# Royal Naval Biography/Conolly, Matthew

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MATTHEW CONOLLY, Esq. [Commander.]
Was born at Rochester, July 5th, 1776. He entered the royal navy in Oct. 1787, and served as midshipman and master’s-mate on board the Endymion 44, armed en flûte, commanded by Lieutenant Joseph Sall; Orion 74, Captains Andrew Sutherland and Charles Chamberlayne; Hyaena 24, Captain William Hargood; Goelan brig, Captain Thomas Wolley; Hannibal 74, Captain John Colpoys; Theseus 74, Captain Robert Calder; and Majestic 74, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Benjamin Caldwell; from which latter ship he was promoted into the Terpsichore frigate. Captain Richard Bowen, on the Leeward Islands station, Jan. 15th, 1795.
​The Orion formed part of the squadron under Commodore Goodall, when reviewed by King George III., off Plymouth, Aug. 18th, 1789. In the following year, she accompanied Rear-Admiral Cornish to Barbadoes, where, in consequence of an alarm of fire in the fore-magazine, the greater part of her crew jumped overboard, and several men perished. During the Russian armament, in 1791, she was attached to the fleet under Lord Hood, assembled at Spithead. The Hyaena, after cruising for some time on the Jamaica station, where she took about twenty prizes, at the commencement of the French revolutionary war, was captured, off Hispaniola, by la Concorde frigate, of 44 guns and 340 men. A few days afterwards, the blacks at Cape François having risen en masse, and commenced a general massacre of the white inhabitants, Mr. Conolly took advantage of the confusion, and effected his escape to an American brig in the harbour. He then procured the loan of a boat, re-landed, and succeeded in bringing off the whole of his shipmates, with whom he sailed for Jamaica, in an English cartel, during the conflagration of the town.
On the 4th Sept. 1795, Lieutenant Conolly was appointed to his old ship the Theseus, in which, successively commanded by Captains Robert Calder, Herbert Browell, Augustus Montgomery, and John Aylmer, he served on the Channel and Mediterranean stations, until May 20th, 1797. He was then removed to the Irresistible 74, Captain George Martin, off Cadiz. On the 3d July following, he commanded that ship’s launch, and had three of his men wounded, in a conflict with the Spanish flotilla, respecting which Messrs. Clarke and M‘Arthur, the biographers of Nelson, say:
“As if it had been in the original and true spirit of chivalry, the renowned Sir Horatio Nelson was destined to keep the vigils of his knighthood, during the perilous night of July 3d, 1797, at the mouth of Cadiz harbour. On the evening of that day it had been given out in orders by the commander-in-chief, that all the barges and launches, without exception, with their carronades properly fitted, and plenty of ammunition and pikes, were to be with Admiral Nelson at half-past eight o’clock, on a ​particular service. The garrison of Cadiz at this time consisted of from 4000 to 4500 men. On the line wall facing the sea, seventy pieces of cannon and eight mortars had been mounted, and near Alameda were four other mortars; from the Capuchins, at the back of the town, to the land point, were three batteries of four guns each. Such was the strength of the forts at Cadiz when Sir Horatio Nelson undertook its bombardment. The transactions of that memorable night were detailed by him in the following otBcial letter to Earl St. Vincent, dated Theseus, July 4th, 1797:
“In obedience to your orders, the Thunder bomb was placed by Lieutenant Gourly, her present commander, assisted by Mr. Jackson, master of the Ville de Paris, who volunteered his able services, within 2500 yards of the walls of Cadiz; and the shells were thrown from her with much precision, under the direction of Lieutenant Baynes, of the royal artillery; but unfortunately it was soon found that the large mortar had been materially injured by its former services. I therefore ordered her to return under the protection of the Goliath, Terpsichore, and Fox, who were kept under sail for that purpose. The Spaniards having sent out a great number of mortar gun-boats and armed launches, I directed a vigorous attack to be made on them, which was done with such gallantry, that they were driven and pursued close to the wall: of Cadiz, and must have suffered considerable loss. I have the pleasure to inform you, that two mortar-boats and an armed launch remained in our possession.’”
Lieutenant Conolly’s next appointment was. Dec. 26th, 1797, to the Emerald 36, in which frigate he served under Captains Lord Proby, Thomas Moutray Waller, and James O’Brien, on the Mediterranean and West India stations, until the peace of Amiens. During this period of four years, he assisted at the capture of many prizes, among which were the French privateer Chasseur Basque, taken on the coast of Portugal, Feb. 12th, 1798; three frigates and two brigs of war, captured by a detachment from the fleet under Lord Keith, June 18th, 1799; and two Spanish frigates, each laden with quicksilver, &c., together with several valuable merchantmen under their convoy, from Cadiz bound to Lima, in April, 1800.
From Jan. 13th, 1802, until April 16th, 1804, Lieutenant Conolly appears to have been on half-pay. At the latter date, ​he accepted employment in the Sea-Fencible service, under Captain Robert Barton, with whom he served in the Isle of Wight for about four months. His subsequent appointments were, in Aug. 1804, to be first of the Lapwing 28, then commanded by Captain Francis William Fane, but afterwards by Captain Clotworthy Upton, on the Irish station; – July 1805, to the Hind 28, Captain Fane, which ship was employed in Egypt and almost every part of the Mediterranean, from Gibraltar to the Dardanelles; – and July 1808, to the Cambrian 40, Captain Fane, under whom he continued to serve, principally on the coast of Catalonia, until that officer was taken prisoner, at Palamos, Dec. 13th, 1810.
On the 12th and 14th April, 1811, the towns of St. Philon and Palamos were taken possession of, the guns all embarked, and the batteries destroyed, by the Cambrian, then under the command of Captain Charles Ballen, and Volontaire 38, Captain the Hon. George G. Waldegrave. A large settee, deeply laden with grain for the French army at Barcelona, was afterwards “most handsomely cut out from under the Medas Islands by the boats of the Cambrian, led on by Lieutenant Conolly, without a man being hurt.”
We lastly find the subject of this memoir joining the Pomone 38, in which frigate he served as first lieutenant, under Captain Fane and his successor, the late Sir Philip Carteret Silvester, from Jan. 18th, 1812, until Jan. 14th, 1814. In the former year, he appears to have visited Newfoundland, and subsequently Lisbon. His promotion to the rank of commander took place Dec. 4th, 1813.
This officer, some years since, published a work having for its object the establishment of “one universal and uniform system of watching, quartering, and stationing, adapted to all classes of ships.” He is also the author of “A System of Great Gun Exercise for the Navy.” His brothers, six in number, are all commissioned officers in the army, navy, and royal marines.
* ↑ See Vol. II. Part I. note at p. 61.
* ↑ See Vol. I. Part I. p. 267.
* ↑ See Vol. I. Part II. p. 478.
* ↑ See Vol. II. Part II. p. 842 et seq.
* ↑ See id. p. 598.
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