Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 06.djvu/365

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Brisbane
353
Brisbane

rank on 12 Aug. 1819. He married Sarah, daughter of Sir James Patey, knight, of Reading, and left several children.

[Ralfe's Nav. Biog. iv. 84; Marshall's Roy. Nav. Biog. ii. (vol. i. pt. ii.) 730; Gent. Mag. (1830), c. i. 642.]

J. K. L.


BRISBANE, Sir JAMES (1774–1826), commodore, fifth son of Admiral John Brisbane, and brother of Rear-admiral Sir Charles Brisbane [q. v.], entered the navy in 1787 on board the Culloden. After serving in various ships he was transferred to the Queen Charlotte, bearing the flag of Lord Howe, to whom he acted as signal-midshipman in the battle of 1 June. He was made lieutenant on 23 Sept. 1794, and served at the reduction of the Cape of Good Hope. He was afterwards moved into the Monarch, Sir George Elphinstone's flagship, and was present in her at the capture of the Dutch squadron in Saldanha Bay 18 Aug. 1796. Sir George promoted Brisbane into one of the prizes, and soon afterwards moved him into the Daphne frigate, in command of which he returned to England. The promotion, however, was not confirmed till 27 May 1797. In 1801 Brisbane was appointed to the command of the Cruiser sloop, attached to the Baltic fleet under Sir Hyde Parker. He was more particularly attached to the division under Lord Nelson, and on the nights of 30 and 31 March had especial charge of the work of sounding and buoying the channels approaching Copenhagen (Nelson Despatches, iv. 302-303). In acknowledgment of his services on this occasion he was promoted to post rank on 2 April 1801, and in the latter part of the year commanded the Saturn as flag-captain to Rear-admiral Totty until the admiral's death, when the ship was paid off. From 1803-5 he had command of the sea fencibles of Kent, and in 1807 of the Alcmene frigate on the coast of Ireland and in the Channel. In 1808 he was appointed to the Belle Poule, a 38-gun frigate, and was ordered by Lord Collingwood to take command of the squadron blockading Corfu. Whilst so employed he captured on 15 Feb. 1809 the French frigate Var, which had endeavoured to break the blockade. He was afterwards engaged in the reduction of the Ionian islands and the establishment of the septinsular republic. He continued in the Adriatic till the summer of 1811, during which time he captured or destroyed several of the enemy's small cruisers, and was repeatedly engaged with their batteries on different parts of the coast. In September 1812 Brisbane was appointed to the Pembroke in the Channel fleet, and the following summer was again sent to the Mediterranean, where he was actively employed. In 1815 he again served in the Mediterranean, and in 1816 in the expedition against Algiers. After the bombardment on 27 Aug. he was sent home with despatches, and on 2 Oct. received the honour of knighthood. He had already been made a C.B. in June 1815. In 1825 he was appointed commander-in-chief in the East Indies, where he arrived in time to direct the concluding operations of the first Burmese war, for his services in which he was officially thanked by the governor-general in council. His health, however, had suffered severely, and was never reestablished. He lingered for some months, and died at Penang on 19 Dec. 1826. He married in 1800 the only daughter of Mr. John Ventham, by whom he had one son and two daughters.

[Marshall's Roy. Nav. Biog. iii. (vol. ii.) 400; James's Naval History (1860), vi. 337.]

J. K. L.


BRISBANE, JOHN (d. 1776?), physician, a native of Scotland, graduated M.D. at Edinburgh in 1750, and was admitted licentiate of the College of Physicians in 1766. He held the post of physician to the Middlesex Hospital from 1758 till 1773, when he was superseded for being absent without leave. His name disappears from the college list in 1776. He was the author of 'Select Cases in the Practice of Medicine,' 8vo, 1762, and 'Anatomy of Painting, with an Introduction giving a short View of Picturesque Anatomy,' fol. 1769. This work contains the six Tables of Albinus, the Anatomy of Celsus, with notes, and the Physiology of Cicero.

[Munk's Coll. of Phys. ii. 274; Lowndes's Bibl. Manual (Bohn), i. 272.]


BRISBANE, Sir THOMAS MAKDOUGALL- (1773–1860), general, colonial governor, and astronomer, was the eldest son of Thomas Brisbane of that ilk, and was born at Brisbane House, Largs in Ayrshire, on 23 July 1773. His father had served at Culloden, and died in 1812, aged 92. His mother was Eleanor, daughter of Sir W. Bruce of Stenhouse. After spending some time at Edinburgh University, where he showed his taste for mathematics and astronomy, he was sent to an academy in Kensington, was gazetted an ensign in the 38th regiment in 1789, and joined it in Ireland in 1790, where he struck up an acquaintance with Arthur Wellesley, then aide-de-camp to the lord-lieutenant, which lasted all their lives. He was promoted lieutenant in 1792, and captain, at the age of twenty, in 1793, into the 53rd regiment, with which he served through the campaign of 1793-5 in Flanders under the Duke of York. He was wounded in the attack