Clement-Jones family 12/22 - Person Sheet
Clement-Jones family 12/22 - Person Sheet
NameVice-Admiral Norwich DUFF , 435
Birth1792, Edinburgh
Death1862, Bath, Somerset
FatherCaptain George DUFF RN , 436 (1764-1805)
MotherSophia DIROM , 1314 (1764-1827)
Spouses
Birth1811, Calcutta
Death1895
FatherDr John SHOOLBRED , 2025 (1766-1831)
MotherLucy RAND , 2026 (1777-1812)
Marriage1833, Bath
ChildrenHelen Sophia , 7 (1834-1930)
 Georgiana Lucy , 588 (1835-1896)
 Henrietta Anne , 589 (1842-1879)
 Louisa Jessie Eliza , 590 (1842-1927)
 Edward Alexander James , 591 (1847-1916)
 Adam Gordon , 592 (1849-1923)
 Duncan Alexander , 4039 (1837-1841)
 George Norwich , 4040 (1845-1848)
 Ellen , 13940 (1848-)
Notes for Vice-Admiral Norwich DUFF
Served as a midshipman on his father’s ship, HMS Mars, at Trafalgar, where his father died. See http://www.kittybrewster.com/images/Norwich_Duff_Journal_Intro.htm for more details. Served in attack on New Orleans. Commanded the "Espoir", the "Beaver" and the "Rifleman". Promoted to Post Captain 23rd April 1822. Appointed Rear Admiral 8 October 1852. Became Vice Admiral 28 November 1857.

For more on Duff ancestry see http://www.kittybrewster.com/ancestry/duff.htm. also http://www.kittybrewster.com/images/Norwich_Duff_Picture.htm . This website includes the following further information:

“During 1819 Norwich Duff undertook a European tour. He kept a journal which is surprisingly clear. Most (alas not all) of the pages from that journal have survived down to the present generation. Here we present some we think most interesting.

Norwich Duff was born 1792. Wartime sometimes requires men to grow up quickl. In October 1805 Norwich served at Trafalgar on HMS Mars, the ship captained by his father, who lost his life that day. Promoted to Lieutenant in November 1811 and to Commander in June 1814, it is apparent that by 1819, when he undertook his European tour, Norwich will have been seen by many, probably including himself, as an upwardly mobile naval officer. (He would indeed be promoted to captain in 1822.)  

There may well have been a conscious public policy objective in having young officers undertake such European tours and record what they noticed. Certainly Norwich is careful to record information on fortifications and key industries in the towns through which he passes.  In 1819 the traumas of the Napoleonic wars were still acutely recalled in many parts of Europe, and the likelihood of future rivalry between Britain and France was a given.  

His tour took Norwich initially to Paris, then eastwards across the Champagne district to the Rhineland. The route continued through modern Germany, never going too far from the Rhine, up to Schaffhausen, and from thence into central Switzerland. Somewhere near Grindelwald the writing stops abruptly to be followed by a series of blank pages:  it appears that Norwich had intended to come back and fill in those missing pages subsequently. He never did.  

However, the journal takes up again a month later, crossing the Simplon Pass into northern Italy, where he visited the major cities before, presumably, implementing his stated intention to board a British ship at an Adriatic port and returning home with the Royal Navy. 

Norwich's journal extends beyond 100 pages of handwriting, but the earlier pages are the more satisfying. The most interesting portions, in the view of this writer, mostly concern the initial weeks of the tour, when Norwich was in France. The German portion becomes increasingly concerned with the uneven quality of the hotels. The Italian portion, for better or worse, looks suspiciously dependent on notes taken from guidebooks, and concludes with a several pages on the museums etc of Bologna.”


From Wikipedia


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

Life
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
In 1833 he married Helen Mary Shoolbred (1811-1895), daughter of Dr John Shoolbred FRSE of the East India Company.[8]
Last Modified 28 Dec 2020Created 4 Mar 2023 using Reunion for Macintosh