Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v1p1.djvu/380

350  Buller family is of very ancient establishment in this country, and has chiefly resided in the counties of Devon and Cornwall, where its respective branches have been long in possession of considerable landed property. The subject of this memoir is the third son of the late John Buller, of East Looe, and Bake, co. Cornwall, Esq., by his first wife, Mary, daughter of Sir John St. Aubyn, Bart., and was born at the Admiralty, Dec. 24, 1764. He commenced his naval career at the early age of twelve years, under the auspices of the late Lord Mulgrave; was with his Lordship, on board the Courageux, in the engagement between Keppel and d’Orvilliers, July 27, 1778 and continued with him till he was promoted to a Lieutenancy, when he removed into the Sceptre, of 64 guns, then commanded by Captain Graves. The Sceptre being under orders for the East Indies, Lieutenant Buller proceeded thither, and was in most of Sir Edward Hughes’s actions with M. de Suffrein, in one of which he was slightly wounded.

In 1783, our officer, then a mere boy, was advanced to the rank of Commander, in the Chaser of 14 guns, and returned to England in that vessel soon after General Stuart’s attack upon Cuddalore, June 1783, at which he was present. We next find him in the Brisk sloop, on the Halifax station, where he displayed great activity in his endeavours to suppress smuggling. From his arrival on the coast of America to the time of his quitting it, comprising a space of six years, he was also indefatigably employed in surveying the different harbours, &c., and thereby obtained a perfect knowledge thereof. He obtained post rank in the Dido frigate, July 19, 1790, and returned to England at the latter end of the same year.

