IRVING, Sir PAULUS ÆMILIUS (1751–1828), general, born 30 Aug. 1751, was son of Lieutenant-colonel Paulus Æmilius Irving, who was wounded at Quebec when serving as major commanding the 15th foot under Wolfe, and died lieutenant-governor of Upnor Castle, Kent, in 1796. His mother was Judith, daughter of Captain William Westfield of Dover. He was appointed lieutenant in the 47th foot in 1764, became captain in 1768, and major in 1775. He served with his regiment in the affair at Lexington, at the battle of Bunker's Hill, and in Boston during the blockade. Subsequently he accompanied the regiment to Quebec, and was present in the affair at Trois Rivières and the various actions of Burgoyne's army down to the surrender at Saratoga, 17 Oct. 1777. He was afterwards detained as a prisoner of war in America for three years. He returned home in 1781, and in 1783 became lieutenant-colonel 47th foot. In 1790 he took the regiment out to the Bahamas, where he served until 1795, becoming brevet-colonel in 1791 and major-general in 1794. On the death of Sir John Vaughan, 21 June 1795, Irving succeeded to the West India command, in which he was replaced by Major-general Leigh in September of the same year. Irving then assumed the command in St. Vincent, and on 2 Oct. 1795 carried the enemy's position at La Vigie with heavy loss. He received the thanks of George III, conveyed through the Duke of York. He returned home in December 1795. He was appointed colonel of the 6th royal veteran battalion in 1802, and was afterwards transferred to the colonelcy of his old corps, the 47th (Lancashire) foot. He was created a baronet 19 Sept. 1809, became a full general in 1812, and died at Carlisle 31 Jan. 1828. Irving married, 4 Feb. 1786, Lady Elizabeth St. Lawrence, second daughter of Thomas, first earl of Howth, by whom he left two sons and a daughter. The baronetcy became extinct on the death of Irving's younger son, the third and last baronet.
[Burke's Baronetage, 1850; Appleton's Cyclop. American Biography under ‘Irving, Paulus Æmilius’ and ‘Irving, Jacob Æmilius;’ Gent. Mag. xcviii. pt. i. 269–70; Philippart's Royal Military Calendar, 1820, i. 349–50.]
IRWIN, EYLES (1751?–1817), oriental traveller and miscellaneous writer, younger son of James Irwin, H.E.I.C.S., of Hazeleigh Hall, Essex, by his wife Sarah (Beale), widow of Henry Palmer, was born in Calcutta, and educated in England under Dr. Rose at Chiswick. Being appointed on 21 Nov. 1766 to a writership in the East India Company's service in the Madras presidency, he returned to India in February 1768, and in 1771 was appointed ‘superintendent of the company's grounds within the bounds of Madras,’ &c. Upon the deposition of Lord Pigot in 1776, Irwin signed a protest against the revolution in the Madras government, and on his refusal to accept the post of assistant at Vizagapatam, to which he was appointed by the council in November 1776, was suspended from the company's service. In order to seek redress, Irwin sailed for England early in 1777. After enduring many vicissitudes of fortune during a journey of eleven months, a full account of which is given in his ‘Series of Adventures in the course of a Voyage up the Red Sea,’ &c., Irwin arrived in England at the close of the year, and found that he had already been reinstated in the service of the company. Returning to India in the autumn of 1780 by another route, which is described in the third edition of his ‘Series of Adventures,’ &c., he was appointed by Lord Macartney on 6 Oct. 1781 a member of the committee of ‘assigned revenue,’ and in 1783 was made the superintendent of revenue in the Tinnevelly and Madura districts. Under his advice, Colonel William Fullarton [q. v.] undertook a successful expedition against the Poligars, and by his judicious management the revenues of the district were greatly improved. In November 1784 he was ordered to the Trichinopoly district to arrange ‘the speediest and most effectual mode of paying off the fighting men’ of the southern army. In March 1785 he was further appointed commissary on the part of the Madras government to negotiate for the cession of the Dutch settlements on the coasts of Tinnevelly and Marawa, and in consequence of the surrender of the assignment, delivered over the district of Tinnevelly in July to the nabob's agents. Towards the close of 1785 Irwin was compelled to return to England on account of his health, and in 1789 was awarded the sum of six thousand pagodas by the court of directors for his ‘able, judicious, and upright management’ of the assigned districts south of the Coleroon. In 1792 he was sent out with two colleagues to China, where he remained rather less than two years. He retired from the service in 1794, and in the following year was an unsuccessful candidate for a directorship of the company. The remainder of his days he passed in retirement, devoting himself chiefly to literary pursuits. Irwin died at Clifton, near Bristol, on 12 Aug. 1817, and was buried in the old churchyard at Clifton. He appears to have been an honest and able administrator. His character is said to have been ‘remarkable for its amiable simplicity.’
