on the staff of Lord Carhampton, the Irish commander-in-chief. When the troubles broke out in 1798, Napier did not fly, like most of the gentry, but fortified his mansion at Celbridge, Kildare, and armed his sons and servants. Eventually he removed his family to Castletown. He commanded a yeomanry corps in the rebellion. Marquis Cornwallis appointed him comptroller of army accounts in Ireland; and Napier, a man of varied attainments, set to work loyally to reduce to order the military accounts, which were in disgraceful confusion. He became a brevet-colonel on 1 Jan. 1800. He died of consumption on 13 Oct. 1804 at Clifton, Bristol. There is a memorial slab in the Redlands Chapel there.
Napier married, first, Elizabeth, daughter of Captain Robert Pollock, by whom he had several children, all of whom, together with their mother, died in America, with the exception of Louisa Mary, who survived and died unmarried on 26 Aug. 1856; secondly, the Lady Sarah Bunbury, fourth daughter of the second Duke of Richmond [see Lennox, Charles, second Duke of Richmond, Lennox, and Aubigny]. At the age of seventeen she captivated the youthful George III, and it was thought would have become queen. Horace Walpole speaks of her as by far the most charming of the ten noble maidens who bore the bride's train at the subsequent marriage of the king with Charlotte of Mecklenburg on 8 Sept. 1761 (Letters, iii. 374, 432; Jesse, Memoirs of George III, i. 64–9; Thackeray, Four Georges). She married in 1762 Sir Charles Thomas Bunbury, M.P., the well-known racing baronet, from whom she was divorced in 1776. By her marriage with Napier she had five sons and three daughters, among the former being the distinguished soldiers Charles James Napier [q. v.], George Thomas Napier [q. v.], and William Francis Patrick Napier [q. v.], and the historian, Henry Edward Napier [q. v.] George III settled 1,000l. a year on her and her children at Napier's death. Lady Sarah, who had been long totally blind, died in London in 1826, aged 81. She was said to be the last surviving great-granddaughter of Charles II.
[Burke's Peerage, under ‘Napier of Merchistoun’ and ‘Richmond and Lennox;’ Napier's Life and Opinions of Sir Charles James Napier, i. 47–55; Passages in Early Military Life of Sir George Thomas Napier, p. 24; Army Lists; Jesse's Life and Reign of Geo. III, vol. i.; Walpole's Letters, vols. iii–ix.]
NAPIER, Sir GEORGE THOMAS (1784–1855), general and governor of the Cape of Good Hope, second son by his second wife of Colonel George Napier [q. v.], was born at Whitehall, London, on 30 June 1784. Unlike his elder brother Charles, he was a dunce at school. On 25 Jan. 1800 he was appointed cornet in the 24th light dragoons (disbanded in 1802), an Irish corps bearing ‘Death or Glory’ for its motto, in which he learned such habits of dissipation that his father speedily effected his transfer to a foot regiment. He became lieutenant on 18 June 1800, and was placed on half-pay of the 46th foot in 1802. He was brought into the 52nd light infantry in 1803, became captain on 5 Jan. 1804, and served with the regiment under Sir John Moore at Shorncliffe, in Sicily, Sweden, and Portugal. He was a favourite with Moore from the first, and one of his aides-de-camp at Coruña. Through some mistake he was represented in the army list as having received a gold medal in February 1809 for the capture of Martinique, at which action he was not present. He served with the 52nd in the Peninsular campaigns of 1809–11. At Busaco he was wounded slightly when in the act of striking with his sword at a French grenadier at the head of an opposing column. He and his brother William were two out of the eleven officers promoted in honour of Massena's retreat. He became an effective major in the 52nd foot in 1811, and volunteered for the command of the stormers of the light division at the assault on Ciudad Rodrigo on 19 Jan. 1812. John Gurwood [q. v.] of the 52nd led the forlorn hope. Napier on this occasion lost his right arm, which he had had broken by a fragment of shell at Casal Novo three days before (Gurwood, Wellington Despatches, v. 473–7, 478). Napier received a brevet lieutenant-colonelcy and a gold medal. He went home, married his first wife, and was appointed deputy adjutant-general of the York district. He rejoined the 52nd as major at St. Jean de Luz at the beginning of 1814, and was present with it at Orthez, Tarbes, and Toulouse. Immediately after the latter battle he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the 71st highland light infantry, which he brought home to Scotland. On 25 July the same year he was appointed captain and lieutenant-colonel 3rd foot guards (Scots guards), in which he served until 19 April 1821, when he retired on half-pay of the late Sicilian regiment. He was made C.B. on 4 June 1815, became a brevet-colonel on 27 Aug. 1825, major-general 10 Jan. 1837, K.C.B. 10 July 1838, colonel 1st West India regiment 29 Feb. 1844, lieutenant-general 9 Nov. 1846, general 20 June 1854. He had the Peninsular gold medal for Ciudad Rodrigo, and the silver medal and four clasps.
Napier was governor and commander-in-
