WILLIAM TAYLOR, Esq
Vice-Admiral of the White.
At the close of the American war, this officer commanded the Cygnet sloop; and during the Spanish armament, the Thorn, a vessel of similar description, stationed in the Channel[1]. He was subsequently appointed to the Weazle, of 12 guns; and on the 22d May, 1793, sailed from Spithead with the fleet under Lord Hood, whom he accompanied to Gibraltar, and returned from thence with the homeward bound trade.
On the 24th Sept. in the same year, Captain Taylor obtained post rank, and soon after, the command of la Prompte, of 20 guns, stationed in the North Sea. From that vessel he was removed into the Andromeda frigate, and served in her on the coast of Scotland, at Newfoundland, Halifax, and in the Channel, until the spring of 1799, when he succeeded the Hon. Michael de Courcy, in the command of the Magnanime, of 48 guns, in which ship he assisted at the capture of the island of Goree in April 1801[2]; and then proceeded to the West Indies, where he continued during the remainder of the war.
Our officer was advanced to the rank of Rear-Admiral, Aug. 1, 1811. His commission as Vice-Admiral bears date Aug. 12, 1819.
- ↑ In January, 1789, Lieutenant Thackeray, of the Thorn, was tried by a court-martial, on several charges exhibited against him by Captain Taylor; and amongst others, for going into the captain’s cabin, when alone at tea, and calling him scoundrel and liar. The privacy of this offence excluded all other positive evidence but that of the prosecutor; and, when the court assembled, the President had his doubts of the propriety of admitting Captain Taylor to give his evidence; the court was therefore adjourned, until they had the opinion of counsel on the following question: “Whether Captain Taylor’s evidence, under the above circumstances, ought to be admitted, or not; and, if it ought to be admitted, whether, after he has been examined, as is the custom of courts-martial, to examine the witnesses separately, and apart from each other, he can be permitted to remain in the court to conduct the prosecution?” The opinion of counsel on this question was, in substance, that in criminal prosecutions it is not a legal objection to the competency of a witness, or to the admissibility of his evidence, that he is the prosecutor, whatever objections to his credit may arise, under the circumstances of the case. The rule, which is universal in civil actions, that a plaintiff cannot be admitted as a witness in his own cause, does not apply to criminal prosecutions, which are always supposed to be at the suit of the crown, and on behalf of the public.
The court afterwards re-assembled, Captain Taylor’s evidence was admitted, and the prisoner was dismissed from the rank of Lieutenant, and adjudged to serve in the navy as a Midshipman.
See M‘Arthur on Courts Martial, edit. 1813, vol. II, cap. iii, sect. 16, pp. 103, 4 ,5.
- ↑ See p. 417.