JOHN CHAFIN MORRIS, Esq.
[Commander.]
Only son of the late Jeremiah Morris, Esq., of Mere, co. Wilts, (whose immediate ancestor emigrated from Ireland during the great rebellion, about anno 1040) by his first wife, Jane, eldest daughter of the late Chafin Grove, Esq. of Chantry House, Mere, (descended from the ancient families of Chafin and Grove, of Zeal’s Manor House, in the parish of Mere, and Chisenburg House, Wiltshire). One of his maternal ancestors was beheaded with Colonel Penruddocke, for excessive loyalty, during the protectorate of Oliver Cromwell, and lies buried in the church of St. Sydling’s, Exeter, where a brass plate, with the following inscription, records his melancholy fate:–
“Hic jacet Hugo Groves, de Enford, in comitate Wilts, armiger, in restituendo ecclesiam, in asserendo regem, in propugnando legem, et libertatem Anglicanam, captus, et decollatus 16° Mali 1665. ‘Pro Lege et Rege.’”
Mr. John Chafin Morris entered the royal navy in 1797, under the auspices of the late Admiral Sir Roger Curtis; and served during the remainder of the French revolutionary war as midshipman on board the flag-ships of that distinguished officer and his successor, the late Sir Charles Cotton, in the Channel fleet, off Cadiz, and on the Mediterranean station. In 1802 he joined the Donegal 80, Captain Sir Richard J. Strachan, which ship, on the renewal of hostilities, was employed in watching the motions of a French squadron at Cadiz; off which port she captured the Spanish frigate Amphitrite, Nov. 25th, 1804[1]. She subsequently, when commanded by Captain (now Sir Pulteney) Malcolm, accompanied Nelson in his memorable pursuit of the combined fleets of France and Spain, to and from the West Indies. On the 23d Oct. 1805, she captured El Rayo, a partially dismasted three-decker, forming part of the Spanish squadron under Don Frederico Gravina, who, on his return to port after the battle of Trafalgar, had been ordered to sea again, for the purpose of attempting the rescue of some of his late consorts. On the 6th Feb 1806, she bore a conspicuous part at the defeat of a French squadron off St. Domingo, on which occasion she sustained a loss of forty-five men killed and wounded[2].
After the latter victory, Mr. Morris was appointed acting lieutenant of the Shark 16, on the Jamaica station; and in the course of the same year removed to the Stork 18, Captain George Le Geyt, under whom he served in an expedition against Batabano, on the south side of Cuba, the result of which has been stated in Suppl. Part III, p. 100, et seq. His promotion to the rank of lieutenant did not take place, however, until Sept. 22d, 1807.
This officer’s next appointment was, in 1808, to the Achille 74, Captain Sir Richard King, then employed in the blockade of Ferrol, and subsequently in the expedition to Walcheren. During the occupation of that island, he was entrusted with the command of five gun-boats, and frequently engaged with the enemy. We afterwards find him proceeding in the Achille to Cadiz, where he arrived on the 28th Feb. 1810; and commanded a Spanish gun-vessel, manned by British seamen, and employed in the defence of La-Isla-de-Leon, from Mar. 22d until July 17th following. Previous to his quitting the Achille for that purpose, he witnessed the destruction of four Spanish and one Portuguese line-of-battle ships, three other men of war belonging to the former nation, and twenty-four sail of merchantmen, driven on shore in a terrific gale, and the greater part burnt to prevent the wrecks becoming serviceable to the enemy. Whilst employed in the flotilla service he was thirty-eight times engaged with the enemy’s batteries, and on every occasion conducted himself with the utmost zeal and bravery.
On the 5th Aug. 1810, Lieutenant Morris was sent, with 100 men under his command, to assist in navigating the Glorioso, an old and wretchedly equipped Spanish 74, to Minorca, where he arrived after a most harassing voyage of thirty-eight days[3]. He afterwards served in the fleet off Toulon. His subsequent appointments were, June 21st, 1814, to be first lieutenant of the Prospero sloop, Captain George Greensill; and, in 1820, to the command of the Richmond, revenue cruiser, on the Irish station, where he captured a large smuggling cutter, and by his activity prevented others from landing their cargoes, for his “long and active services,” he was rewarded with a commander’s commission, dated May 27th, 1825.
This officer’s brother, the Rev. Frederick Morris, was chaplain of the Alexander 74, Captain Richard Rodney Bligh, when that ship, after a most heroic defence, fell into the enemy’s possession, Nov. 6th, 1794[4]; of the Theseus 74, bearing the flag of Nelson, at the attack upon Teneriffe, in 1797; and of the same ship, at the battle of the Nile, and when employed on the coast of Syria, where he lost his life through an accidental explosion of shells, in 1799[5].
- ↑ See Vol. I. Part I. p. 288.
- ↑ See Vol. I. Part II. pp. 589–594.
- ↑ See Vol. I. Part II. p. 873.
- ↑ See Vol. III. Part II. p. 254.
- ↑ See Vol. I. Part I. note † {13] at p. 300, et seq.