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the Wards in the first mentioned year, in favor of Ferdinand Dudley Lea, the heir general, and on his death in 1757 it fell into abeyance among his sisters.

The will of the late Earl has not hitherto been made public: but it has been stated that an entailed estate of 4000/ per annum accompanies the title, and that by a will drawn up about two years ago, the Earl settled the remainder of his estate, to the value of 80,000l. per annum, on the present Lord Ward's eldest son, who is a youth of sixteen years of age.

[From "The Gentleman's Magazine for June, 1833."]

LORD GAMBIER.

Died April 19, at his house at Iver, near Uxbridge, aged 76, the Right Honorable James Gambier, Baron Gambier, of Iver, county of Buckingham, Admiral of the Fleet, and G. C. B.

Lord Gambier was a member of a French refugee family, his grandfather, Nicholas, having migrated from Caen to this country on the revocation of the edict of Nantes. His uncle, of his own Christian name, was a Vice-Admiral in the Royal Navy, and was father of Sir James Gambier, F. R. S., Consul-general in the Netherlands, and grandfather of William Gambier, esquire, who married the late Countess dowager of Athlone. His aunt Margaret was the wife of the first Lord Barham, First Lord of the Admiralty in 1805-6.

His Lordship was born in the Bahama Islands, October 13, 1756, the younger son of Samuel Gambier, esquire, then Lieutenant-Governor of the Bahamas, by Deborah Stiles, of Bermuda. He went to sea at an early age; and in 1778 was Commander of the Thunder bomb, in which he had the misfortune to be captured by the French fleet under Count d'Estaing. He was promoted to the rank of Post-Captain October 9 in the same year, and appointed to the command of the Raleigh 32. In this frigate he was engaged in repelling the French attempt upon Jersey, January 6, 1781, and afterwards proceeded to the coast of America; where, at the reduction of Charleston in South Carolina, he served on shore with the brigade of seamen and marines. In 1781 he captured the General Mifflin, an American ship of war, mounting 20 guns.

At the commencement of the war with France in 1793, Captain Gambier was appointed to the Defence 74, in which he took_an active share in the glorious victory of the 1st of June, 1794. The Defence was on that memorable day the first vessel that cut through the enemy's line, passing between the seventh and eighth ships. She had successively three or four ships engaging her; her men being, almost from the first, divided at their quarters to fight both

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sides at once. Her masts were all shot away; the main-mast fell in-board, and the whole of the quarter deck and forecastle guns were rendered useless. The loss she sustained on that and the preceding days, amounted to 18 men killed and 39 wounded. At the general promotion which followed this important victory, Captain Gambier was nominated a Colonel of Marines: and, on the 1st June, 1795, he was advanced to the rank of Rear-Admiral. On the 2d of March, in the same year, he was appointed to a seat among the Commissioners of the Admiralty, which he retained until February, 1801.

At the latter period (having attained the rank of Vice-Admiral in 1799) he was appointed third in command of the Channel Fleet, and hoisted his flag on board the Neptune of 98 guns. In the spring of 1802 he proceeded to Newfoundland as Governor of that island, and Commander-in-chief of the squadron employed for its protection:

In May 1804 he was re-appointed to a seat at the Admiralty board; and he continued there during the two naval administrations of Viscount Melville and Lord Barham, until the change of ministry that took place on the death of Mr. Pitt, in February, 1806. On the 4th of April 1807 (having become full Admiral in 1805) he was again appointed to assist in the direction of naval affairs, under Lord Mulgrave; and in the following summer he was entrusted with the command of the fleet sent to demand possession of the Danish navy, a measure which, in conjunction with Lieutenant-General Lord Cathcart, he successfully accomplished, to the great mortification and frustration of the designs of the Emperor Napoleon. For his able conduct in this affair Admiral Gambier was rewarded with a peerage, by patent dated Nov. 9, 1807; and was offered a pension of £2000 which he generously declined.

In the month of May, 1808, Lord Gambier finally retired from his seat at the Admiralty, on being appointed to the command of the Channel fleet. During his seasons of office he had applied himself with great assiduity to the duties of the situation. He compiled, with much labor and close attention, a Code of Signals, which superseded one which had been established in the reign of Charles II.; and also drew up General Instructions for the direction of officers in the internal discipline and government of the King's ships, in the place of some which had become obsolete. The Plantagenet 74, a finely proportioned ship, launched at Woolwich in 1801, was built after his suggestions; being without a poop, she passed at a distance for a large frigate.

Nothing material occurred in the Channel fleet when under his Lordship's command, until the month of April, 1809, when a detachment attacked a French squadron in the Aix roads, and destroyed la Ville de Varsovie 80, Tonnerre 74, Aquilon 74, and Calcutta 56, besides driving several others on shore. A difference of opinion respecting the practability of destroying the remainder of the enemy's squadron, was productive of a misunderstanding

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between the Commander-in-chief and Lord Cochrane, who had the command of the fire-ships; and Lord Gambier, in consequence, requested a Court Martial to investigate into his conduct. A Court was accordingly assembled at Portsmouth, July 29, 1809, and continued by adjournments until August 9, when the charge of "neglect, or delay," was pronounced "not proved"; but that his conduct had been "marked by zeal, judgment, and ability, and an anxious attention to the welfare of his Majesty's service." His Lordship was consequently "most honorably acquitted"; and received in addition the thanks of both Houses of Parliament. Lord Gambier retained the command of the Channel fleet until 1811, when he was required to resign it by the expiration of the three years to which its tenure is limited. In 1814 he was placed at the head of the commissioners for concluding a peace with the United States of America; the first meeting for which took place at Ghent on the 8th of August; the preliminaries were signed at the same place on the 24th December, and ratified at Washington, February 17, 1815. His Lordship was nominated a Grand Cross of the Bath on the 7th of June following. At the accession of his present Majesty he was, with the late Admiral Peere-Williams, advanced to the rank of Admiral of the Fleet.

Lord Gambier was characterized by feelings of great piety and benevolence. He was President of the Church Missionary Society, and a Vice-President of the Naval Charitable, Marine, and other Societies; and also of the Lock Hospital, the Asylum, and the African and Benevolent Institutions.

His Lordship married, in July 1788, Louisa, second daughter of Daniel Mathew of Felix-hall in Essex, esquire, and sister to Jane, the wife of Samuel Gambier, esquire, his Lordship's elder brother. Lady Gambier survives, having had no family; and the peerage has consequently become extinct.

Lord Gambier's will and three codicils have been proved at Doctors' Commons, and the personal property sworn to be under the value of £30,000. His Lordship's nephews, Charles Samuel Gambier and Edward John Gambier, esquires, are appointed executors. Lady Gambier, his Lordship's widow, becomes possessed of the greater part of the property during her life, and, upon her decease, it is bequeathed to the nephews and nieces, eight in number. His Lordship bequeaths £200 to the Foreign Bible Society; and directs that his picture, representing the action between the British and French fleets, on the 25th and 26th January, 1782, be hung in the Painted Hall of Greenwich Hospital. He also bequeaths to his friend Commander Henry Boys, £50; and to the Honorable Frances Monckton, £1000.

A portrait of Lord Gambier, by Beechy, was exhibited at the Royal Academy, in 1809.

[From "The Gentleman's Magazine for June, 1833."]

WILLIAM MORGAN, ESQUIRE, f. r. s.

Died May. ....., William Morgan, esquire, F. R. S., late Actuary to the Equitable Assurance Society.

Mr. Morgan was a native of Wales, and was the nephew of the celebrated Dr. Price. He was originally educated for the medical profession; but his uncle having observed his strength of mind, and peculiar facility and power in the acquirement of mathematical and philosophical knowledge, persuaded him to relinquish that intention, and procured for him the situation of Actuary to the Equitable Society. Mr. Morgan was engaged in conducting the affairs of that institution for the long space of upwards of 56 years, and lived to see it rise from the possession of a capital of only a few thousands to become an establishment of national importance, possessed of many millions, diffusing its benefits to thousands of families, and securing them in the enjoyment of comforts of which they would otherwise have been rendered destitute by the death of their friends and relations.

Mr. Morgan's mathematical and scientific attainments were of the highest order, and he contributed many original and invaluable papers to the Philosophical Transactions, and to other scientific publications. On the subject of public credit and the national debt, he was one of the most popular writers of his time, never hesitating, in his public writings or in private conversation, to state his opinions on those subjects with the utmost freedom, and to express his unqualified disapprobation of the financial administration of Government, in regard to the terms on which loans for the public service were negotiated and contracted for during the whole period of the late war. The titles of his publications were as follow The Doctrine of Annuities and Assurances of Lives, 1779; Examination of Dr. Crawford's Theory of Heat and Combustion, 1781; a Review of the Writings of Dr. Price, on the subject of the Finances of this Kingdom, 1792, 2d edition 1795; Facts addressed to the serious attention of the People of Great Britain, respecting the Expense of the War, and the state of the Nation i Debt, 1796; Additional Facts on the same subjects, 1796; an Appeal to the People of Great Britain, on the present alarming State of the Public Finances and of Public Credit, 1797; a Comparative View of the Public Finances from the beginning to the close of the late Administration, 1801, 2d edition 1803; Observations on Reversionary Payments, by Dr. Price, newly arranged and enlarged, 1803, and many subsequent editions; Memoirs of the Rev. R. Price, 1815.

Mr. Morgan's funeral took place at Hornsey in the most private manner, on the 11th of May.

Mr. Morgan has left three surviving sons and one unmarried

daughter. His eldest son, William, was associated with him as Actuary to the Equitable Assurance Office, and having married Maria, eldest daughter of John Toogood, esquire, Banker, died in 1819, leaving an only daughter. His son Arthur is the present Actuary to the Equitable Assurance Office. Mr. John Morgan is a surgeon. Another daughter was the first wife of Benjamin Travers, esquire, surgeon, and died in 1811, leaving three children.

[From "The New Monthly Magazine, No. 151."]

SIR JOHN MALCOLM.

Sir John Malcolm was born on the farm of Burnfoot, near Langholm, on the 2d of May, 1769. This farm was granted to the paternal grandfather of Sir John, at a low rent, by the Earl of Dalkeith, in 1707; it subsequently became the residence of George Malcolm, the father of Sir John, who married Miss Pasley, daughter of James Pasley, Esq., of Craig and Burn, by whom he had issue seventeen children, fifteen surviving to maturity. Burnfoot is still inhabited by the Malcolms.

In the year 1782 young John Malcolm, then scarcely fourteen years of age, went out as a cadet to India. The first service of any moment in which he was engaged, was the celebrated siege of Seringapatam, in 1792, where his abilities attracting the notice of Lord Cornwallis, his lordship appointed him to the situation of Persian interpreter to an English force, serving with a native prince. In 1794, the state of his health, impaired by hard service, obliged him to revisit his native country; and in the following year he returned to India, on the staff of Field-Marshal Sir Alured Clarke: he afterwards received the public thanks of that officer for his conduct at the capture of the Cape of Good Hope. In 1797 he was made Captain, and from that time to 1799 he was engaged in a variety of important services, when he received instructions to join Nizam's contingent force, with the chief command of the infantry, at the head of which he continued to act, as well in a political as a military capacity, till the surrender of Seringapatam, where he prominently distinguished himself. In the same year, he was selected by Lord Wellesley to proceed on a diplomatic mission to Persia, a country which no British ambassador had visited since the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Upon his return to Calcutta, he was appointed private secretary to the Governor-General, who stated to the secret committee, that "he had succeeded in accomplishing every object of his mission, and in establishing a connexion with the actual government of the Persian empire, which promised to British natives in India political and commercial advantages of the most important description." In January, 1802, he was raised to the rank of Major; and on the occasion of the Persian ambas36 †

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VOL. II. - NO. II.

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