Septimus Arabin

Septimius Arabin (1785–1855) was an admiral in the Royal Navy of Irish/French Huguenot descent. Life Septimus (or Septimius) Arabin was the 5th of the nine sons of Henry Arabin, a Dublin lawyer, industrialist (part owner of the Corkagh gunpowder mills) and political activist. His mother, Ann Favière Grant, was of Scottish/Huguenot extraction but grew up in Dublin. His paternal great-grandfather John Arabin raised the 57th (West Middlesex) Regiment of Foot at the onset of the Seven Years' War. While several of his brothers became officers in the British Army, Septimus preferred to join the Royal Navy. In April 1799 he took part in the defence of the city of Acre against the French fleet as part of the Egyptian campaign. He was a cadet officer on the 74 gun HMS Tigre which had been captured from the French in 1795.