Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 61.djvu/476

 Chancery, and of some Special Cases adjudged in the Court of King's Bench.’ The third volume is perhaps not altogether on a par with its predecessors; but the reports as a whole are of unusual value by reason of the accuracy and perspicacity with which not only the decisions but the material facts and arguments of counsel are recorded. The somewhat tantalising brevity of the decrees is due, not to the reporter, but to the laconic sententiousness then affected by the judges. The three volumes were reprinted in 1768 (London, 3 vols. fol.) Later editions, with additional references by S. C. Cox, appeared at London in 1787 and 1793 (3 vols. 8vo). A reprint of Cox's edition, with improvements by J. B. Monro, W. L. Lowndes, and J. Randall, followed in 1826 (London, 3 vols. 8vo). An engraved portrait of the reporter, from a painting by Kneller, is frontispiece to the folio editions.

 WILLIAMS, afterwards WILLIAMS-FREEMAN, WILLIAM PEERE (1742–1832), admiral of the fleet, grandson of William Peere Williams [q. v.], and son of Frederick Williams, D.D. (d. 1746), prebendary of Peterborough, was born at Peterborough on 6 Jan. 1741–2. His mother was a daughter of Robert Clavering [q. v.], bishop of Peterborough, by Mary, sister of John Cook Freeman of Fawley Court, Buckinghamshire. In June 1757 his name was entered on the books of the Royal Sovereign, guardship at Spithead, but he appears to have first gone to sea in August 1759 with Lord Howe in the Magnanime, which had a distinguished part in the battle of Quiberon Bay, 20 Nov. 1759 [see ]. In September 1762 Williams followed Howe to the Princess Amelia, and in August 1763 joined the Romney with Lord Colville on the Halifax station. On 18 Sept. 1764 he was promoted to be lieutenant of the Rainbow on the Virginia station, and remained in her till she paid off in October 1766. On 26 May 1768 he was promoted to be commander, and without having served in that rank was posted on 10 Jan. 1771. In the following December he was appointed to the Active, going out to the West Indies; but in July 1773, his health having given way, he had sufficient interest to get the ship sent to Newfoundland. His health, however, did not improve, and in November he exchanged into the Lively, which he brought home and paid off in 1774. In March 1777 he commissioned the Venus, in which he joined Lord Howe on the North America station, and was with the fleet off Rhode Island on 10 Aug. 1778. In April 1780 he commissioned the Flora, a new and large 36-gun frigate, carrying 18-pounders on her main-deck, and an experimental addition of six 18-pounder carronades to her establishment. When, on 10 Aug. 1780, she met the French 32-gun frigate Nymphe, her victory was easy. The Nymphe lost sixty-three men killed and seventy-three wounded; the Flora had nine killed and twenty-seven wounded. Such a decisive result ought to have given Williams full confidence in his novel armament, but it does not seem to have done so.

In March 1781 the Flora was with the fleet under Vice-admiral Darby at the second relief of Gibraltar, and was afterwards sent on to Minorca, in company with the 28-gun frigate Crescent, in charge of some victuallers. As they were returning through the Straits on 30 May they met two Dutch frigates of 36 guns, the Castor and the Briel. After a sharp action the Flora captured the Castor, but the Briel had meantime compelled the Crescent to strike her flag; the Flora hastened to her consort's assistance, and the Briel made her escape. Afterwards, on 19 June, as the two frigates and their prize were broad off Cape Finisterre they fell in with two French 32-gun frigates, Friponne and Gloire. The Crescent and Castor had been dismasted in the former engagement and were jury-rigged in a very make-shift manner; the Castor had only a prize crew on board, and those unable to leave the pumps. Williams made the signal to separate, and left the Crescent and Castor easy prizes to the two Frenchmen. His conduct was not blamed;