of the Neptune 98, at the Leeward Islands, Oct. 21st, 1810.

This officer married, April 28th, 1803, the daughter of the Rev. Edward Bryant, of Newport, co. Essex; and became a widower in May 1830.