# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Stirling, Walter

Admiral Walter Stirling.
​STIRLING, Sir WALTER (1718–1786), captain in the navy, only son of Walter Stirling (1686–1732), of Sherva in Stirlingshire, by Janet, daughter of William Ruthven of Torryburn, was born on 18 May 1718. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant on 18 Feb. 1745–6; of commander on 26 Feb. 1757; and on 10 Jan. 1759 was posted to the Lynn, which he commanded for two years, and was then moved to the Lowestoft, in which he remained till the peace. From 1764 to 1766 he commanded the Rainbow, of 44 guns, on the North American station, and in 1770 was appointed to the Dunkirk as flag-captain to the commodore, George Mackenzie, at Jamaica. In 1771 he was moved to the Portland, and in her returned to England. He was then employed for some years on the impress service, and in 1780 was appointed to the Gibraltar, going out to the West Indies with Sir Samuel Hood [see Hood, Samuel, Viscount Hood]. After the capture of St. Eustatius he was sent home with the despatches and was knighted. In 1782 he was commodore at the Nore. He had no further employment, and died on 24 Nov. 1786. He married, in 1753, Dorothy (d. 1782), daughter of Charles Killing of Philadelphia, and had issue a daughter Anne (who married her cousin, Andrew Stirling of Drumpellier, Lanarkshire, and was mother of Sir James Stirling, 1791–1865 [q. v.]), and two sons, of whom the elder, Walter, was created a baronet in 1800, and died on 26 Aug. 1832.
The younger son, Charles Stirling (1760–1833), vice-admiral, born on 28 April 1760, served as a lieutenant under Sir Edward Hughes [q. v.] in the East Indies. In May 1780 he was promoted to the rank of commander, and on 6 Sept. 1781, being then in the Savage, of 14 guns, 125 men, off Charlestown, fell in with the American privateer Congress, of 20 guns and 215 men, and was captured after a gallant resistance, for which, on the recommendation of Lord Howe, he was advanced to post rank on 25 Jan. 1783. In 1795 he commanded the Jason, frigate, in the expedition to Quiberon under Sir John Borlase Warren [q. v.]; and on 29 June 1798, in company with the Pique and Mermaid, captured the French frigate La Seine, though with the loss of the Pique [see Milne, Sir David]. On 11 Oct. 1798, while chasing a French convoy near Brest, the Jason struck on a rock and became a total wreck, Stirling and his ship's company escaping to the shore and surrendering as prisoners of war. Within a few weeks they were exchanged, and in February 1799 Stirling was appointed to the Pompée, of 74 guns, which he commanded in the attack on the French squadron at Algesiras on 6 July 1801 [see Saumarez, James, Lord de Saumarez], when the ship received so much damage that she had to be left at Gibraltar when Saumarez sailed on the 12th in pursuit of the enemy.
In 1803–4 he was resident commissioner at Jamaica, and became a rear-admiral on 23 April 1804. In 1805, with his flag in the Glory of 98 guns, he commanded the Rochefort squadron, joined Sir Robert Calder [q. v.] on 15 July, and took part in the action off Cape Finisterre on the 22nd. In 1806 he commanded the squadron which convoyed the troops to the Rio de la Plata, and co-operated with them there [see Popham, Sir Home Riggs; Murray Sir George, (1759–1819); Auchmuty, Sir Samuel] till, after the surrender of Lieutenant-general John Whitelocke [q. v.], he was ordered to the Cape of Good Hope as commander-in-chief. He became vice-admiral on 31 July 1810, and in 1811 was appointed to the Jamaica command, but was recalled in 1813 on a charge of corrupt practices. A court-martial, held in May 1814, decided that the charge was partly proved, and Stirling was placed on half-pay and barred from all further promotion. He died at his residence, near Weybridge, Surrey, on 7 Nov. 1833.
He married Charlotte, second daughter of Andreas Grote, banker, of London, and grandfather of George Grote [q. v.] the historian, and left issue.
[Fraser's Stirlings of Keir, p. 183; Charnock's Biogr. Nav. vi. 339; Ralfe's Nav. Biogr. iii. 73; Marshall's Roy. Nov. Biogr. i. 402; Gent. Mag. 1834, i. 330; O'Byrne's Nav. Biogr. Dict. p. 1120.]
J. K. L.