# Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Donnelly, Ross

​DONNELLY, Sir ROSS (1761?–1840), admiral, son of a Dr. Donnelly, was born about 1761. After serving under Vice-admiral Marriot Arbuthnot [q. v.] on the coast of North America, and at the capture of Charlestown in 1780, he was promoted on the Newfoundland station to be lieutenant of the sloop Morning Star on 27 Sept. 1781. After the peace he served as mate in the East India Company's service, but returned to the navy in 1793, and was appointed first lieutenant of the Montagu, which ship, after the death of her captain, James Montagu [q. v.], he commanded in the battle of 1 June 1794. As Howe expressed approval of his conduct, and Sir Alexander Hood (Lord Bridport) [q. v.] wrote him a complimentary letter, Donnelly and his friends expected some more marked acknowledgment of his service than the promotion to commander's rank, which, together with the other first lieutenants of the ships engaged, he received on 6 July 1794. He hoped that the gold medal given to some of the flag officers and captains [see Howe, Richard, Earl] would be given to him, and applied for it; but was told that it was only given to those who were post captains at the date of the battle. This rule was afterwards modified, and, both after the Nile and Trafalgar, first lieutenants who succeeded to the command by the death of their captain received the gold medal. Donnelly was, however, promoted to be captain on 24 June 1795, and appointed to the Pegasus frigate in the North Sea with Admiral Duncan. From her he was moved to the Maidstone on the coast of France, in which, in 1801, he brought home a valuable convoy of 120 merchant ships from Oporto a service for which the merchants of Oporto presented him with a handsome piece of plate. Towards the end of the year he was moved to the Narcissus, which for the next three years he commanded in the Mediterranean, attached to the fleet under Nelson. In 1805, still in the Narcissus, he accompanied Sir Home Riggs Popham [q. v.] to the Cape of Good Hope, and afterwards to Buenos Ayres, whence he returned to England with despatches, in which his individual services were highly commended both by Popham and the general in command of the troops. He was then appointed to the Ardent of 64 guns, and went back to the Rio de la Plata in command of a convoy of transports. At the capture of Monte Video he commanded the naval brigade, and rendered important service both in transporting the heavy guns and in erecting batteries [see Auchmutt, Sir Samuel]. In 1808 Donnelly was appointed to the Invincible, a 74-gun ship, in which he joined the squadron off Cadiz, and, later on, the main fleet off Toulon under Lord Collingwood. In 1810 his eyes became disabled by cataract, and he was forced to resign his command. Two years later he had so far recovered as to apply for employment, and was appointed to the Devonshire, which he fitted out. The conclusion of peace, however, prevented her going to sea, and Donnelly had no further service, though he was promoted to be rear-admiral on 4 June 1814; vice-admiral on 27 May 1825; admiral on 28 June 1838. He was nominated a K.C.B. on 28 Feb. 1837. He died on 30 Sept. 1840. He was married and left issue. His eldest daughter, Anne Jane (d. 1855), married, on 18 April 1816, George John, twentieth lord Audley, and had issue.
[Marshall's Roy. Nav. Biogr. ii. (vol. i. pt. ii.) 613*. This memoir, apparently supplied by Donnelly himself, is reproduced with a few additions in Gent. Mag. 1841, i. 95; Navy Lists.]
J. K. L.