Page:A Naval Biographical Dictionary.djvu/1135

Rh Spanish Main, and his gentlemanlike and conciliatory manners, that I am so much indebted for assisting me in the preservation of a friendly intercourse with the foreign colonies in this command. I conceive it will be as gratifying to their Lordships to hear as it is for me to make so honourable a report of this intelligent and excellent offlcer, whom I detach from my command with considerable regret; but I feel at the same time a very sincere pleasure in thus recommending him to their Lordships’ notice.” Capt. Stirling’s promotion to Post-rank took place 7 Dec. in the same year (1818). His next appointment was, 25 Jan. 1826, to the 28; and in this ship he was sent to form a settlement at Raffles Bay, in Torres Strait – a service which he accomplished in so able a manner as to cause his being highly complimented by the Naval Commander-in-Chief and the Government of New South Wales. In Oct. 1828, nine months after he had left the, he was selected to take command of an expedition intended to form a colony in Western Australia, where he remained until induced, in 1839, to tender his resignation, for the purpose of resuming the occupations attached to his profession, having during that period, surrounded as he was with the difficulties inseparable from the establishment of a new settlement, evinced a degree of zeal and ability that procured him, 3 April, 1833, the honour of Knighthood, and ultimately the acknowledgments of Her Majesty. To quote from an animated address presented to him by the colonists on leaving, “they could testify with confidence and gratitude that the general tenor of his Excellency’s administration had been highly and deservedly popular; that they had invariably experienced in him a friend of warm and ready sympathy with individual distress, an entire and liberal promoter of every good and useful institution, an able and zealous patron of every enterprise suggested for the general welfare, and in all the domestic and social relations of private life an example v/orthy of his high station.” On the prospect of a war with France Sir Jas. Stirling was appointed, 30 Oct. 1840, to the 78. He continued in that ship, in the Mediterranean, until paid off in June, 1844; and since 28 April, 1847, he has been in command of the 120, now on the same station. Before the Indus returned to England he received from Sir Edw. Owen, the Commander-in-Chief, a letter expressive of the sense he entertained of the efficiency of that ship in all that constitutes a perfect man-of-war, and of the admiration which the order and discipline on board had excited in all the foreign ports she had visited.

Sir Jas. Stirling is a Knight Commander of the Order of the Redeemer of Greece. He married, in 1823, Ellen, daughter of the late Jas. Mangles, Esq., M.P. for Guildford, by whom he has issue nine children. – Messrs. Ommanney.

 STIRLING. 

(b), born 31 Oct. 1789, is son of the late Jas. Stirling, Esq., of Kippendavie, co. Perth, by his wife, Mary Graham, of Airth, co. Stirling.

This officer entered the Navy, 24 Sept. 1804, as a Volunteer, on board the 110, Capt. Tristram Robt. Ricketts, bearing the flag of Sir Chas. Cotton in the Channel, where he attained the rating of Midshipman in Sept. 1805, and in Aug. 1806 removed to the 22, Capts. Geo. Edm. Byron Bettsworth and Hon. Geo. Cadogan. On his return from a voyage to Quebec he was received, in Oct. 1807, on board the 38, Capts. Jas. Dunbar, Henry Hope, and Anselm John Griffiths, attached to the fleet in the Mediterranean, on which station, after assisting at the capture of the Ionian Islands and the destruction of two martello towers near Cape Otranto, he went back, in Sept. 1810, at the invitation of Sir C. Cotton, to the, and was by him nominated, 21 March, 1811, Acting-Lieutenant of the 74, Capt. Patrick Campbell. To that ship he was confirmed 20 May in the same year. Exchanging, 31 Jan. 1812, into the sloop, Capts. Wm. Stewart, Edw. Reynolds Sibly, and Joshua Ricketts Rowley, he served in the boats of that vessel, 29 April following, and assisted, in company with those of the and  frigates, in an attack upon a French convoy near the mouth of the Rhone, on which occasion 7 vessels were brought out, 12, including a national schooner of 4 guns and 74 men, burnt, and 2 left stranded on the beach. In personal command of the boats of the alone Mr. Stirling blew up two martello towers in the Bay of St. Mary’s. From Aug. 1813 until advanced to his present rank 15 June, 1814, he served, still in the Mediterranean, in the 84, flagship of Rear-Admiral Benj. Hallowell; and from 6 May, 1815, until paid off 28 June, 1816, he commanded the 14, on the Channel and St. Helena stations. While in the latter vessel, for his rapidity in fitting out which he obtained the thanks of the Commander-in-Chief at Plymouth and the Board of Admiralty, he united, with the sloop, in an attack made by Capt. Chas. Malcolm of the 38, with the boats of that and of the  and  frigates, on a convoy lying under the protection of a fort and of an armed cutter, a praam-brig, and a gun-vessel, in the harbour of Corrijou, near Abervrach, on the coast of Bretagne. His behaviour on that occasion may be inferred from the following extract of a letter addressed to him by Capt. Malcolm:– “When I informed Lord Keith,” he says, “of my having detained the for the attack upon Corrijou, I endeavoured all I could to impress him with a just sense of your conduct. I mentioned your personal exertions the night before the attack, after the had anchored, in going off to the  to pilot her in. I told him that during the attack your conduct was the admiration of all; that it was your good fortune to command a vessel of light draught of water, and that the advantage you took of that circumstance to run in in the fine style you did between the rocks and the main into the mouth of the harbour at once decided our, and prevented the escape of the man-of-war brig which you forced to run on shore.” We may add that, while the , with the and part of the boats, was engaged in obtaining possession of the vessels, Capt. Malcolm, who had landed with a body of seamen and marines, stormed and carried the fort. The afterwards formed part of the squadron under Sir Geo. Cockburn which escorted Napoleon Buonaparte to St. Helena, where she remained until ordered home with despatches 27 March, 1816. On 4 April, when near the Equator, she encountered, and, although with only 8 12-pounder carronades mounted, succeeded, after a running fight of nearly two hours, in capturing, the Dolores brigantine (formerly an American privateer), armed with 1 long 32-pounder on a pivot, 4 long 9-potmders, and 2 long 12-pounder carronades, and laden with a cargo of 275 slaves. The prize was taken to Sierra Leone and condemned; and on 28 June, having arrived at Plymouth, the, as above stated, was paid off. Commander Stirling has not been since afloat.

He married, 6 July, 1820, Mary, daughter of Day Hort Macdowall, Esq., of Castlesemple, co. Renfrew. – J. Chippendale.

 STIRLING. 

entered the Navy 27 June, 1811; obtained his first commission 10 July 1824; was appointed, 8 Nov. 1828, to the 120, flag-ship of Hon. Sir Henry Blackwood at the Nore; served from 31 March, 1831, until 1833, as Flag-Lieutenant, in the  120 and  50, to Hon. Sir Henry Hotham, Commander- in-Chief in the Mediterranean; and on 29 Nov. 1842 was again appointed to the 