# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Purches, James Uzuld

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​PURCHES. (Lieut., 1804. f-p., 21; h-p., 31.)
James Uzuld Purches was born 27 Aug. 1783. He is nephew of the late Capt. Azariah Uzuld, R.N. This officer entered the Navy, 25 July, 1795, as Midshipman, on board the Actaeon 44, armée en flûte, commanded by his uncle, Capt. Uzuld, ​employed as a guard-ship off Guernsey and in the river Mersey. In July, 1799, he removed to the Inconstant 36, Capt. Ponsonby; and on 16 Nov. following, while on his passage home from the Texel in the Espion 38, Capt. Jonas Rose, he was wrecked on the Goodwin Sands. He then joined the Voltigeur sloop, Capts. Thos. Geo. Shortland and Lennox Thompson; in which vessel he assisted in repelling an attack from a flotilla of gun-boats near Tarifa, and in detaining several American and Danish merchantmen who had attempted to break the blockade imposed upon the town of San Lucar, whence he was sent to Gibraltar in charge of one of the prizes. In May, 1802, Mr. Purches left the Voltigeur. He was next employed, in the Calcutta 50, Capt. Dan. Woodriff, in circumnavigating the globe; and on quitting that ship, of which, after having acted as Master, he had become an Acting and a confirmed Lieutenant 11 March and 26 July, 1804, he was appointed, 28 Aug. following, to the Defiance 74, Capts. Philip Chas. Durham and Hon. Henry Hotham. Under Capt. Durham he fought in the actions off Capes Finisterre and Trafalgar, 22 July and 21 Oct. 1805; and under Capt. Hotham he contributed, 24 Feb. 1809, to the destruction of three French frigates under the batteries of Sable d’Olonne; where the Defiance, besides being much cut up in her masts and rigging, sustained a loss of 2 men killed and 25 wounded. At Trafalgar he was constituted Prize-Master of L’Aigle, one of the captured 74’s, in which he remained until she was dismasted and wrecked near Cadiz in the memorable gale that followed the action. He remained in consequence a prisoner at Cadiz for three days; and on being then restored to liberty, he presented Vice-Admiral Collingwood with the journal and notes he had during that period made of the manner in which the ships remaining to the enemy after the battle had been disposed of. Of such value did the Vice-Admiral esteem the information thus afforded to him, that he made use of it in his despatches. In Feb. 1806, while the Defiance was lying at Portsmouth, Mr. Purches appears to have officiated as Flag-Lieutenant to Rear-Admiral Geo. Martin on board the Gladiator 50. When Acting-First-Lieutenant of the Defiance he was sent, in 1808, to the government of Galicia with negociations for a restoration of the amicable understanding between Spain and England, and the receiving of British squadrons into Corunna, Ferrol, and other places. His appointments after he had left the Defiance were, as First-Lieutenant – 11 April, 1809, to the Hindostan 50, Capt. John Pasco, in which ship, bearing for some time the broad pendant of Commodore Bligh, he again went round the world – 1 Jan. 1811, to the Echo 18, Capts. Arden Adderley, Halsted, and Thos. Percival, stationed in the Channel – 12 Oct. following, to the Leonidas 38, Capt. Anselm John Griffiths, employed off the south coast of Ireland and in the Bay of Biscay – 17 Sept. 1812 to the Parthian 10, Capt. Jas. Henry Garrety, on the Portsmouth station – 27 May, 1813, to the Challenger 16, Capt. Fred. Edw. Vernon (now Harcourt), employed off the north coast of Spain and at Newfoundland, whence he invalided in Aug. 1814 – 28 Oct. in the same year, to the Orpheus 36, Capt. Chas. Montagu Fabian, with whom he served for two years, chiefly in the Rio de la Plata – and 24 March, 1818, for a short time, to the Shamrock 12, Capt. Martin White, engaged in surveying the coast of Ireland. While attached to the Challenger he co-operated with the squadron under Rear-Admiral Chas. Vinicombe Penrose in forcing the passage of the Gironde, and commanded her boats at the capture of several of the enemy’s schooners and gun-boats. In Sept. 1818 he joined the Coast Blockade as Supernumerary-Lieutenant of the Severn 40, Capt. Wm. M‘Culloch, and was employed in the capacity of Divisional-Lieutenant between No. 2 Battery and Shellness Point until transferred, 25 March, 1819, to the Ordinary at Portsmouth. In 1821 he was under the necessity of resigning the latter appointment and of being seat to the Hospital, from the effects of a coup-de-soleil he had received while serving in the Orpheus. He has since been on half-pay.
In consideration of his sufferings Lieut. Purches was awarded, 9 Feb. 1825, a pension of 5s. a day; which, however, was not paid to him in full until 1831. He married, 4 Dec. 1810, Elizabeth Ann, daughter of Spencer Smyth, Esq., Master R.N., by whom he has, living, one son, in holy orders, and two daughters. His eldest son entered the Navy in 1826, and died on the coast of Africa in Aug. 1839.