Captain William Hugh Dobbie is the second and youngest son of the late George Dobbie, Esq. a native of Ayrshire, and possessed of considerable property in America, who died at the beginning of the dispute between Great Britain and her transatlantic colonies, by which event the bulk of his fortune was totally lost to his family. The Dobbie family came over from France with Mary Queen of Scots, and settled in Berwickshire, from whence this officer’s great grandfather, Robert Dobbie, Esq. Chamberlain of Giffen, removed into Ayrshire about the commencement of the 18th century. Mr. William Hugh Dobbie’s mother was the daughter of Samuel Staple, Esq. a naval officer, who died on board the Grafton of 70 guns, during the siege of Pondicherry, in 1761.
The subject of this memoir was born in London, Nov. 3, 1771; and he first embarked as a Midshipman on board the Hector 74, under the auspices of her Captain, the late Sir John Hamilton, Bart, in the spring of 1783. After the demise of that officer (Jan. 1784), we find him successively serving in the Hector, Edgar, Ardent, Bellona, and Hebe, under the command of the following distinguished characters: Sir John Collins, who died in command of the Berwick 74, off Toulon, in 1794; Sir Charles Thompson, died Mar. 17, 1799; Sir Francis Hartwell, late Deputy Comptroller of the Navy; and Sir Edward Thornbrough, now an Admiral of the White.
At the latter end of 1789, Mr. Dobbie proceeded to the East Indies, as fifth mate of a ship in the Honorable Company’s service; there being then no prospect of a war, and consequently no chance of his obtaining the rank for which he had become qualified.