Sir Charles Rowley (Baronet of Hill House)

Notes on Officer

Rear-Admiral of the Red; Commander-in-Chief in the West Indies; Knight Commander of the most honorable Military Order of the Bath; and of the Austrian Order of Maria Theresa.

This officer, the fourth son of the late Vice-Admiral Sir Joshua Rowley, Bart., by Sarah, daughter of Bartholomew Burton, Esq., and a grandson of the late Sir William Rowley, K.B, was made a Lieutenant in 1789, and obtained the rank of Post-Captain Aug. 1, 1795. In the following year he commanded the Cleopatra, of 32 guns, on the American station, where he captured the Aurore French corvette. His next appointment was to l’Unité, in which frigate he took la Brunette, of 10 guns, pierced for 16, and 80 men, near l’Isle de Dieu. He also assisted at the capture of the Indian, of 16 guns, and another privateer, name unknown, in the Channel.

In the spring of 1801, our officer succeeded the present Sir Richard G. Keats in the command of the Boadicea, another fine frigate, the boats of which, in company with those of the Fisgard and Diamond, captured and brought out the Spanish vessel of war, El Neptuna, pierced for 20 guns, and a gun-boat carrying a 32-pounder, from under the batteries at Corunna. We next find him commanding the Ruby, of 64 guns, stationed off the Texel, under the orders of Rear-Admiral Thornbrough, and subsequently employed on the coast of Spain. From that ship he removed into the Eagle, a third rate, in which he proceeded to the Mediterranean.

In May, 1806, the Eagle formed part of the squadron under Sir W. Sidney Smith, stationed off the coasts of Naples and Sicily; and on the 11th of that month took an active part in the reduction of the island of Capri, on which occasion he had 2 men killed, and 11, including her first Lieutenant, wounded.

On the 27th Nov., 1811, Captain Rowley captured la Corceyre French frigate, pierced for 40 guns, but only 28 mounted, with a complement of 170 seamen and 130 soldiers, laden with 300 tons of wheat, and a quantity of military and other stores, from Trieste, bound to Corfu. In her attempt to escape, this ship had 3 men killed and several wounded. Some time after, the marines of the Eagle, in conjunction with a detachment from the 35th regiment, stormed and destroyed the battery of Cape Ceste, in the Adriatic.

In Sept. 1812, the boats under the command of Lieutenant Augustus Cannon, being sent by Captain Rowley off the Po, to intercept the enemy’s coasting trade, captured two gunboats and fifteen vessels laden with oil. In the execution of this service, 2 men were killed and 3 wounded; amongst the latter was Lieutenant Cannon, who died of his wounds. In the following year the adventurous spirit of British seamen and marines, when acting on shore, was strikingly displayed in the capture of Fiume, in the Gulf of Venice. On the 2d July, a squadron under the command of Rear-Admiral Freemantle, anchored about four miles from that town, which was defended by four batteries, mounting fifteen heavy guns. On the 3d, in the morning, the Milford, Elizabeth, Eagle, and Bacchante weighed, with a light breeze from the S.W., for the purpose of attacking the sea-line of batteries, leaving a detachment of boats and marines with the Haughty gun-brig, to storm the battery at the mole-head, as soon as the guns were silenced; but the wind shifting to the S.E. with a current from the river, broke the ships off, and the Eagle could only fetch the second battery, opposite to which she anchored. The enemy could not stand the well-directed Rovigno. Captain Rowley conceiving the capture of them practicable, communicated his intentions to Captain Hoste, who led in, and a firing was commenced on the batteries. After some resistance they were abandoned, when the boats of each ship, with parties of royal marines, under the command of Captain Hoste, landed, and drove the enemy out of the town, took possession of the batteries, disabled the guns, and demolished the different works, without sustaining any other loss than one man wounded. The enemy scuttled the greater part of the vessels previous to the approach of the boats; but by the active exertions of the officers and men employed, the whole were completely destroyed or brought off, and the ships and other vessels burnt that were building on the stocks.

Captain Rowley subsequently distinguished himself in the most conspicuous manner at the reduction of Trieste by the squadron under Rear-Admiral Freemantle, acting in concert with 1500 Austrian troops, commanded by Count Nugent; and continued to serve in the Adriatic, until the fall of Ragusa made the allies masters of every place in Dalmatia, Croatia, Istria, and the Frioul, with all the islands in that sea.

On the 23d May, 1814, our officer received the royal permission to accept and wear the insignia of a Knight of the Imperial Military Order of Maria Theresa, conferred upon him by his Majesty the Emperor of Austria, in testimony of the high sense entertained by that sovereign of his distinguished gallantry and services, in co-operation with the Imperial troops, on the coast of the Adriatic. He was advanced to the rank of Rear-Admiral on the 4th of the following month; nominated a K.C.B. Jan. 2, 1815; and at the latter end of the same year hoisted his flag on board the Bulwark, as Commander-in-Chief in the river Medway, where he remained during the customary period of three years. In the autumn of 1820 he was appointed to the chief command at Jamaica, on which station he still continues, with his flag in the Sybille, of 44 guns.

Sir Charles Rowley married Elizabeth, youngest daughter of the late Admiral Sir Richard King, Bart. His eldest son married, Aug. 31, 1822, Frances, only daughter of John Evelyn, of Wotton, Surrey, Esq. His eldest daughter is the wife of Peter Longford Brooke, of Moore Hall, Cheshire, Esq.