Robert Maunsell

Captain Robert Charles Maunsell (1785/6–1845) was an Anglo-Irish officer in the British Royal Navy, rising to the rank of post-captain. He was born at Limerick, a son of Archdeacon William Maunsell, in 1785 or 1786.

He entered the Royal Navy on board the Mermaid, 32 guns, Captain Robert Dudley Oliver, in 1799; and subsequently served under Captains Richard Hussey Moubray and George Elliot, in the Maidstone, 32 guns, on the Mediterranean station. leading men of the 14th and 89th regiments ashore to the attack of six of the enemy's gunboats.

On 10 September, Commodore Broughton joined Rear-Admiral Stopford, off Samarang; and in the course of the ensuing night, several of the enemy's gun vessels, lying in-shore, were attacked and destroyed by the boats of the squadron, under the directions of Captain Maunsell; whose post commission was confirmed by the Admiralty, on 7 February 1812. His next appointment was, on 24 or 25 August 1812, Motto: Quod Vult Valde VultThe family of Maunsell, of Thorpe Malsor, in Northamptonshire, of which Robert was a scion, is recorded from the period of the Norman Conquest. Ralph Maunsell held lands in Buckinghamshire in the time of Henry II, and his lineal descendant, John Maunsell, Esq., of Chicheley, Buckinghamshire, a barrister, purchased from Lord Holland the rectory, manor, and estate of Thorpe Malsor in 1622. From that time, the main line of the family continued to reside at Thorpe Malsor. at Limerick, the third, and assisted at the capture of 12 settees, lying at La Vandour, in the Bay of Hières, after a conflict, in which the British, encountered by a tremendous fire of grape-shot and musketry, as well from the vessels themselves as from a battery and the houses of the town, sustained a loss of 4 men killed and 23 (including himself, severely) wounded. Being next, on 26 May 1807, appointed to the Blanche, 28 guns, Captain John Edgcumbe, on the East India station, he took a passage thither, possibly in the St. Alban's, 64 guns. W. Huggins: Capt. Robert Maunsell capturing French gunboats off Java, July 1811 On the morning of 31 July 1811, being off the mouth of the Indramayo River, coast of Java, he took personal command of the boats of the Procris, together with two flat-boats, carrying an officer and 20 men of the 14th Regiment, and an officer and 20 men from the 89th Regiment, and with a degree of skill and ability that called forth the after-thanks of Commodore Broughton, led them ashore to the attack of six of the enemy's gunboats; each mounting 1 brass 32-pounder carronade forward and 1 18-pounder aft, both on pivots, with a crew of more than 60 men, in convoy of 40 or 50 proas. Maunsell was almost immediately placed in acting-command of the Illustrious, 74 guns, bearing the broad pendant of Commodore Broughton. a period of about two months, Maunsell served on shore throughout all the operations which terminated in the fall of Java; where he enacted a distinguished part on shore at the head of a body of seamen, and aided in the bombardment and storming of Fort Cornelis on 26 August 1811. On the night of 10 September, with a division of boats under his orders, he took captive, in the neighbourhood of Samarang, a large sloop-rigged gun-boat, mounting 4 heavy guns and 2 brass swivels, a Malay-rigged gun-boat, carrying 1 12-pounder carronade, and a despatch-boat.

Post-captain In the early part of 1812, on 7 February in which year he was confirmed to Post-rank, Captain Maunsell, in consequence of an attack of Batavian fever, returned to England; and on 24 or 25 August 1812, After 16 years' incessant application for employment, he was next, on 22 February 1831, placed in command of the Alfred, 50 guns, and sent to the Mediterranean; where, during a servitude of three years, he witnessed the establishment of King Otho on the throne of Greece, and was selected to watch the movements of the hostile fleets of Turkey and Egypt. His last appointment afloat was, on 13 May 1840, to the Rodney, 92 guns. He was buried in the parish church of Thorpe Malsor. There is also a monument to his memory in St. Mary's Cathedral, Limerick, which bears the following inscription: