FUNERAL OF THE LATE CAPTAIN MORIARTY.
(From the Hobart Town Advertiser, April 2.)
ON Saturday morning the remains of the above lamented gentleman were conveyed to their last resting place, in the presence of an immense concourse of spectators. Some time before the hour appointed for the procession to move from the residence of deceased, the public and parties intending to take a part in the mournful ceremony, began to arrive, and by eleven o’clock there were many thousands of all classes assembled. At precisely half-past eleven, the procession moved towards the place of interment in the following order ;
Undertaker’s Assistant.
Military Band, 99th Regiment, (playing funeral music.)
PALL BEARERS. Lieut. Walker, R.N; Lieut. Friend, R.N; Capt. Kay, R.N; Capt. Drew, R.N; Sir H. Atkinson, R.N; Capt. King, R.N.
The Coffin Borne on the shoulders of twelve seamen belonging to H.M.S. Meander..
The Chief Mourner (Mr. S. Moriarty)
Personal Friends of deceased.
Sailors of H.M.S Meander, four abreast; Officers of H.M S. Meander; Marines of H.M.S. Meander, four abreast; The 99th Regiment, four abreast; Military Officers, four abreast; Civilians, two abreast.
Among the Societies who attended to pay their last tribute of respect for the deceased, we noticed the Hibernian Society and the Licensed Victuallers; of the former society the late Captain was president, and by his death the society has sustained a great loss ; he was one of the first founders of the society, as also one of its staunchest friends and supporters. There were also other societies, with some of whom the deceased was connected as a member or office-bearer, others attended to mark their respect and regret for the loss of a truly good man.
The procession moved along the New Wharf and proceeded up Montpelier-street to Saint George’s Church, (followed by the number that had assembled on every accessible point from which the procession could be seen) where the funeral service was read by the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Tasmania, assisted by the Rev. Mr. Brownrigg. After the service in the church, the Lord Bishop headed the procession to the burying ground, where the remains were deposited in a vault for their reception. The services being concluded, the numerous train of mourners began to disperse.
The procession was the longest we ever remember to have seen in the colony, and all persons who took part in it, whether as mourners or spectators, evinced by their respectful demeanor that the departed was one who had more than ordinary claims upon their remembrance. To many he had been known personally for years ; to all his kind deeds and acts of charity had endeared him, and they regretted the loss of one who, in his lifetime, was a truly useful citizen.
We have to notice a very melancholy occurrence that took place during the progress to the Church, just as the procession reached opposite the Stores of Messrs. Dickenson Brothers, in Montpelier-street. Mr. S. Moriarty, son of the deceased, and chief mourner, was taken suddenly ill, and fell down in a fit, he was immediately removed and conveyed into an apartment of Messrs. Dickenson Brothers, Dr.Seccombe being in prompt attendance, restoratives were applied, and in about half an hour the young gentleman was so far recovered as to be removed in a carriage to his residence ; we are happy to learn yesterday that he is much better.
William Moriarty was the son of the late Vice-Admiral Sylverius Moriarty, Flag Cap-tain to Rear-Admiral Thomas Graves, in the Ramillies, 74, prior to the French revolutionary war, and brother-in-law of Captain John Douglas, R.N. He was brother of Lieutenants Redmond and Merion Marshal Moriarty, R.N., and also of the late Peter, Sylverius, and Martin Moriarty, all in the Royal Navy; the first of whom died a Lieutenant, of fever, in the West Indies ; the second was lost in the Queen Charlotte, in 1800; and the third died of cold caught while extinguishing a fire on board the Captain, 74, at Plymouth.
This officer entered the Royal Naval Academy 26th September, 1803, and embarked on 17th August, 1807, as midshipman, on board the Nymphe, 36, Captain Conway Shipley, George Pigot, Hon. Joceline Percy, and Edward Sneyd Clay, under the first of whom, who was killed, he was wounded in the boats in a desperate but unsuccessful attack made in the night of the 23rd April, 1808, on a French corvette, of 22 guns and 150 men, lying in a bight above Belem Castle, in the River Tagus. He had previously enacted a part at the siege of Copenhagen ¡ and subsequently, when under Captain Percy, escorted General Junot to Rochelle after the convention of Cintra. Quitting the Nymphe in December, 1810, he next for three years served on the Horn, North American, Baltic, and Mediterranean stations, in the Conquestador, 74, Captain Lord William Stuart ; Teign, frigate, Captain John Hartley ; Prince of Wales, 98, Captain Thomas Burton ; Victory, 100, flag ship of Sir James Saumarez, and as Master’s Mate and Acting Lieutenant in the Partridge, 16, Captain John Miller Actaye.
Having passed his examination in 1811, he was confirmed as Lieutenant 13th October, 1813. His succeeding appointments were, 29th March 1814, to the Cerberus, 32, Captain Thomas Garth, also in the Mediterranean ; 19th September to the Tyrian sloop, Captain Augustus Baldwin, in which vessel, stationed in the Channel, he served until October, 1815, and 15th April to the Topaz frigate, Captain John Richard Lumley, fitting for the East Indies. In 1820, he accompanied an expedition sent to the Persian Gulf for the purpose of obtaining redress for injuries which the British interests had suffered from the officers of the Imaun of Senna ; and in December of that year he was wounded at the head of a party of seamen while storming a fort during a series of operations against the city of Mokha. Although the attack was not crowned with the success it deserved, yet the daring intrepidity displayed ‘by Lieutenant Moriarty, exposed as he was to a heavy and galling fire of musketry, met its due reward in his being advanced, 1st November, 1822, to the rank he held.
Commander Moriarty had been for many years Port Officer at Hobart Town, Van Diemen’s Land. He married Aphea, daughter of the late and sister of the present Dr. Crump, of Tralee, County Kerrv. – O’Byrne’s Naval Biographical Dictionary.
[ Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), Tuesday 16 April 1850, page 2.]