This sub-collection consists of order and letterbooks, together with some loose letters and notebooks, from the later years of Dobbie’s career. The official correspondence relates to his command of HMS ARROGANT (1761) at Bombay Harbour and other events in the East Indies in 1805-1807, also his command of HMS ETHALION (1802) off the coast of Ireland and Portugal, in 1814-1815. The notebooks include a quarter, watch and station bill for HMS PACTOLUS (1813), commanded by Dobbie on the Bermuda station in 1816-1817. There are also some family letters and poems.

Administrative / biographical background
William Hugh Dobbie was born in London in 1771, the youngest son of George Dobbie (1740-1778), a mariner, and Sarah Dobbie née Steple (or Staple). He joined HMS HECTOR (1774) as a midshipman in 1783. He joined HMS HECTOR (1774) as a midshipman in 1783. Due to the poor chances of gaining a commission as a lieutenant during peacetime, he served as a junior officer in the East India Company. Following the outbreak of war with France in 1793, he joined HMS SUFFOLK (1765), flagship of Commodore Peter Rainier, Commander-in-Chief on the East Indies station. Dobbie soon afterwards distinguished himself at the capture of Trincomalee, and later when the SUFFOLK led a squadron to subjugate islands of the Dutch East Indies. Dobbie was appointed first lieutenant of HMS CENTURION (1774) in 1798 and then took part in operations in the Red Sea, the blockade of Java, and the capture of the arsenal at Onrust. After the cessation of hostilities in 1802 Dobbie lost all his possessions when the CENTURION encountered a violent hurricane between Ceylon and Bombay and just managed to stay afloat. In the following year he was hit in the chest by a musket ball during an operation against pirates at Baite Island on the Guzerat coast. After returning to Bombay he found that he had been promoted to the rank of commander and appointed to the frigate HMS WILHELMINA (captured 1798). Shortly afterwards Dobbie became governor of the naval hospital at Madras, though the tenure was interrupted for a period of two months by his temporary command of HMS SCEPTRE (1802) and the pursuit of a French squadron in the Straits of Malacca. In 1805 Dobbie was ordered to command the receiving ship and sheer hulk HMS ARROGANT (1761) at Bombay, then also to superintend repairs and act as captain of the frigate HMS FOX (1780). In the following months Dobbie took the FOX (without a single commissioned officer) on a cruise of the Malabar coast in pursuit of the French privateer BELLONA and led a flotilla against the pirate stronghold at Dwarka. When Dobbie returned to England at the beginning of 1808, he had been on continuous active service in the East Indies for a period of eighteen years. Later that year he married Agatha Shedden Goodrich, daughter of Bartlett Goodrich of Saling Grove, Essex. In 1809 Dobbie was put in temporary command of the frigate HMS PALLAS (1804) and proceeded to Walcheren in the Netherlands in support of the expeditionary force led by General Lord Chatham. His next seagoing appointment was command of HMS ETHALION (1802) off the coast of Ireland and Portugal, in 1814-1815. Another short appointment came in 1816-1817, when he commanded the frigate HMS PACTOLUS (1802) on the Bermuda station. Dobbie died in 1830 after suffering from the effects of the wound he had received on Baite Island earlier in his career. A memorial tablet for Captain Dobbie and his wife was erected by their eleven sons and daughters at St. James church, Great Saling, Essex.