Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v2p2.djvu/475

 daughter of William Jepson, of Heighington, co. Durham Esq.

He was born at Dover, in Kent, Mar. 20, 1771; and entered the naval service in May 1784, as a Midshipman on board the Kite cutter, commanded by Lieutenant Henry Gunter, and employed as a cruiser against the smugglers on the N.E. coast of England. That vessel being paid off in Nov. 1786, he then embarked on board a merchantman, and made several voyages to Holland, the Baltic, and Canada, for the purpose of improving himself in nautical science. In 1789 we find him joining the Brazen, a King’s cutter; and during the Spanish armament, he appears to have been successively removed into the Alfred 74, Meleager 32, and Leviathan, a third-rate, the latter commanded by the late Lord Mulgrave, who subsequently placed him under the protection of Captain Henry Savage, of the Pomona frigate, a most active, zealous, and experienced officer, with whom he continued until the termination of the Russian armament, towards the close of 1791. Mr. Cumby then joined the Hebe, of 38 guns, and served in that ship, under the command of Captain Alexander Hood, on the Channel station, till Mar. 1792; when he passed his examination for a Lieutenant, and was soon afterwards sent by Lord Mulgrave to the Newfoundland station, in the Assistance 50, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Sir Richard King, Bart., with whom he returned to England at the commencement of the ensuing winter.

On his arrival at Portsmouth, Mr. Cumby had the grief and mortification to learn that his excellent friend and powerful patron had paid the debt of nature; his Lordship having died at Spa but a very few weeks before. The prospect of a war, however, with republican France, still induced him not to despair of promotion; and his hopes were fortunately realized, through the influence of the present Lord Mulgrave, in Oct. 1793, when he received a commission as third Lieutenant of the Assistance, at that time commanded by Captain Nathan