after the treaty of Limerick. He was also the author of ‘An Analytical Exposition of the Absurdity and Iniquity of the Oaths, when taken by Protestants, that the Sacrifice of the Mass and the Invocation of Saints are superstitious, idolatrous, and damnable,’ London, 1829, 8vo.
[O'Neill Daunt's Ireland and her Agitators; Fitzpatrick's Correspondence of Daniel O'Connell; Torrens's Memoirs of Sheil; Webb's Compendium of Irish Biography; Gent. Mag. 1848, ii. 207.]
STEELE, Sir THOMAS MONTAGUE (1820–1890), general, born on 11 May 1820, was eldest son of Major-general Thomas Steele of Guilsborough, Northamptonshire, by Elizabeth, second daughter of the fifth Duke of Manchester. After passing through Sandhurst he was commissioned as ensign in the 64th foot on 10 Jan. 1838. He exchanged into the Coldstream guards on 20 July, became lieutenant and captain on 29 March 1844, and captain and lieutenant-colonel on 31 Oct. 1851. From 25 July 1842 to 23 Feb. 1848 he was aide-de-camp to the governor of Madras. He was appointed military secretary to Lord Raglan on 23 Feb. 1854, and (with the exception of one month, 5 July to 6 Aug. 1855, during which he was assistant adjutant-general) he occupied that position under Raglan and his successor up to 16 Nov. 1855. He was at the Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman, and at the fall of Sebastopol, and was specially mentioned in Raglan's despatches of 23 Sept. (for Alma) and 11 Nov. (for Inkerman). At the Alma he took a message from Sir De Lacy Evans to the Duke of Cambridge, urging the immediate advance of the 1st division to support the light division; and this was fortunately acted upon at once, the duke inferring from the messenger that it was Raglan's order. Steele accompanied his own regiment, the Coldstreams, in their advance. He was made brevet colonel on 28 Nov. 1854, and C.B. on 5 July 1855; and he received the Crimean medal with four clasps, the Turkish medal, the Medjidie (third class), the Legion of Honour (fifth class), and the order of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus (second class). He was also made aide-de-camp to the queen 29 June 1855.
He became major in his regiment on 13 Dec. 1860, and lieutenant-colonel on 8 Nov. 1862. He retired from it to half-pay on 24 Nov. 1863, and was promoted major-general on 17 Aug. 1865. He commanded the troops in the Dublin district from 1 April 1872 to 31 March 1874. On 7 Jan. 1874 he became lieutenant-general, and on 23 Sept. he was given the colonelcy of the Gloucestershire regiment. He commanded the division at Aldershot from 14 April 1875 to 30 June 1880, becoming full general on 1 Oct. 1877; and from 1 Oct. 1880 he held the command of the forces in Ireland for five years. On 11 May 1887 he was placed on the retired list. He was made K.C.B. on 20 May 1871, and G.C.B. on 21 June 1887. He was made colonel of his old regiment, the Coldstream guards, on 7 Aug. 1884. Steele died at Farnborough, Hampshire, on 25 Feb. 1890. He married (1) in 1856, Isabel (d. 1858), daughter of E. M. Fitzgerald, and (2) in 1865, Rosalie, daughter of T. m'Carthy of New York.
[Times, 26 Feb. 1890; Kinglake's Invasion of the Crimea; official despatches.]
STEELE, WILLIAM (d. 1680), lord chancellor of Ireland, son of Richard Steele of Sandbach, Cheshire, was admitted to Caius College, Cambridge, in 1627, and was scholar there 1629–31. He entered Gray's Inn on 13 June 1631, and was called to the bar on 23 June 1637. On 17 Aug. 1644 he was one of the commissioners appointed by parliament for the execution of martial law, and in January 1647 he conducted the prosecution of Captain Burley for his attempt to rescue Charles I in the Isle of Wight (Husbands, Ordinances, folio, 1646, p. 535; Hillier, King Charles in the Isle of Wight, 1852, p. 67). On 29 Jan. 1648 the House of Commons recommended him to the lords to succeed Serjeant Glynne as recorder of London, but he did not obtain the post till 25 Aug. 1649 (Foss, vi. 490; Commons' Journals, v. 450). On 10 Jan. 1649 the court which tried Charles I appointed four counsel to manage the case on behalf of the Commonwealth, one of them being Steele, who was selected to act as attorney. Steele was ill and could not act. ‘The said Mr. Steele,’ ran the report, ‘no way declineth the service of the said court out of any disaffection to it, but professeth himself to be so clear in the business that if it should please God to restore him, he should manifest his good affection to the said cause, and that it is an addition to his affliction that he cannot attend this court to do that service that they have expected from him, and as he desires to perform’ (Nalson, Trial of Charles I, pp. 9, 21). On 9 Feb. following he was sufficiently recovered to take the leading part in the prosecution of the Duke of Hamilton, the Earl of Holland, and other royalists before another high court of justice (State Trials, iv. 1064, 1167, 1209). He published his argument on Hamilton's case under the title of ‘Duke
