Captain Richard Avery Hornsby (died 1818) was an 18th-century

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

military figure, famous for successfully taking on a boat full of French

pirate Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

s in 1744.

Biography

Hornsby lived on Vine Street in

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

Tyne and Wear Tyne and Wear () is a metropolitan county in North East England, situated around the mouths of the rivers Tyne and Wear. It was created in 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972, along with five metropolitan boroughs of Gateshead, Newcastl ...

, at the time of the

War of the Austrian Succession The War of the Austrian Succession () was a European conflict that took place between 1740 and 1748. Fought primarily in Central Europe, the Austrian Netherlands, Italy, the Atlantic and Mediterranean, related conflicts included King George's W ...

. He was set to take his

brig A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the ...

, the ''Wrightson and Isabella'', to

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

. The ship was designed for a routine voyage, boasting only a crew of seven, with four small guns, two swivel

cannon A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...

s, and a few

blunderbuss The blunderbuss is a firearm with a short, large caliber barrel which is flared at the muzzle and frequently throughout the entire bore, and used with shot and other projectiles of relevant quantity or caliber. The blunderbuss is commonly consid ...

es. The ''Marquis of Brancas'', with a crew of 75 French pirates, as well as ten guns, eight swivel cannons, and 300 small arms, spotted the ''Wrightson and Isabella'' off of the

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coast, and engaged the ship in combat on 13 June 1744. The two ships battled for an hour, including two failed attempts by the French to board the ''Isabella''. When a shot from the British side caused the ''Brancas'' to sheer off, Hornsby put the

Union Jack The Union Jack, or Union Flag, is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. Although no law has been passed making the Union Flag the official national flag of the United Kingdom, it has effectively become such through precedent. ...

back up and led his crew in giving the pirates three rousing cheers. The ''Brancas'' returned, however, with a volley of shots that wounded Hornsby in the temple. When the French ship once again drew alongside the British brig, the pirates on the ''Brancas'' refused their captain's demands to go aboard and face Hornsby. Admitting defeat, the French captain cut the lashings and started to sail away, only for his vessel to explode a few moments later. Of the 75 sailors on board, 36 were killed or wounded in battle, and all but three drowned upon its sinking. At a ceremony held at

Kensington Palace Kensington Palace is a royal residence set in Kensington Gardens, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. It has been a residence of the British royal family since the 17th century, and is currently the official L ...

in September 1744, Hornsby was awarded a gold medal and a chain worth £100 by King George II for his bravery. Each of his men was given a bounty of £5, while the two boys in his crew were awarded 40

shilling The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence o ...

s each. It was believed that Captain Hornsby was buried in St. Michael & All Angels Churchyard, Houghton-le-Spring, near Sunderland. However, a search of the burial registers by local historian Paul Lanagan revealed that the Richard Hornsby who was buried in the churchyard had died in 1818 at the age of 67, meaning that he would have been seven years old at the time of the pirate incident.

Legacy

At least two British naval songs and ballads have been written about Hornsby, one titled "Brave Captain Hornsby," and the other titled "A New Song in Praise of Brave Captain Hornsby."

References

*''The History of the Town and Port of Sunderland'', by James Burnett. Published in 1830

*''The Local Historian's Table Book of Remarkable Occurrences'', by

Moses Aaron Richardson Moses Aaron Richardson (1793–1871) was an English publisher and antiquary. Life He was the younger son of George Richardson (d. 1806), master of Blackett's charity school, Newcastle; his elder brother was Thomas Miles Richardson, the artist. Ric ...

External links

Houghton Hillside Cemetery record of burialsThe History and Antiquities of Sunderland
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hornsby, Richard Avery Piracy in the Atlantic Ocean People involved in anti-piracy efforts British people of the Napoleonic Wars Military personnel from Sunderland 18th-century pirates 19th-century pirates 1818 deaths