Norwich Duff

Royal Navy admiral

Vice-Admiral

Norwich Duff

FRSE

Born| (1792-08-15)15 August 1792
9 South Castle Street, Edinburgh, Scotland, Great Britain
Died| 21 April 1862(1862-04-21) (aged 69)
Bath, Somerset, England, UK
Allegiance|  United Kingdom
Branch| Royal Navy
Years of service| 1805–1862
Rank| Vice-Admiral
Relations| Captain George Duff RN
(father)

Vice-Admiral Norwich Duff FRSE (15 August 1792 – 21 April 1862[1]) was a Royal Navy officer.

## Life

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The son of Captain George Duff RN, and Sophia Dirom, he was born at 9 South Castle Street, Edinburgh. He entered the Royal Navy in July 1805, just before his 13th birthday, serving aboard his father's ship Mars as a midshipman. In October 1805 at the Battle of Trafalgar his father was killed.

Duff was promoted to lieutenant in September 1811 and was appointed flag lieutenant to the commander-in-chief in February 1814. He served on Euryalus. He was promoted to commander on 15 June 1814 and appointed to command of the 18-gun brig-sloop Espoir, part of the naval force in the Chesapeake during the War of 1812, and later took part in the attack on New Orleans.[2]

In October 1816 Duff was appointed to command of the 10-gun brig-sloop Beaver and sent to the Caribbean,[3] where he assumed command of the 18-gun Rifleman in September 1817. He returned to England in August 1818.[4]

He undertook an extensive continental European tour in 1819 of which he kept a journal. He was promoted to post-captain on 23 April 1822.

In 1823 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh his proposer being Alexander Dirom.[5]

On the 10 June 1833 he married Helen Mary Shoolbred (daughter of East India Company Surgeon John Shoolbred 1766–1831) at Bath, Somerset and with her produced eight recorded children. The couple's eldest daughter, (Helen) Sophia Duff 1834–1930, married Boscawen Trevor Griffith (whose name later changed to Griffith-Boscawen) as a result of which Norwich became the maternal grandfather of Arthur Sackville Trevor Griffith-Boscawen 1865–1946, a prominent British Conservative politician during the early decades of the twentieth century. Another daughter, Henrietta, was a novelist.[6]

Duff was promoted to rear admiral on 8 October 1852, and to vice admiral on 28 November 1857.

He died at Bath, Somerset, England on 21 April 1862. There is a portrait of him by Sir Henry Raeburn, and a metal plaque commemorates him in Bath Abbey.[7]

## Family

[edit]

In 1833 he married Helen Mary Shoolbred (1811–1895), daughter of John Shoolbred of the East India Company.[8]

## See also

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* O'Byrne, William Richard (1849). "Duff, Norwich" . A Naval Biographical Dictionary . John Murray - via Wikisource.

## References

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1. ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 20 July 2009.
2. ^ http://www.ageofnelson.org/MichaelPhillips/info.php?ref=0854 HMS Espoir
3. ^ http://www.ageofnelson.org/MichaelPhillips/info.php?ref=0296 HMS Beaver
4. ^ http://www.ageofnelson.org/MichaelPhillips/info.php?ref=1899 HMS Rifleman
5. ^ Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). The Royal Society of Edinburgh. July 2006. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X. Retrieved 11 May 2020.
6. ^ Women in the Literary Marketplace 1800-1900 http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/womenLit/getting_into_print/Duff_L.htm
7. ^ www.1837online.com Archived 5 December 2006 at the Wayback Machine
8. ^ "Shoolbred Genealogy". Archived from the original on 23 August 2021.

## External links

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Norwich Duff.

* The Genealogy of the Duff Family[usurped] archived Web site at Wayback Machine.
* Norwich Duff's Tour of Continental Europe[usurped]
* Portrait[usurped]

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF
* WorldCat

National|

* United States