Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall sp4.djvu/396

  son of the late Rev. Sir Henry Hervey Aston Bruce, Bart, of Downhill, co. Londonderry, by Letitia, daughter of the late Rev. Dr. Henry Barnard, of Bovagh, in the same county (second son of William, late Bishop of Derry, and brother to Thomas, late Bishop of Limerick).

This officer derives his descent from Sir Robert de Bris, a Norman knight, to whom William the Conquerer granted, as a reward for his services, no less than ninety-four lordships in Yorkshire, among which was the barony of Skelton, in Cleveland, his principal residence.

Mr. W. H. Bruce entered the navy at an early age, in 1803, under the protection of Captain (now Sir Henry) Blackwood, with whom he served in the Euryalus frigate and Ajax 80, until the latter ship was destroyed by fire, near the island of Tenedos, in the night of Feb. 14, 1807. He was consequently present at the glorious battle of Trafalgar.

After the destruction of the Ajax, Mr. Bruce and three other midshipmen joined the Endymion frigate, Captain the Hon. Thomas Bladen Capel, which ship, in re-passing the Dardanelles, after Sir John T. Duckworth’s unsuccessful demonstration before Constantinople, received two stone shot, each weighing upwards of 700 pounds, and sustained a loss of several men killed and wounded.

The Endymion formed part of the squadron employed in covering the retreat and embarkation of Sir John Moore’s army at Corunna, in Jan. 1809; and Mr. Bruce continued to serve under Captain Capel until the month of July following, when he rejoined Captain the Hon. Henry Blackwood, then commanding the Warspite 74. His promotion to the rank of lieutenant took place Jan. 5, 1810, when he was appointed to the Prospero sloop; but soon removed from her to the Belvidera frigate, Captain Richard Byron.

On the 22d July, 1810, the master of the Belvidera was fired at by two Danish schooners and a sloop-rigged gun-vessel,