Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 35.djvu/409

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Malcolm
403
Malcolm

ginning of 1809 he went out to the West Indies, and in April took part in the capture of the Saintes islands. On his return to England he was moved into the Rhin, in which during 1812 and 1813 he was employed in co-operating with the patriots on the north coast of Spain. In 1813 he went out to the West Indies with convoy; in 1814 he was cruising on the coast of Brazil; and on 18 July 1815, having been joined by the Menelaus and Havannah frigates and the Fly and Ferret sloops, he landed a party of seamen and marines at Corrijou on the coast of Brittany, stormed the battery, and brought out of the harbour three small armed vessels and a convoy under their protection. The affair was of a type which had become customary, but is noteworthy as the last of the kind during that war.

In September 1817 he fitted out the Sibylle, as flag-captain to Sir Home Popham [q. v.] in the West Indies, from which station he invalided in February 1819. From 1822 to 1827 he commanded one or other of the yachts, William and Mary and Royal Charlotte, in attendance on the Marquis Wellesley, lord-lieutenant of Ireland, by whom he was knighted. In November 1827 he was appointed superintendent of the Bombay marine, then reorganised and placed under new regulations, which required it to have a captain of the royal navy at its head. Malcolm arrived at Bombay in June 1828, and under his careful and kindly rule the marine received a new development. On 1 May 1830 its name was officially changed to ‘the Indian navy;’ and in addition to the rigorous discharge of its police duties, it became distinguished as a school of surveyors. Malcolm held the post for ten years, and on his being relieved was officially thanked by the governor in council for the able and zealous manner in which he had watched over and advanced the interests of the naval service. The introduction to and establishment of steam navigation in the Red Sea were also largely due to his exertions (Low, ii. 66). He was promoted to be rear-admiral on 10 Jan. 1837, and to be vice-admiral on 28 April 1847, but had no further service. During his later years he gave much attention to the organisation of charitable institutions. He also served continuously on the council of the Royal Geographical Society. He died at Brighton 4 June 1851, and was buried there.

Malcolm was twice married: first, in 1808, to his cousin Magdalene, daughter of Charles Pasley, his mother's brother; and secondly, in 1829, to Elmira Riddell, youngest daughter of Major-general Shaw. He had issue by both marriages.

[O'Byrne's Nav. Biog. Dict.; Gent. Mag. 1851, pt. ii. p. 431; Low's Hist. of the Indian Navy, vol. i. chap. xiv., and vol. ii. chaps. i. and ii.; Journal of the Royal Geogr. Soc. vol. xxii. p. lxiv.]

J. K. L.

MALCOLM, JAMES PELLER (1767–1815), topographer and engraver, son of a merchant in Philadelphia, was born there in August 1767. He was admitted into the quaker school in his native city, but as his family, to avoid the revolutionary war, fled soon afterwards to Potts-town, it was there that he received the greater part of his education, ‘at an enormous expense.’ He returned with his parents to Philadelphia in 1784, after the conclusion of peace. While at school he had devoted his leisure to drawing and painting; and acting on the advice of Mr. Bembridge, a relative and fellow-student of Benjamin West, he came to London, and pursued his artistic studies for two years in the Royal Academy; but finding that no sufficient encouragement was given to history and landscape-painting, he took to engraving and the compilation of books on topographical and historical subjects. He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

Many specimens of his skill as an engraver are to be found in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ from 1792 to 1814; but his more finished productions appeared in his ‘Excursions through Kent’ and in Nichols's ‘History of Leicestershire,’ on which he worked as a draughtsman and an engraver for nearly twenty years. He also engraved and published three views of Leathersellers' Hall, on the site of the monastery of St. Helen's, London, and two large plates of the inside of the Middle Temple Hall, and one external view, under the auspices of the society. He died in Gee Street, Clarendon Square, London, on 5 April 1815, leaving his mother and wife wholly unprovided for.

Malcolm's chief work was ‘Londinium Redivivum, or an Antient History and Modern Description of London, compiled from Parochial Records, Archives of various Foundations, the Harleian MSS. and other authentic Sources,’ 4 vols. Lond. 1802–7, 4to. This is by far the best parochial history of the metropolis, as it is compiled from original records, like vestry-books, churchwardens' accounts, and parochial registers. The dean and chapter of St. Paul's gave him free access to their archives. The work is accompanied by forty-seven plates. Malcolm's other publications are:

  1. Seventy-nine plates to illustrate Lysons's ‘Environs of London,’ 1797–1800.
  2. ‘Twenty Views within Twelve Miles of London,’ Lond. 1800,