George Henry Ayton

Notes on Officer

George Henry Ayton entered the Navy, 3 Dec. 1807, as L.M., on board the Royal William, Capt. Hon. Courtenay Boyle, flag-ship of Admiral Geo. Montagu, at Spithead; and, in the following March, joined the Daphne 20, Capts. Fras. Mason and Philip Pipon. On 25 April, 1808, he served in the boats of that ship and the Tartarus, commanded by Lieut. Wm. Elliott, at the cutting out, with a loss to the British of only 5 persons wounded, of a convoy of 10 deeply laden vessels, moored close under the fort of a castle mounting 10 guns, in the harbour of Fladstrand, near the Skawe, defended also by a heavy fire from another battery, as well as from the crews of the vessels assembled on the beach, and made fast to the shore by hawsers. Removing, in Feb. 1809, to the Victorious 74, Capts. Graham Eden Hamond and John Talbot, he took part in the ensuing expedition to Flushing, and, on 21 Feb. 1812, assisted, as Master’s Mate, while cruising in the Gulf of Venice, in company with the Weazle 18, at the capture – after a most gallant conflict of four hours and a half, in which the Victorious had 27 men killed, and 99, including himself, wounded, and the enemy 400 killed and wounded – of the French 74-gun ship Rivoli, whose consorts, three brigs and two gunboats, were also defeated. In Sept. 1814, Mr. Ayton, who for the two previous months had been acting as Lieutenant of the Victorious, on the North America station, joined the Rosario 10, Capt. Thos. Ladd Peake, in which vessel he served for nearly twelve months. He was then promoted to his present rank, by commission dated 4 March, 1815, and has since been on half-pay.

Lieut. Ayton married, 23 Nov. 1835, Harriette, eldest daughter of Saville Smith, Esq., of Bollington. Agents – Holmes and Folkard.