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COURT-MARTIAL ON LIEUTENANT SYMONDS, R.M. Plymouth, August 15. - This morning, at nine o'clock, a naval court-martial assembled on board her Majesty's ship Impregnable, 104, for the purpose of trying Jermyn Charles Symonds, a first lieutenant of Royal Marines, on the following charges :-
1st. For that the said first Lieutenant Jermyn Charles Symonds, of her Majesty's Royal Marine Forces, while borne on the books of her Majesty's ship Trincomalee, in commission, did not, on the 4th of April, 1850, return to the said ship, then being in the harbour of St. Jago de Cuba, until after eleven o'clock p. m. that day, whereas he ought to have I returned on board the said ship at eight o'clock on the evening of that day.
2. For that the said First Lieutenant, Jermyn Charles Symonds, while so borne as aforesaid, when he returned to the said ship after eleven o'clock p.m. of the said day, as aforesaid, did force his way on board the said ship, when, ordered by the officer of the watch and sentry on the gangway of the said ship to keep off.

The Court vas composed of the following officers: - President, Lord John Hay, C.B., Commodore of the first class, and second in command of her Majesty's ships and vessels at this port; Captain Sir Thomas Maitland, C.B., of the Impregnable; Captain Nias, C.B., of the Agincourt; Captain William Hope Johnstone, of the Albion ; and Captain Augustus L. Kuper, of the Thetis. Mr. William Eastlake, officiated as deputy-judge advocate. The usual warrants for ordering the holding of a court-martial having been read, tho prisoner pleaded not guilty to both charges. The first witness then called, was Lieut. John Seacombe, who said : I was first lieutenant of the Trincomalee on the 4th April last, at St. Jago de Cuba. The prisoner was borne on the ship's books, and was doing duty on hoard that ship. During the prosecutor's absence from that ship on that day I gave prisoner leave to go on shore. I acquainted him thait he must be on board by eight p.m., telling him that it was the captain's orders that everybody should be on board. He did not return at that time. I reported his absence to the captain on my reporting my usual rounds a few minutes after nine o'clock. I gave other officers leave on that day. They all returned at the time, to the best of my knowledge, with the exception of Mr. Bastow, the acting mate; but I have, for the first time to-day, officially known that he was out of the ship-so much so, that on the captain asking me at nine o'clock on the evening of the 4th of April, if all the officers were on board, I told him they were all on board, with the exception of the prisoner.
By the President: It was not the practice of the ship to name any particular time to be on board, when giving officers leave. On every occasion when the ship was under sailing orders, the officers were desired to be on board at eight o'clock. Mr. Bastow might have got leave to be later, as the captain was on shore; but when the other officers came on board, I thought that he was amongst them.
By Captain Johnstone: I was not on deck when the prisoner returned that night.
By Captain Sir T. Maitland: I said publicly at the mess table, that there was no leave after eight o'clock. I don't think that I gave prisoner clearly and distinctly to understand that the ship was under sailing orders, but I said, "You know the orders."
By the President: l am not positive that the prisoner was at the mess table when I gave the orders.
By the Prisoner: At the time, I did not know that Mr. Bastow came on board with you, but I heard it some time afterwards rumoured that there was some person in the boat with you when you came on board on that occasion. When the officer of the watch and the sergeant of the Marines made their report to me the next morning, neither of them mentioned anything about Mr. Bastow being in the boat. I said to Mr. Bastow a day or two after that, when I heard that there was some one in the boat, I thought he was the likely man, and it was lucky for him that I did not know it.
Second Lieutenant Charles Goodwin Fagin stated that on the 4th April, on the captain leaving the deck, he ordered witness to allow no boat alongside without the captain's permission The prisoner got on board during his watch about twelve o'clock. The boat that the prisoner was in was hailed before she came alongside, and was ordered to lay off. After the boat had been hailed by the sentry on the port gangway several times, the mate of the watch, Mr. Dent, made a report to witness, and in consequence of that report he went over to the port gangway, and saw the shore-boat, at a little distance from the ship, with the sitters in her. The sentry at the port gangway was standing at the time in the gangway. Witness immediately ordered Mr. Dent upon no account to allow the boat alongside until he had reported the circumstance to Captain Warren. Witness went below, and Captain Warren ordered no shore-boat to come alongside till daylight, or after. Witness at once went on deck towards the port gangway, where he saw the prisoner talking to the *[line missing]* the night before had forced the sentry's post on the port gangway.
By Captain Johnstone: When I saw the prisoner on deck, Mr. Dent reported that the sentry's post had been forced by the prisoner, or words to that effect.
By Sir T. Maitland: I saw the boat at the end of the swinging boom; there was at the time a light breeze, and it was starlight.
Albert Dent examined: I was mate of the Trincomalee on the 4th of April last at St. Jago de Cuba. I was then officer of the watch. A boat came alongside about seven bells, in which was the prisoner. I heard her hailed, and ordered to lay off before she got alongside. In my opinion she was sufficiently near to hear the hail to keep off. The officer of the watch went down to report it to the captain, and during his absence I had charge of the deck, and while he was away I looked over the gangway, and said to the prisoner, "You must not come up the side until the officer of the watch has seen the captain" I walked aft, to see if the officer of the watch was coming, and on returning towards the gangway I saw the prisoner standing on the gangway. I told him he would get into trouble, it being the captain's order that no boat should come alongside. The officer of the watch then returned.
By Sir T. Maitland: The prisoner came up the side of the vessel, but I did not see the sentry oppose him.
By the Prisoner: When I reported to the officer of the watch that the boat was alongside, he was leaning on the netting, on the starboard side of the quarter-deck, by the main rigging. I did not hear him intimate to you, in any way, that you were not to come on board or alongside.
Sergeant Smith, a non-commissioned officer, proved that he was on deck on the night in question when the boat came alongside, and that he heard it said that no one was to come on board, and that after that the prisoner came on deck.
By the Court: The orders were given clearly, loudly, and distinctly to the boat to keep off, and for no one to come on board.
Private Slater, of the Royal Marines, fully corroborated this.
This was the case for the prosecution.
The court having been cleared for a short time, The prisoner made a statement to the effect that be did not force his way on board on the night in question. But he believed there was a strange feeling exhibited towards him by having him kept four months' in confinement, without asking him for an explanation. When he was alongside in the boat, the midshipman of the watch looked over the side, and, laughing, said, "You must not come onboard," and he thought it was a joke of his, and he treated it as such by walking on board immediately after. He then called John Parker, the quartermaster of the watch, who stated that the officer of the watch was asleep in the Jacob's ladder when the boat was first hailed. Mr. Symonds was not made a prisoner of while he was there. He heard a reply from the boat after the hail, which was " aye, aye."
Private Robert Wilcher fully corroborated this statement, and The prisoner then called the midshipman, Mr. Fortescue, who denied laughing when he looked over the side.
Louis Bastow was also called, and a question was put to him by the prisoner, "Were you in the boat with me on the night of the 4th of April last at St. Jago de Cuba ?"
The President: You need not answer any question that will tend to criminate yourself.
Witness: Then I decline to answer.
Prisoner: I shall ask nothing else.
Private James Bridle deposed to the prisoner not being taken into custody when he came on board.
The court was then cleared for two hours, and on its reopening the Court declared the first charge to be in part proved, and the second charge to be fully proved ; and adjudged the prisoner to lose two years' rank as a lieutenant, and to be severely reprimanded, and he was reprimanded accordingly. The court then broke up.

PROFESSOR JOHN SYMONDS. 1730—1807. He was the third, but eldest surviving, son of the rector of Horringer where he was baptized.      He was educated at Bury Grammar School and St. John’s College, Cambridge, and took his B.A. degree in 1752, being 4th Jun. Optime. In 1753 he was elected a fellow of Peter-house, and M.A. in 1754. In 1768 he was appointed Recorder of Bury. This office he resigned in Oct. 1801, when the Corporation voted him a piece of plate of the value of £50 for his long and eminent services. In 1771, probably through the influence of the Duke of Grafton, Chancellor of the University, he was appointed Professor of Modern History, succeeding Thomas Gray the poet, and in the next year was created LL.D. and migrated to Trinity College. He afterwards travelled in France and Italy, and on his return to England built the house on the east side of Bury St. Edmunds which he called St. Edmund’s hill, though the name has since been changed to the Mount. He records in his diary that the foundation stone was laid on April 2, 1773. The architect was Adam. It was built on ground which was part of his maternal grandmother’s share of the Jermyn property. He was one of the small party which dined weekly at Ickworth when the Earl-Bishop of Derry made his occasional stays there. He was also a great friend of Arthur Young, to whose “ Annals of Agriculture" he frequently contributed articles. He is frequently mentioned in Arthur Young’s Autobiography, who mentions paying him several visits at St. Edmund’s hill during a very dangerous illness in December, 1805. He survived this illness rather more than a year, and died in Feb., 1807, aged 77 exactly, and was buried at Pakenham. He died unmarried. His house at St. Edmund’s hill he sold to Mr. Cocksedge, whose son, Martin Thomas Cocksedge, married Mary Le Heup, who was granddaughter to Mrs. Discipline, the Professor's aunt. His property at Pakenham he left to the Rev. John Walter Spring Casborne, his sister’s grandson.
     His portrait was painted by George Ralph, and engraved in 1788 by J. Singleton.
     There is a memoir of him in the Dict: of Nat: Biography, which wrongly gives the year of his birth as 1728/9 instead of 1729/30. It also wrongly gives the year of his mother’s death as 1774 instead of 1763.⁴

REV. JOHN SYMONDS, D.D., rector of Horringer from 1725 to 1758.
     He was born in 1696, was educated at Bury Grammar School, and by parentage was thoroughly Buriensis.
     For his grandfather was Henry Symonds, a rich clothier of Bury, who married Suzan, daughter of John Craske of Bury.
     And his father was John Symonds of Bury, who died in 1704 when young John was only 8 years old. And his mother's maiden name was Ann Hovell, and she was sister to Richard and Thomas Hovell, two active members of the Bury Corporation.
     These two uncles are now and then mentioned in the letters of John, Lord Bristol, and not being political friends or supporters of his were regarded by him with great indignation.
     In Sept., 1713, Lord Bristol writes from Bath to Mr. Richard Hovell, Alderman of Bury, to thank the Corporation for returning his son and brother-in-law (Porter) as their representatives in Parliament. (Letter 436.)
     In Aug., 1721, Lord Bristol writes from Ickworth to his wife in London, and says, “Yesterday I dined with ye Corporation, who received me with more universal kindness and respect (if possible) than ever, except ye two Hovells." (Letter 619.) A week later he writes again to his wife, “On Thursday next I am to treate the Corporation at the Angel in Bury; they have given the Hovells a fresh mortification by choosing a kinsman of Mr. Macro's for their Preacher in exclusion of their nephew Symonds ; this, they say, they may take for offering to sett up an interest in opposition to Lord Bristol's. (Letter 627.)
     In Oct., 1723, one of the two Hovells had lately passed out of reach of Lord Bristol's indignation, for writing then from Bath to Alderman Ray he says, “ Alderman Hovell being called to give an account of his past conduct, I shall leave him to that great tribunal with this short remark, that I have been young and now am old, yet did I never see any man prosper after deserting truth or his professed principles for any worldly interest whatsoever, an observation honest Mr. Hall would do well to consider of in time." (Letter 783.) But we must leave the uncles and go back to the nephew, merely expressing the hope that honest Mr. Hall was not too late.
     After leaving Bury Grammar School young John Symonds, who lived with his mother at Bury in Eastgate Street, went up to St. John’s College, Cambridge, where he was admitted in 1712. He was Spalding scholar and Symonds exhibitioner, and in 1716 took his B.A. degree, M.A. in 1720. In 1718 he became a fellow of his college. In Bishop Monk’s Life of Bentley, p. 456, it is told that there was much heat shown in the appointment of Dr. Conyers Middleton to be librarian of the University library, and that the indignation against Symonds and another member of his college who had voted against Middleton was so great, that they were hooted the whole way back from the Schools to St. John’s College.
     Having survived the hooting he was in August, 1724, presented by Sir Jermyn Davers to the rectory of Rushbrooke, which he resigned in 1726. In June, 1725, Sir Jermyn presented him to Horringer and Nowton, which both became vacant by the death of Rev. Thomas Smith. About 6 months afterwards, in Jan., 1725/6, he was married in Hengrave Church to Mary Spring. This marriage connected him with several of the big houses in the neighbourhood of Bury, t.g., Hengrave, Rushbrook, Pakenham and others, and surrounded him with cousins and connections of all sorts at Bury, Horringer and elsewhere, and eventually brought lands and houses to him and his children. So we must see who Mary Spring was.
     She was the daughter of Sir Thomas and Merilina Spring. Sir Thomas Spring of Pakenham, 3rd baronet, was the descendant of Springs who were wealthy clothiers at Lavenham three hundred years before this, and to whom Lavenham Church owes some of its stately beauty. His wife Merilina was one of the five daughters and co-heiresses of Thomas, Lord Jermyn, of Rushbrook. As another of those five daughters had married Sir Robert Davers of Rushbrook, and was the mother of Sir Jermyn Davers, it follows that Sir Jermyn, the patron of Horringer rectory, and Miss Spring, who was now going to be married to the new rector of Horringer, were first cousins. Merilina, Lady Spring, survived Sir Thomas and married secondly Sir William Gage of Hengrave, where she was living at the time of this marriage, which consequently took place in Hengrave Church.
     Miss Spring, now become Mrs. John Symonds, was evidently a smart woman. A letter from a Bury lady to Mrs. Ross of Helmingham, dated Feb. 4, 1725,6, says, “ Mr. Symonds was married to the gay, the admired Molly Spring last week ; they are yet at Hengriff, are expected to spend some time at his mother's in East gate St.J before they go to housekeeping; if so we must do ourselves the honour to visit these great people, but I'm determined not to go to see 'em at Horringer till I've a coach, you may guess when that will be. Her first suit a pinke sattin lined with silver tissue, the next a chmt silk lin’d with white tabby, and so on, have hired six servants, 3 men in liveries, a Berlin and four horses; they must have a great deal of Oeconomy to support this figure with their fortune. Poor Mrs. King, Sir Jermyn [Davers' sister, died last week, a mighty pretty woman; tis surprising how that family goes off." If the writer of that letter had been writing about 40 years later, she would have had still more reason to say of the Davers family, Tis surprising how they go off. Mrs. Symonds had been before her marriage the object of several poems addressed to her by Col. Richardson Pack and printed in his miscellany.
     She had one brother, William, and one sister called after their mother, Merilina. Merilina married Thomas Discipline, Alderman of Bury, and had two daughters; from one of whom are descended Le Heups and Cocksedges; the other married John Godbold, who lived for many years in Bury and died in Oct. 1822 in the 93rd year of his age.
     Her brother William succeeded their father, Sir Thomas Spring, as 4th baronet in or about 1710, and flied unmarried in 1737, when the Spring property at Pakenham came to his two sisters, Mrs. Symonds and Mrs. Discipline. This was divided between them, Mrs. Symonds having New hall and the great tithes, etc., Mrs. Discipline having the old hall or mansion and the advowson.
     I must wander a little from Horringer to state a very shocking fact which I find recorded in a folio MS. volume by Rev. George Jermyn giving the history of certain families, and given to my father by his son Archdeacon Jermyn. Mr. Jermyn says that the old manor house of the Springs at Pakenham passed from Mrs. Discipline to her two daughters, Mrs. Le Heup and Mrs. Godbold, and was by them pulled down and the site sold: and when it was pulled down several of the family pictures in it were (apparently on purpose) burnt!! 1 However, Mr. Godbold preserved a few of them. One of Sarah (Cordell) Lady Spring he gave to Miss Casborne; another of Elizabeth (Le Strange) Lady Spring he gave to Mr. Jermyn.
     To go back to the rector of Horringer. In 1737 his wife succeeded to her share of the Spring property at Pakenham. In 1738 he took the degree of S.T.P. or D.D., so that henceforth we may call him Dr. Symonds, but must not confound him with his son, the Professor. In or about 1738 his mother died at her house in Eastgate Street, Bury, and soon afterwards, I imagine in 1742, he left Horringer and went to live there. In 1742 he was appointed preacher at St. Mary’s Church in Bury, having, as we have already seen, been disappointed twenty years before. He was also now made a J.P. for Suffolk.
     He had eight children baptized in Horringer Church. Jermyn, the eldest, baptized in 1726, must have died young, though there is no known record of his burial. John and Thomas, twins, 1728, and Mary 1729, died in infancy. Of John, 1730, and Thomas, 1731, some account will be found below. Delariviere, 1732, married Rev. John Casborne, and their grandson, Rev. Walter John Spring Casborne, inherited the Symonds’ share of the Spring property at Pakenham. Anna Maria, 1742, died in 1758 aged 16 years, and was buried in the same grave as her father.
     I do not find much about Dr. Symonds in Lord Bristol's letters. There is one letter written by him from Ickworth in August, 1738, addressed to Mrs Henrietta Howard, who I think lived at Bury, and who had incurred Lord Bristol's anger by acquainting “ the whole company at Dr. Symonds' ” with something to his disadvantage. “ I must insist upon knowing who your informant was, or whether they will make good or retract their evidence." (Letter 1089.)
     I have not much more to say about Dr. Symonds. So far as one can see at this distance of time he was a very prosperous man and things went well with him. With his own estate, with the two livings of Horringer and Nowton, with the preachership at St. Mary’s, with his wife’s share of the Spring property and of the Jermyn property, he must have been very comfortably off. He had an estate at Horringer which he sold soon after 1750 to George, Lord Bristol, for £4,500. This may have been part of the Jermyn property which his wife inherited from her mother, or it may have been bought by him. He kept the rectories of Horringer and Nowton and the preachership at St. Mary's till his death.
     He died Oct. 12, 1757, in the 61st year of his age, and was buried in the chancel of Pakenham Church. The flat stone there tells us that “ he was a wise and an honest man, a tender master, parent and husband; and, without which none can be truly great, a charitable and a sincere Christian.”
     Another flat stone close by is sacred to the memory of Mary his widow, last surviving daughter of Sir Thomas and Merilina Spring, who was born in 1698, and died in the 67th year of her age.
     Her sister Mrs. Discipline lies not far off. She died in Nov., 1761, aged 66 years.
     Their mother Lady Spring, afterwards Lady Gage, also lies there. She died in Aug., 1727, aged 52 years.⁴

Considerable surprise and regret was expressed in town on January 4 when the tidings of the sudden death of Captain Symonds, of Onehunga, on the previous night became generally known. It appears that on Wednesday night about 9 o'clock he felt some symptoms like those of heartburn, but did not feel seriously indisposed. Some members of his family were desirous of sending for his son-in-law, Dr. Scott, but as he did not feel very unwell he thought it unnecessary. Shortly afterwards, however, Captain Symonds got worse, and they sent for the doctor, but before his arrival the ailing gentleman was dead, his illness having lasted little more than half-an-hour. Dr. Scott was quite satisfied that the cause of death was heart disease, and in consequence Dr. Philson decided that it was unnecessary to hold an inquest. Captain Symonds was a very old settler, having arrived in New Zealand in 1842 with his elder brother, who was afterwards drowned in the Manukau under very distressing circumstances, while engaged in carrying out a mission of humanity. He was at one time acting as sub-Protector of Aborigines, and was also engaged in the survey and purchase of native lands for the Crown. During the Heke war he volunteered into H.M. 99th, when he received his commission, afterwards exchanging into the Ceylon Rifles, when he got a staff appointment. He went home, and retiring from the army, got a staff appointment in the New Zealand Fencibles, coming out with the company allocated to Onehunga, under Major Kenny. In 1860, Captain Symonds represented the Pensioner Settlements in the General Assembly. For many years he acted as Resident Magistrate at Onehunga, and subsequently at Kaipara. Latterly he had been fulfilling the duties of a Judge of the Native Lands Court, but within the last few months had resigned. His family are all grown up and nearly all married, and comfortably settled. His son is an officer in the Auckland Telegraph Department. Deceased was a brother of Admiral Sir William Symonds, who was for some time Chief Constructor of the British Navy. New Zealand Herald, 29 January 1883.⁶      

Julian Frederick Anthony Symonds was commissioned into the Royal Engineers as a Second Lieutenant from the R.M.A. Woolwich on 1 August 1833. After a period of Field Instruction at the R.E. Establishment at Chatham he was for eight years employed on Engineer Duties in Bermuda. Devonport and at Woolwich. In November 1840 he was sent on special duty in Syria, under the Foreign Ofice. and remained there until February 1842. During that time he took part in the operations off the coast of Syria and, in company with Lieut-Colonel R. C. Alderson, was in charge of a detachment of Royal Sappers and Miners aboard the steam frigate Hecate.
In August 1842 Symonds was attached, by permission of the King of Prussia, to the Prussian Corps of Engineers, for the purpose of witnessing the construction of Federal fortresses in Germany. From August 1846 to April 1847 he was engaged in engineer duties in Malta, and was ordered to Corfu during February of the latter year. In April 1847 he was posted for service in the Ionian Islands and, from March 1849, he held the post of Resident to administer the Government of Cephalonia. Major Symonds died in that service, at Argostoli on 8 August 1852 aged 38 years.
Major Symonds was part of a small group mapping the Holy Land. It was he who first measured by trigonometry, the depression of the Dead Sea as 1300 feet.²

After a lingering, though not painful, illness, Mary Ann, the wife of John Benjafield, esq. of Bury St. Edmunds, one of his majesty's justices of the peace for the county of Suffolk. This much lamented lady was the daughter of Capt. Symonds, of the Royal Navy, and niece of the late John Symonds, LL.D. professor of modern history in the university of Cambridge; during her infancy she lost her mother, whilst her father was serving his country, in his profession, on a foreign station; at this period she became the adopted daughter of J. Godbold esq. of Bury St. Edmunds, and his wife, from the accidental circumstance of taking her to their house for a few days, whilst her mother lay dead (Mrs. Godbold being nearly related to Mrs. Benjafield, and coheiress with her paternal grandmother;) but the loveliness of person, the sweetness of temper, and the engaging manner of this amiable child, so delighted these valuable persons, that they were unwilling to part with her, and, with the consent of her father, retained her with them, having no child of their own, and adopted her. She was elegantly and most accomplishedly educated by them, and lived with these invaluable and estimable parents until she was married to her present husband, in the year 1796, and uninterruptedly experienced from them such rare and valuable marks of regard and affection, not possible to be exceeded by the fondest and most indulgent parents, and which she, on her part, studied through her life, even to the last moment of it, to repay with the most dutiful and marked affection. Her disposition was highly charitable, her temper amiable, innocent, and affectionate. In the character of wife and mother, which her husband and and children fully experienced, nor in any of the relative duties of friend and Christian, she could not he excelled. She possessed those mild virtues which, in a manner, commanded friends, and never gave real cause to create one personal enemy--Monthly magazine and British register, Vol. 40, p. 285.¹