Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 59.djvu/74

 mutiny] in the blood of your foes. Now, go to your quarters and do your duty.’ In the battle, two of the Dutch ships struck to the Monmouth.

On 17 Oct. Walker's promotion as captain was confirmed. During the years immediately following, he had temporary command of various ships in the North Sea, and in 1801 commanded the Isis of 50 guns, in the fleet sent to the Baltic, and detached under the immediate orders of Lord Nelson for the battle of Copenhagen, in which Walker's conduct called forth the very especial approval of Nelson himself. The loss sustained by the Isis was very great, amounting to 112 killed and wounded out of a complement of 350. In command of the Tartar frigate, Walker was shortly afterwards sent in charge of a convoy to the West Indies, where he was appointed to the 74-gun ship Vanguard, and on the renewal of the war took an active part in the blockade of San Domingo, in the capture of the French 74-gun ship Duquesne on 25 July 1803 (, Batailles Navales de la France, iii. 291–3), and in the reduction of Saint-Marc, whose garrison of eleven hundred men, on the verge of starvation, he received on board the Vanguard, as the only way of securing them from the sanguinary vengeance of the negroes. A few months later Walker returned to England in the Duquesne, and was then appointed to the Thalia frigate, in which he made a voyage to the East Indies with treasure and convoy. He afterwards took a convoy out to Quebec, commanded a small squadron on the Guernsey station, and in October 1807 was appointed to the Bedford, one of the ships which went to Lisbon and to Rio Janeiro with Sir William Sidney Smith [q. v.] For the next two years Walker remained at Rio, where he was admitted to the friendship of the prince regent of Portugal, who on 30 April 1816 conferred on him the order of the Tower and Sword, and, when recalled to England, presented him with his portrait set with diamonds and a valuable diamond ring. The Bedford was afterwards employed in the North Sea and in the Channel, and in September 1814 went out to the Gulf of Mexico, where, during the absence of the flag-officers at New Orleans, Walker was left as senior officer in command of the large ships. On 4 June 1815 he was nominated a C.B. After the peace he commanded the Albion, Queen, and Northumberland, which last was paid off on 10 Sept. 1818. This was the end of his long service afloat. He was promoted to be rear-admiral on 19 July 1821. He died after a few days' illness, on 13 July 1831, at Blachington, near Seaford. He was twice married, and left issue.

[Marshall's Roy. Nav. Biogr. ii. (vol. i. pt. ii.) 848, 882; Ralfe's Nav. Biogr. iv. 144; O'Byrne's Nav. Biogr. Dict. p. 1239; Gent. Mag. 1831, ii. 270.] 

WALKER, JAMES (1770?–1841), bishop of Edinburgh and primus of Scotland, born at Fraserburgh about 1770, was educated at Marischal College, Aberdeen, whence he proceeded to St. John's College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1793, M.A. in 1796, and D.D. in 1826. In 1793 he was ordained a deacon of the Scottish episcopal church. After his return to Scotland he became sub-editor of the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica,’ the third edition of which was then being prepared by George Gleig [q. v.], bishop of Brechin. About the close of the century he became tutor to Sir John Hope, bart., of Craighall, and travelled with him for two or three years. In Germany he made the acquaintance of some of the foremost philosophers and men of letters, and devoted especial attention to metaphysical inquiry. The article on Kant's system in the supplement to the ‘Encyclopædia’ was the result of his researches at Weimar. On his return he was ordained priest and received the charge of St. Peter's Chapel, Edinburgh. On 30 Nov. 1819, during a visit to Rome, he conducted the first regular protestant service held in the city. In 1829 he resigned his charge of St. Peter's to his colleague Charles Hughes Terrot [q. v.], and on 7 March 1830 he was consecrated bishop of Edinburgh, and about the same time was appointed first Pantonian professor at the Scottish Episcopal Theological College, an office which he retained until his death. On 24 May 1837, on the resignation of George Gleig, Walker was elected primus of the Scottish episcopal church. He died at Edinburgh on 5 March 1841, and was buried in the burying-ground of St. John's episcopal chapel. He was succeeded as bishop of Edinburgh by Charles Hughes Terrot, and as primus by William Skinner (1778–1857) [q. v.]

In 1829 Walker published ‘Sermons on various Occasions’ (London, 8vo). He was also the author of several single sermons, and translated Jean Joseph Mounier's treatise ‘On the Influence attributed to Philosophers, Freemasons, and to the Illuminati on the Revolution of France’ (London, 1801, 8vo).

[Edinburgh Evening Courant, 12 March 1841; W. Walker's Life of Bishop Jolly, 1878, p. 152; Lawson's Scottish Episcopal Church, 1843, p. 419; Stephen's Hist. of the Church of Scotland 1841, iv. passim (with portrait); Gent. Mag. 1841, i. 351.] 