Page:A Naval Biographical Dictionary.djvu/1303

Rh  time a Commissioner of Roads and Bridges at Teignmouth in Devon) invented a rudder “for the more easy and safe conducting all classes of H.M. ships and those in the Merchants’ service.” He married a daughter of his patron, Admiral Schanck, and was left a widower in 1812 with three sons and one daughter.

 WIGLEY. 

was born 25 July, 1786.

This officer entered the Navy, 24 Aug. 1799, as Midshipman, on board the 50, Capts. Geo. Bowen and Alex. Wilson, employed at first in the expedition to Holland and next on the Mediterranean station. Uniting in 1801 in the operations against the French in Egypt he assisted in a boat at the landing of the troops in Aboukir Bay, served with the flotilla on the Lakes, and was wounded in the head by a dragoon in the battle of 21 March, in which Sir Ralph Abercromby was killed. Pleased with the conduct he had displayed Capt. Wilson, on being removed to the, a frigate captured at Alexandria, took him with him. In June, 1802, a few weeks after the latter ship had been paid off, he joined the 74, Capt. Robt. Bendall Littlehales; under whom we find him, on his arrival in the West Indies, present, in June, 1803, at the reduction of Ste. Lucie. In the course of the same year, as a reward for his good behaviour, he was rated Master’s Mate of the 36, Capt. Lord Jas. O’Bryen. He aided, in the boats of that frigate, in cutting out a merchant-ship from under the protection of an 18-gun brig and several batteries in the island of Martinique. He participated too in an attack made, in a bay at Guadeloupe, on a flotilla of 11 or 12 armed schooners, carrying 1400 troops destined for the invasion, which was completely frustrated, of the island of Antigua. After a severe struggle, in which all but one of the boats were sunk, three of the enemy’s vessels were captured and brought out. On 13 March, 1804, Mr. Wigley was present at the boarding and carrying, by the armed sloop, manned with 30 volunteers under Lieut. Thos. Forrest, of the French privateer Mosambique of 10 18-pounder carronades and 60 men, beneath a battery close to Pearl Rock, Martinique; and in the ensuing May he landed, and assisted in silencing the batteries, in the successful attack upon Surinam. In April, 1805, having returned to England, he was received as a Supernumerary on board the, flagship of Sir Geo. Montagu at Spithead; and in the following Sept. he joined, again as Master’s Mate, the 74, bearing the flag of Vice-Admiral Edw. Thornbrough in the Channel. While he was at the maintop of the latter ship during a heavy gale, a block fell upon his skull from the topmasthead and wounded him severely. On 30 Aug. 1806, at which period he had been serving for a short time on board the 120, flag-ship of Earl St. Vincent off Lisbon, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. His next appointments were – 24 Oct. 1806, to the sloop, Capt. Edw. Reynolds Sibly, whom he accompanied to South America – 17 March, 1808, after seven months of half-pay, to the 74, Capts. Geo. Cockburn and Geo. Parker, in the North Sea – and 2 Oct. 1809, to the 36, Capts. Geo. Fras. Seymour and John Joyce. He was detached in the boats of the to man some armed transports during the bombardment of Flushing, at which he received a splinter wound. While belonging to the he was employed in command of a party of seamen in dismantling the forts on the banks of the Tagus, when the British army retreated to the lines at Torres Vedras. The manner in which he executed this service procured him the thanks of the Admiral. On 28 Jan. 1812, the was wrecked on the Haak Sand, near the Texel. After they had been for two days in a most perilous position her officers and crew were rescued by the enemy, to whom however they became prisoners. At the end of the war Mr. Wigley regained his liberty. His last appointments were – 5 June, 1819, and 24 Jan. 1821, as First-Lieutenant to the 42 and  78, Capts. Wm. Bowles and Adam Mackenzie, both in South America – 10 Oct. 1822, to the Revenue-cruizer, on the coast of Ireland, in which vessel he was very active in the suppression of smuggling – 9 April, 1828, to the command of the  12, on the same station, where he remained until Dec. 1831, and made more seizures than all the eight or ten sloops there employed – and 5 March, 1837, to the charge, which he retained until 15 Nov. 1841, of the Semaphore at Kingston. He was advanced to his present rank 23 Nov. 1841.

Commander Wigley married 20 Dec. 1817, and has issue one son and a daughter.

 WIGSTON. 

is son of John Wigston, Esq., of Trent Park, near Barnet, by Mary, sister of the late Admiral Sir Willoughby Thomas Lake, K.C.B.

This officer entered the Navy, 7 Sept. 1804, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the 32, Capts. Chas. Elphinstone, Edw. Thos. Troubridge, and Hon. Wm. Pakenham. Being ordered to the East Indies, the there, in company with the  18, destroyed, 4 July, 1806, under the fort of Manado, the Dutch Company’s brig Christian Elizabeth of 8 guns and 80 men. On 6 of the same month the two ships took at the island of Tidore, the Belgica of 12 guns and 32 men; and on 26 they fought a gallant action with a Dutch squadron, consisting of the Pallas frigate, of 40 guns and 250 men, the Vittoria (a two-decker) and Batavia Indiamen, both richly laden and both (the one of 800, the other of 500 tons) armed for the purposes of war, and the William corvette of 20 guns (24-pounders) and 110 men; the result of which was the capture of all the enemy’s ships but the William, after a loss had been incurred by them of 12 killed and 39 wounded, and by the British of 1 killed and 11 wounded. The being wrecked in Oct. 1808, off the coast of Luconia, Mr. Wigston, after sharing in the hardships mentioned in, was received as Midshipman (a rating he had before attained) on board the  74, bearing the flag of Sir Edw. Pellew. On his return to England in the summer of 1809 he joined the 74, Capt. Pulteney Malcolm; in the barge of which ship we find him present as Master’s Mate in an attack made, 15 Nov. 1810, on the two French frigates Amazone and Eliza, as they lay aground under the protection of several strong batteries near La Hogue. In the early part of 1811 he proceeded in the 32, Capt. Jas. Lucas Yeo, to the West Indies; where, shortly after his removal to the 74, flag-ship of Sir Fras. Laforey, he was made Lieutenant, 13 June in the same year, into the sloop, Capt. Hon. Valentine Gardner. He came home in June of the following year; and was appointed next – 15 Sept. 1812, to the 74, Capt. Willoughby Thos. Lake, in the Channel – 22 Nov. 1814 for nine months to the 74, Capt. Chas. Dashwood part of the force attached to the expedition against New Orleans, where he was employed in the boats in co-operation with the army – 2 Feb. 1819, as First-Lieutenant (a post he had filled on board the ) to the 18, Capt. Chas. Grenville Randolph, on the Cork station – and 29 Aug. 1820 in a similar capacity (he had been superseded from the at his own request 12 Oct. preceding) to the  44, fitting for the flag of Sir Chas. Rowley, Commander-in-Chief in the West Indies. He was promoted, 14 Jan. 1822, to the command of the 10, on the latter station; where he