terranean. While so employed his vessel came into collision with a battery, and was so much damaged that she was under the necessity of seeking repair in a Spanish port. On arriving at Gibraltar Mr. Stewart found that the Impérieuse had been suddenly ordered home; in consequence whereof he did not rejoin her until after Lord Cochrane’s celebrated attack upon the French shipping in Basque Roads. He then accompanied the expedition to the Walcheren; where, during the siege of Flushing, he obtained the thanks of Capt. Garth for suggesting the firing of shells (previously provided by Lord Cochrane) from the maindeck guns, whereby the formidable fort of Terneuse was blown up and the frigate relieved from a very critical situation. From 4 Nov. 1809 until 23 Jan. 1810 Mr. Stewart served at Leith in the Adamant 50, flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Edm. Nagle; in May of the latter year he joined the Hussar 38, Capt. Alex. Skene, in the Baltic; and after serving for upwards of six months at Spithead and again at Leith in the Royal William, flag-ship of Sir Roger Curtis, and Alexandria 32, Capt. Robt. Cathcart, he was promoted, 1 Aug. 1811, to the rank of Lieutenant. While attached to the Hussar he cruized for four weeks in a boat with 16 men off Rostock and Kiel, and obtained the thanks of his Captain for the judgment he displayed in detaining an American vessel which was carried by him into Leith, and was there condemned. After he left the Alexandria he was appointed – 16 Aug. 1811, to the Tigre 74, Capt. John Halliday, off Rochefort – 8 May, 1812, and 29 Jan. 1813, to the San Josef 110, and, as Signal-Lieutenant, to the Queen Charlotte 100, bearing each the flag of Lord Keith in the Channel – 3 March, 1814, as Acting-Captain, to the Clarence 74, stationed off Brest, where the manner in which the ship did her work occasioned his being complimented by the late Sir Pulteney Malcolm, under whose orders he was serving – towards the close of the following month, again to the Queen Charlotte – and 9 June, 1814, to the acting-command, off Cape Finisterre, of the Podargus 14. He was confirmed a Commander 13 Aug. in the same year; was employed in that capacity, between Jan. 1815 and March, 1817, in the Shark, Royalist, and Rifleman sloops, on the Jamaica station; and was there, in the course of the month last mentioned, nominated Acting-Captain of the Pique 36 and Salisbury 58. In the latter ship, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral John Erskine Douglas, Capt. Stewart, whose Post-commission bears date 10 June, 1817, remained until paid off 18 April, 1818. His next appointment was, 21 Oct. 1823, to the Menai 26, in which vessel, stationed on the coast of North America, he continued until Dec. 1826. During that period he had charge for two successive winters of the dockyard and port duties at Halifax, and acquitted himself in a way that procured him the cordial approbation of Vice-Admiral Sir Willoughby Thos. Lake. In command, from 9 April, 1839, until May, 1842, of the Benbow 72, Capt. Stewart saw much active service in the Mediterranean. In the spring of 1840 he was sent to cruize off Faro and Messina for the detention of Neapolitan and Sicilian vessels. With the Carysfort 26, Magicienne 24, and Zebra 16, under his orders, he was intrusted, during the operations on the coast of Syria, with the bombardment of Tripoli. He also, in the months of Sept. and Oct., took possession of the island of Aronad, attacked Tortosa, which was afterwards evacuated,[1] saved the consuls of Aleppo and Alexandretta, and destroyed the Governor’s house and stores at the latter place; took possession of Lhatakiah for the Sultan; and distributed above 6000 stand of arms to the mountaineers. In Nov. 1840 he was selected to take command of a force destined for Scanderoon Bay, an expedition eventually however not required. In the attack upon St. Jean d’Acre, off which place he was for a time senior officer, the Benbow was the first ship in action. During the evacuation of Syria by Ibrahim Pacha, Capt. Stewart had command, from 21 Dec. 1840 until 1 March, 1841, of the British and Austrian forces employed off the coast. He was afterwards sent to the Archipelago for the purpose of effecting an adjustment of affairs in Candia, where an insurrection had broken out. After his arrival not a single execution for political offences took place; and the boats of the Benbow, Tyne, Hazard, and Vesuvius, assisted by the French under M. Le Grandois, had the good fortune to rescue more than 600 of the insurgents from the vengeance of the Turks. As a reward for his conduct at St. Jean d’Acre Capt. Stewart was nominated a C.B. 18 Dec. 1840. He was ordered, in the absence of Sir Fras. Augustus Collier, to act, 17 July, 1846, as Superintendent of the Dockyard at Woolwich and Captain of the William and Mary yacht; and on 13 Nov. 1846 he was appointed Comptroller-General of the Coast Guard – a post he still retains.
Capt. Stewart married, 10 Feb. 1819, Martha, youngest daughter of Sir Wm. Miller, Bart., of Glenlee, by whom he has issue three sons – the eldest, William Houston, a Commander R.N., and the second, Houston, a Lieutenant in the 32nd Regt. Agents – Hallett and Robinson.
STEWART. (Lieutenant, 1828.)
James Stewart entered the Navy in 1809; and while serving on board the Illustrious 74, Capt. Wm. Robt. Broughton, was present, we are informed, at the attack upon the French fleet in Basque Roads, and accompanied the expeditions to the Walcheren, the Isle of France, and Java. On the latter occasion he commanded a launch, and assisted in landing the troops. He passed his examination in 1817; was made Lieutenant, 5 Dec. 1828, into the Primrose 18, Capt. Thos. Saville Griffinhoofe, on the coast of Africa; was appointed subsequently to the Hyperion 42, Coast Blockade ship, Capt. Wm. Jas. Mingaye; and for a short time in 1833 had charge of a station in the Coast Guard, in which service, deducting a few months in 1843, he has been again employed since 21 Nov. 1839. Agents – Goode and Lawrence.
STEWART, C.B. (Rear-Admiral, 1846.)
James Pattison Stewart entered the Navy, in March, 1797, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Emerald 36, Capt. Thos. Moutray Waller, attached to the fleet in the Mediterranean. He served next, on the latter station and in the Channel, from Nov. 1798 until Jan. 1800, in the Queen Charlotte 100 and Barfleur and Téméraire 98’s, flag-ships of Admirals Sir Chas. Thompson and Jas. Hawkins Whitshed; and he then went back, in the capacity of Midshipman, to the Emerald, in which frigate, commanded for some time by Lord Jas. O’Bryen, he proceeded to the West Indies, where he removed to the Centaur 74, Commodore Sir Sam. Hood, was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant 21 March, 1805, and, after serving in the Beaulieu 44, Capt. Chas. Ekins, Dolphin, Capt. Isaac Ferrieres, and Northumberland 74, flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Hon. Alex. Cochrane (under whom he fought in the action off St. Domingo), was nominated, 15 April, 1806, Acting-Commander of the Port d’Espagne brig. In that vessel, to which he was confirmed 15 Feb. 1808, he made prize, 18 Aug. 1807, of La Maria Spanish privateer of 1 long 18-pounder gun and 74 men. From the Port d’Espagne he removed, in Nov. 1808, to the Snap brig, in which vessel (part ot the force employed at the reduction of Martinique), and in the Epervier, he continued to serve in the West Indies, we believe, until Sept. 1809. Being next, 7 July, 1810, appointed to the Sheldrake 16, he was afforded an opportunity of co-operating, in March, 1811, in the defence of the island of Anholdt, when attacked by a Danish flotilla and army consisting in all of nearly 4000 men. On that occasion he distinguished himself by the intrepidity and skill with which he gave chase to 16 of the enemy’s gun-boats and armed vessels, two of the former of which (the one carrying 2 long 18-pounders, 4 brass howitzers, and 65 men – the other 2 long 24-pounders, 4 howitzers, and 60 men)
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1840, p. 2605.
