# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Roberts, Benjamin

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​ROBERTS. (Lieut., 1812. f-p., 14; h-p., 32.)
Benjamin Roberts – a descendant of Benj. Roberts, ancestor of the Robertses, late Earls of Radnor – is son of Benj. Roberts, Esq., an officer in the Army; and grandson of the Rev. Sam. Roberts, of Salisbury, who married an heiress, Miss Helby, niece of Sir Jacob Acworth, who filled the office of Surveyor of the Navy from March, 1715, to March, 1749. His father’s only sister was the wife of the late Henry Lee, Esq., of Dynas Powis, a Magistrate and Deputy-Lieutenant for Glamorganshire, whose grandfather, Henry Lee, Esq., Mayor of Hull, married Catherine Freeman, great-grand-aunt of Lord Brougham. Several members of his family have been devoted to the service of their country.
This officer entered the Navy, 24 Feb. 1801, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Madras 54, Capts. Chas. Hare and Thos. Briggs, employed in the North Sea and also in the Mediterranean; where, after participating under the flag of Sir Rich. Bickerton in the operations connected with the expulsion of the French from Egypt, he removed as Midshipman in Feb. 1802, to the Tigre 74, Capts. Robt. Jackson ​and Rich. Curry. That ship being paid off in Sept. of the same year, he next, in July, 1803, joined the Lynx sloop, Capt. John Willoughby Marshall; under whom we find him while in pursuit of some French gun-vessels engaged in an action with the batteries in the neighbourhood of Boulogne. In Feb. 1804 he was received on board the Utrecht 64, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Robt. Montagu on the Downs station; where, on being lent in 1805 to the Fury bomb, Capt. John Telland, he took part in a rencontre with a large flotilla of praams and gun-boats off Dieppe. After again serving with Capt. Briggs in the North Sea and West Indies on board the Agincourt 64 and Orpheus 32, he was placed, about Nov. 1807, under the orders of Lieut. Geo. Ballard Vine in the Dolores, a prize schooner, in which he assisted in cutting out some vessels under the fire of a battery, and was wrecked in the Gulf of Mexico. In Sept. 1807, having suffered a rigorous captivity of 10 months among the Spaniards, he was exchanged and enabled to join the Wolf 18, Capt. Wm. Sumner Hall; under whom, previously to removing, in Jan. 1803, to the Arethusa 33, Capts. Chas. Brisbane and Robt. Mends, he fought in two sharp engagements with a flotilla of gun-boats on the Spanish main. On the arrival home of the Arethusa in Oct. 1808, he became attached, first to the Venus 32 and then to the Clorinde 40, both commanded by his friend Capt. Briggs. In the latter ship he proceeded as Master’s Mate to the East Indies; where, in May, 1810, he was nominated by Rear-Admiral Wm. O’Brien Drury, who had received him on board his flag-ship the Russell 74, Acting-Lieutenant of the Procris 18, commanded in succession by Capts. Robt. Maunsell and Chas. Tyler, for nearly three months by himself, and by Capts. Walter Forman, Nathaniel Norton, and Thos. Curzon. On 31 July, 1811, while Capt. Maunsell and his First-Lieutenant were engaged in the boats in effecting the capture and destruction of six well-disputed gun-boats on the coast of Java, Mr. Roberts, who had been left Senior officer on board, proved of utility in maintaining a covering fire from the Procris. He subsequently served on shore with a party of seamen at the bombardment and storming of Fort Cornells, and otherwise co-operated in the reduction of the island of Java. During the period he acted as Commander of the Procris (from 11 Dec. 1811 to 4 March, 1812) he had the gratification of receiving the personal approval of Commodore Broughton on the occasion of a visit of inspection made by him; and of saving the crew of the American ship Pekin wrecked on a rock in Sunda Strait. Under Capt. Forman Mr. Roberts, whose commission bears date 24 Oct. 1812, accompanied the expedition under Capt. Jas. Bowen of the Phoenix frigate against the pirates of Palambang in Borneo, from whom he aided in taking a number of batteries containing in the whole 101 pieces of cannon, together with the Sultan’s palace, defended by 140 more. In the course of the same year, 1812, he was present in an unsuccessful attack made on the piratical settlement of Sambas; but in June, 1813, he co-operated in a renewed and more fortunate attempt. His conduct throughout the very arduous duties connected therewith induced his Commander, Norton, to report him in very handsome terms to the senior officer, Capt. Geo. Sayer. He returned home with convoy in Aug. 1814; and was lastly, in 1826-7, employed in experimentally cruizing as First-Lieutenant in the Wolf 18, Capt. Geo. Hayes.