A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Livingstone, Thomas

1806163A Naval Biographical Dictionary — Livingstone, ThomasWilliam Richard O'Byrne

LIVINGSTONE, Bart. (Vice-Admiral of the Red, 1838. f-p., 25; h-p., 40.)

Sir Thomas Livingstone is son of the late Sir Alex. Livingstone, Bart., by his first wife, Anne, daughter of John Atkinson, Esq., of London. He succeeded his father, as 10th Baronet, in 1795; and is heir and representative of the attainted Earl of Linlithgow.

This officer entered the Navy, 17 Sept. 1782, on board the Brune frigate, Capt. Rich. Husaey Bickerton, on the Home station; where, and in the West Indies, he served, until promoted to the rank of Lieutenant 22 Nov. 1790, in the Daedalus 32, Capt. Thos. Pringle, Dictator 64, Capt. Wm. Parker, Irresistible 74, Commodore Sir Andrew Snape Hamond, Sybil frigate, Capt. R. H. Bickerton, and Boyne 98, Capt. Geo. Bowyer. His succeeding appointments were – for a few months in 1791, to the Camel store-ship, Capt. Chas. Paton – 16 Jan. 1793, to the Monarch 74, commanded by the late Sir Jas. Wallace, under whom he witnessed the unsuccessful attack made in the following June upon Martinique – and in April, 1795, and April, 1796, to the Asia and Tremendous 74’s, flag-ships of Rear-Admiral Thos. Pringle in the North Sea and at the Cape of Good Hope. On 26 Dec. 1796, after having acted for four months on the latter station as Commander of the Echo sloop. Sir Thos. Livingstone was confirmed in his appointment to that vessel. In Feb. 1797, in consequence of her being condemned as unfit for service, he took a passage home, and was next, 2 June, 1798, appointed to the Expedition 44, armée en flûte in which vessel we find him, in 1799, employed in conveying part of the Russian contingent from Revel to England. He was posted, 13 Jan. 1800, into the Diadem 64, employed as a troop-ship in the expeditions to Quiberon and Belleisle; and he was subsequently invested with the command – 10 Dec. 1800, of the Athenienne 64, in which vessel, prior to her being paid off in Oct. 1802, he accompanied Sir John Borlase Warren to the coast of Egypt in quest of a French squadron under M. Ganteaume – 17 July, 1804, and 23 Jan. 1805, of the Mediator and Renommée frigates, stationed at first in the Downs and off Boulogne, for the purpose of watching the enemy’s flotilla, and then in the Mediterranean, where the Renommée, in effecting the capture, 4 April, 1806, under the fire of Fort Callaretes, of the Vigilante Spanish brig of war of 18 guns and 109 men, sustained a loss of 2 wounded, and occasioned her antagonist one of 4 killed and wounded[1] – and lastly, 3 Oct. 1821 (not having been afloat since the Renommée was put out of commission in June, 1808), of the Genoa 74, on the Lisbon station. He became a Rear-Admiral 22 July, 1830; and a Vice-Admiral 28 June, 1838.

Sir Thos. Livingstone, a Deputy-Lieutenant for co. Linlithgow, is Keeper of the Royal Palace of Linlithgow and of the Castle of Blackness. He married, in 1809, Janet, daughter of the late Sir Jas. Stirling, Bart., of Mansfield, and was left a widower in 1831. Agents – Hallett and Robinson.


  1. Vide Gaz. 1806, p. 601.