Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v1p2.djvu/346

Rh  officer is the eldest son of the late Hon. and Rev. William Digby, Dean of Durham, Vicar of Coles Hill, a Chaplain in Ordinary to the King, and Canon of Christ Church, by Charlotte, daughter of Joseph Cox, Esq., and niece of the late Sir Charles Sheffield, Bart.

He went to sea at an early age with the late Admiral Innes; served for some time as a Midshipman on board the Eurepa, of 50 guns, in the West Indies; was made a Lieutenant in 1790; commanded the Incendiary sloop in 1796, and subsequently the Aurora, a small frigate, on the Lisbon station, where he cruised with very great activity; and in addition to forty-eight sail of the enemy’s merchantmen taken, sunk, or destroyed by him, captured the following national vessels and privateers; la Velos Arragonesa Spanish frigate, pierced for 30 guns, with a complement of 100 men; the Egalité French corvette, of 20 guns and 200 men; a privateer of the same force; and seven others carrying in the whole 71 guns and upwards 400 men. His post commission bears date Dec. 19, 1796.

In the autumn of 1798, Captain Digby was appointed to the Leviathan, a third rate, bearing the broad pendant of Commodore Duckworth, with whom he served at the reduction of Minorca, which was effected by a squadron consisting of two 74’s, one 44, and seven smaller vessels, in conjunction with a body of troops commanded by the Hon. Charles Stuart. The Spanish garrison was between 3000 and 4000 strong, and had the means of making a stout resistance; notwithstanding which the British obtained possession of the