576 



Biographical Memoirs of Eminent Persons. 



[MAY, 



ter of the Rev. Thos. Forster, of Barba- 

 dos, F.R S. He was born in 1708 ; and, 

 having evinced an early predilection for 

 the sea service, he was introduced into 

 the royal navy, under the auspices of 

 Captain Lord 'Mulgrave, (elder brother 

 cf the Earl lately deceased,) who at- 

 tempted the discovery of a north-east 

 passage. He was entered as midship- 

 man on the 5th of February, 1779, some 

 months before he had completed his 

 eleventh year. His first voyage was to 

 the East Indies, in the Burford, of 70 

 guns ; and, from that period, he was 

 long engaged in a continued series of ac- 

 tive service. x On the first war of the 

 French revolution, he received a Lieu- 

 tenant's commission for spiritedly board- 

 ing a ship of war. His merit in the 

 action of the 1st of June acquired for 

 him the friendship of Nelson and of Sir 

 John Jervis, afterwards Earl St. Vin- 

 cent. He served under Nelson, as first 

 Lieutenant, in the Captain, in the action 

 oft' St. Vincent's, on the 14th of Febru- 

 ary, 1797 ; and by his extraordinary 

 activity in boarding the San Nicolas and 

 San Josef, he acquired the honest eulo- 

 gium of every officer in the fleet. Lieu- 

 tenant Berry was the first man who 

 jumped into the mizen chains of the 

 San Nicolas. v 



In the course of this year, he was 

 made Post Captain ; and, in 1798, lie 

 was appointed to the Vanguard, the 

 flag-ship of Nelson, in the squadron 

 detached by Earl St. Vincent into the 

 Mediterranean. In the battle of the 

 Nile, on the 1st of August, in the same 

 year, he again most brilliantly distin- 

 guished himself. In the heat of the 

 action, when Admiral Nelson was wound- 

 ed in the head, Captain Berry caught 

 him in his arms, and caused him to be 

 immediately conveyed to the cockpit. 

 He took possession of the Spartiate; 

 and, in the explosion of L'Orient, he 

 exerted himself in the most humane 

 manner in saving the crew of that unfor- 

 tunate ship. To the skill and bravery 

 of his companion in arms, Admiral 

 Nelson, in his official letter to Earl St. 

 Vincent, relating the particulars of this 

 victory, thus bore testimony : 



" The support and assistance I have 

 received from Captain Berry cannot be 

 sufficiently expressed. I was wounded 

 in the head, and obliged to be carried off 

 the deck, but the service suffered no loss 

 by that event. Captain Berry was fully 

 equal to the important service then 

 going on, and to him I must beg leave 

 to refer you for every information re- 

 lative to this victory. He will present 

 you with the flag of the second in com- 

 mand, that of the Commander-in-Chief 

 being burnt in the L'Orient." 



Captain Berry was sent home in the 

 Leander, Captain Thompson, with the 



dispatches, but was unfortunately cap- 

 tured by a French gun ship, after 

 a hard action, during which he was 

 wounded in the arm, by a fragment of a 

 man's skull. Having been exchanged, 

 he returned to England, was knighted 

 (December 12, 1798) arid presented with 

 the freedom of the city of London in a 

 gold box. 



In the following year, Sir Edward 

 Berry sailed to the Mediterranean, as 

 Captain of the Foudroyant, Lord Nel- 

 son's flag-ship. On the night of the 

 30th of March, while stationed off Mal- 

 ta, he captured the Guillaume Tell, of 

 86 guns, and 1000 men, after a severe 

 engagement, in which he was again 

 wounded. While on this station, he 

 also captured the Genereux, of 74 guns. 



Sir Edward at length returned to Eng- 

 land, and for some time enjoyed a re- 

 laxation from the toils of service. 



He had married December 12, 1797, 

 Louisa, the eldest daughter of the 

 Rev. Samuel Forster, D.D., then head 

 master of the Norwich Free Grammar 

 School. In the month of October, 1800, 

 he presented to the Corporation of Nor- 

 wich the ensign of the French ship 

 Genereux, which was suspended in St. 

 Andrew's Hall, in that city, with an ap- 

 propriate inscription. 



In 1805, Sir Edward Berry again 

 sailed under the command of the hero of 

 the Nile, as Captain of the Agamemnon, 

 of 64 guns ; was engaged in the van 

 division of the fleet, in the memorable 

 engagement off Cape Trafalgar, on the 

 21st of October ; and, as usual, sustained 

 his high and well-earned reputation. 



After this engagement, Sir Edward 

 proceeded to the 'West Indies in the 

 same ship, the Agamemnon, and parti- 

 cipated in the victory gained by Sir 

 Thomas Duckworth, on the 6th of Fe- 

 bruary, 1806, off St. Domingo. On his 

 return to England, he was presented 

 with two medals from his Majesty : one 

 for his services in Sir Thomas Duck- 

 worth's action, and the other for that of 

 Trafalgar ; and, having previously ob- 

 tained one for the victory of the Nile, 

 he was the only Captain in his Majesty's 

 service who had been honoured with 

 three medals. On the 12th of Decem- 

 ber, in the same year (1806), he was 

 elevated to the rank of Baronet. 



In 1811, Sir Edward Berry was ap- 

 pointed to the Sceptre ; in 1813, he 

 commanded the Royal Sovereign Yacht ; 

 in 1814, he was honoured with the com- 

 mand of the new yacht, the Royal 

 George; and, in 1815, he was nominated 

 Knight Commander of the Order of the 

 Bath. He was afterwards promoted to 

 the rank, first of the Rear Admiral of 

 the White, and then of Rear Admiral 

 of the Red squadron of hia Majesty's 

 fleet. 



