Page:A Naval Biographical Dictionary.djvu/45

AYTON—BACK. a Volunteer at the time of the debarkation near the Helder, and was in one of the first boats that effected a landing. On 28 Sept., however, in the same year, the, owing to the mismanagement of her pilot, was wrecked in the Texel; but so fully acquitted was Capt. Ayscough of all share in the disaster, by a court-martial held at Sheerness on 1 Nov., and so highly was he complimented for his great exertions in afterwards saving the crew, that, on 18 of the next month, he was appointed to the , another armée de flûte in which, besides attending the expeditions to Quiberon and Cadiz, on each of which occasions he volunteered his services on shore, and was selected to command a party of seamen, he similarly joined in the Egyptian campaign of 1801, and for his exertions, which were conspicuously important, was presented with the Turkish gold medal. The, after a performance of various other services, including an assistance at the occupation of the island of Madeira, being paid off in May, 1802, Capt. Ayscough, who had been violently attacked by the plague in Egypt, was next invested with the command, 2 June, 1803, of the store-ship; and, on then proceeding to the West Indies, continued, despite a nearly fatal fit of the yellow fever, to serve on that station, until officially posted into the , of 32 guns, 18 April, 1806; previously to which event he appears to have acted as Flag-Captain to Vice-Admirals Sir John Thos. Duckworth and Jas. Rich. Dacres, to have also commanded the and  sloops, and to have officiated as Acting-Captain of the  50. Towards the close of 1806, Capt. Ayscough returned with convoy to England, and was for several months employed at the blockade of Havre de Grace. After forming part, at the request of Sir Sam. Hood, of that officer's squadron in the expedition against Madeira, in Dec. 1807, the, on her return home with the Rear- Admiral's despatches, was sent to a high northern latitude for the protection of the Greenland fishery; subsequently to which, she embarked the Turkish Ambassador and his suite, together with the present Earl of Roden, and proceeded to the Mediterranean in charge of a fleet of merchantmen, by the Masters of whom her captain was forwarded a letter of thanks for his great and unremitted attention. During the operations of June, 1809, against Ischia and Procida, Capt. Ayscough landed with the troops, was subsequently engaged with the enemy's sea batteries, and succeeded in destroying many of their gunboats. In the following Nov. he conveyed the Turkish Ambassador and suite from Smyrna to Malta; and, on 3 May, 1810, although excluded, in consequence of the becalmed state of his ship, from affording any assistance, was an eye-witness of the brilliant victory gained by the late Sir Jahleel Brenton, in the 38, over the Franco-Neapolitan squadron in the Bay of Naples. Capt. Ayscough appears, however, about that period, to have attracted the notice of Rear-Admiral Geo. Martin by his handsome support of the and  in an attack on the batteries at Terracina, from which port four deeply laden vessels were at the same time brought out. Shortly after the latter event we find Capt. Ayscough, with two frigates and several sloops under his orders, assigned the deeply responsible duty of protecting Sicily against the threatened invasion of Joachim Murat, whose every attempt, although in command of 40,000 troops and of about 200 gun-boats, to gain a footing on the island, he happily succeeded, by the most indomitable exertions, in frustrating. He was next employed, with seven men-of-war at his disposal, in reconnoitering the line of coast between Naples and Civita Vecchia; but in the summer of 1811, owing to the serious damage experienced by the during a severe gale off the island of Candia, was obliged to return prematurely to England, and in consequence lost an appointment to a large frigate which had been promised to him by the First Lord of the Admiralty as a reward for his zeal and activity. He afterwards, from April, 1822, until the spring of 1825, superintended the Ordinary at Plymouth; and for his subsequent able management, as Commissioner of Jamaica and Bermuda Dockyards, was honoured with the thanks of the Board of Admiralty. He attained Flag-rank, 23 Nov. 1841, and is at present unemployed.

When the practice of awarding good-service pensions was instituted, Rear-Admiral Ayscough was one of the first Captains to whom the boon was extended. He married Anna Maria, eldest daughter of the late Commodore Thos. Parr, R.N., of Langdown House, co. Hants, a descendant of the celebrated Earl Godolphin, and has issue a son and two daughters. The son, Hawkins Godolphin, is a Lieutenant, R.N.

 AYTON. 

entered the Navy, 3 Dec. 1807, as L.M., on board the, Capt. Hon. Courtenay Boyle, flag-ship of Admiral Geo. Montagu, at Spithead; and, in the following March, joined the 20, Capts. Fras. Mason and Philip Pipon. On 25 April, 1808, he served in the boats of that ship and the, commanded by Lieut. Wm. Elliott, at the cutting out, with a loss to the British of only 5 persons wounded, of a convoy of 10 deeply laden vessels, moored close under the fort of a castle mounting 10 guns, in the harbour of Fladstrand, near the Skawe, defended also by a heavy fire from another battery, as well as from the crews of the vessels assembled on the beach, and made fast to the shore by hawsers. Removing, in Feb. 1809, to the 74, Capts. Graham Eden Hamond and John Talbot, he took part in the ensuing expedition to Flushing, and, on 21 Feb. 1812, assisted, as Master's Mate, while cruising in the Gulf of Venice, in company with the 18, at the capture – after a most gallant conflict of four hours and a half, in which the  had 27 men killed, and 99, including himself, wounded, and the enemy 400 killed and wounded – of the French 74-gun ship Rivoli, whose consorts, three brigs and two gunboats, were also defeated. In Sept. 1814, Mr. Ayton, who for the two previous months had been acting as Lieutenant of the, on the North America station, joined the 10, Capt. Thos. Ladd Peake, in which vessel he served for nearly twelve months. He was then promoted to his present rank, by commission dated 4 March, 1815, and has since been on half-pay.

Lieut. Ayton married, 23 Nov. 1835, Harriette, eldest daughter of Saville Smith, Esq., of Bollington. – Holmes and Folkard.



BACK, Kt. 

was born, 6 Nov. 1796, at Stockport, in Cheshire.

This officer entered the Navy, in Sept. 1808, as Midshipman, on board the 38, Capt. Robt. Mends. On 26 Nov. following he was present at the capture, off Cherbourg, of Le Général Ernouf French privateer, of 16 guns and 58 men; and, in the course of March, 1809, he assisted in the boats, while serving on the north coast of Spain, at the destruction of 20 heavy guns, mounted on the batteries at Lequeytio, and defended by a detachment of French soldiers – at the seizure also of several vessels up the river Andero – and at the destruction of the guns and signal-posts at Baignio, on which latter occasion, the 20th of the month, he was made prisoner and sent to France, where he remained until May, 1814. On regaining his liberty, Mr. Back joined the 60, flag-ship for some time of Sir Thos. Byam Martin at Flushing, and afterwards employed on the Halifax station. He passed his examination 5 Feb. 1817; became attached, in March following, to the 76, bearing the flag of Sir Chas. Rowley in the river Medway; and, on 14 Jan. 1818, removed to the hired brig, Lieut.-