# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Maurice, James Wilkes

​MAURICE, JAMES WILKES (1775–1857), rear-admiral, was born at Devonport on 10 Feb. 1775. He entered the navy in 1789 as ‘able seaman’ on board the Inspector sloop, and in 1793 was midshipman of the Powerful, which convoyed a fleet of Indiamen to the Cape of Good Hope. He afterwards served in the Cambridge, Concorde, and Royal George, all in the Channel and off Brest; and on 3 April 1797 was promoted to be lieutenant of the Glory. In 1799 he was moved to the Canada, and in September 1802 was appointed to the Centaur, going out to the West Indies with Commodore Samuel Hood (1762–1814) [q. v.] In her he was present at the reduction of St. Lucia, Tobago, Demerara, and Essequibo; and was landed, 26 Nov. 1803, at the destruction of a battery at Petite Anse d'Arlet in Martinique, when he was severely wounded by the explosion of the magazine. When the Diamond Rock, Martinique (see M'Cormick, Voyages of Discovery, &c., ii. 190) was occupied, armed, and commissioned as a ‘sloop of war,’ 3 Feb. 1804, Maurice was appointed to the command, and his promotion was confirmed by the admiralty to 7 May 1804. For more than a year Maurice held this rock, a thorn in the sides of the French at Martinique; and yielded to an attack in force by a detachment of Villeneuve's fleet, 31 May–2 June 1805, only when his ammunition was exhausted. In the three days the English lost two men killed and one wounded; the loss of the French, on the other hand, was severe, but has never been exactly stated. Maurice estimated it at seventy killed and wounded of the landing party alone, exclusive of those on board the ships and gunboats. Maurice was tried by court-martial for the loss of his post, but was honourably acquitted, and highly complimented on his conduct (James, iii. 244–5, 349; Chevalier, p. 148). He returned to England in August, and was immediately appointed to the Savage brig, which after two years in the Channel was sent out to the West Indies. There, in the autumn of 1808, he was appointed by Sir Alexander Cochrane governor of Marie Galante, which had been seized in the previous March. On 18 Jan. 1809 he was advanced to post rank.
In October 1809 he was compelled by ill​health to return to England, and in July 1810 he was appointed governor of the island of Anholt, in the Baltic, which had been captured, without difficulty, in May 1809, by a small squadron under the command of Captain Aiskew Paffard Hollis [q. v.] The island had been found most useful as a depôt of trade and as a station for communicating with the continent, and when Maurice was appointed it was understood that neither Bonaparte nor the Danes would lose any opportunity of recapturing it. It was garrisoned by about four hundred marines, under the command of Captain Torrens. As long as the weather remained open the English cruisers secured it from attack, as, afterwards, did the severity of the winter. As soon as the water was open an attempt was made by the Danes to retake it. Twelve gunboats convoyed the Danish transports, and in the early morning of 27 March 1811, in darkness and fog, a force of a thousand men was landed about four miles from the fort. The enemy were ignorant that the Tartar frigate and Sheldrake brig had arrived from England the day before; the Danish troops advanced gallantly to the assault, driving in the advanced parties of the English, while the gunboats opened a lively fire on the sea defences. The approach of the Tartar put another complexion on the matter. The gunboats withdrew; a small schooner attached to the island took up a position on the enemy's flank, and drove them from behind the sandhills, while the direct fire from the fort was well sustained and deadly. Finding no retreat open to them, the Danes on the north side, to the number of 543, surrendered at discretion; the rest fled to the west end of the island, where, temporarily guarded by the reefs, they managed to get on board the gunboats and transports. These, however, were pursued and scattered by the English ships; four of them were captured; one was sunk (James, v. 222). The loss to the Danes was very severe; but Maurice's conduct, splendid as it undoubtedly was, was much exaggerated in popular estimation. The decisive support of the Tartar and Sheldrake was ignored or unknown; the force of the Danes was magnified; and the garrison of barely four hundred men was described as defeating and capturing a force of ten times its numbers (O'Byrne). Maurice retained his governorship till September 1812. He had no further employment, and was retired with the rank of rear-admiral on 1 Oct. 1846. He died at Stonehouse on 4 Sept. 1857 in his eighty-third year.
Maurice married, in October 1814, Miss Sarah Lyne of Plymouth, but was left a widower in the following June.
[Marshall's Roy. Nav. Biog. v. (Suppl. pt. i.) 434; O'Byrne's Dict. of Naval Biog.; Gent. Mag. 1857, pt. ii. p. 569; James's Naval Hist. (edit. of 1860); Chevalier's Hist. de la Marine française sous le Consulat et l'Empire.]
J. K. L.