there secure. In 1808 he married the daughter of Sidee Paulus, a Greek. In 1810 he met Salt's second expedition, and escorted it from the coast and back. Pearce remained in Abyssinia till 1818, when he set out for Cairo on a visit to Salt. He reached Cairo in 1819, and, after a journey up the Nile, returned there and died at Alexandria from the results of exposure on 12 Aug. 1820, when his passage had been taken to England, the ‘R’ against his name in the navy list having been removed at the instance of his friends.
His journals, which are one long record of adventures, and contain a most minute and careful account of the habits and customs of the Abyssinians, were edited by J. J. Halls, and published under the title of the ‘Life and Adventures of N. Pearce,’ 2 vols. 12mo, London, 1831.
[Pearce's Life; Salt's Voyage to Abyssinia, 1814; Viscount Valentia's Voyages and Travels, vol. ii. 1809; Gent. Mag. 1820, vol. ii.]
PEARCE, SAMUEL (1766–1799), hymn-writer, the son of a silversmith, was born at Plymouth, Devonshire, on 20 July 1766. He studied at the Baptist College, Bristol, and in 1790 was appointed minister of Cannon Street Baptist Church, Birmingham. There he laboured successfully till his death on 10 Oct. 1799. He was one of the twelve ministers who, on 2 Oct. 1792, signed the resolutions founding the Baptist Missionary Society. In his ‘Memoirs,’ edited by A. Fuller, London, 1800, there are eleven poetical pieces, some of which have been included in nonconformist hymnals.
[Memoirs by Fuller as above; Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology.]
PEARCE, THOMAS (fl. 1755), legal author, was perhaps identical with the Thomas Pearse who was returned to parliament for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis on 24 April 1722, vacated the seat on being appointed chief clerk of the Navy Office on 13 Sept. 1726, and was subsequently, on 7 Sept. 1727, made commissioner of the navy. Pearce was author of: 1. ‘The Laws and Customs of the Stannaries in the Counties of Cornwall and Devon,’ London, 1725, fol. 2. ‘The Justice of the Peace's Pocket Companion, or the Office and Duty of a Justice Epitomised,’ London, 1754, 8vo. 3. ‘The Poor Man's Lawyer, or Laws relating to the Inferior Courts Laid Open,’ London, 1755, 8vo. 4. ‘The Complete Justice of the Peace and Parish Officer,’ London, 1756, 8vo.
[Hist. Reg. Chron. Diary, 1726 p. 35, 1727 p. 36; Boase and Courtney's Bibl. Cornub.; Members of Parl. (Official List); Hutchins's Dorset, ii. 437; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
PEARCE, Sir WILLIAM (1833–1888), naval architect, was born at Brompton, near Chatham, on 8 Jan. 1833. He served his apprenticeship in the dockyard at Chatham, under Oliver Lang, and, continuing in the government service, was, in 1861, charged with the superintendence of the building of the Achilles, the first ironclad built in any of the royal yards. In 1863 he was appointed surveyor of Lloyd's registry for the Clyde district, and in 1864 became general manager of the works of Robert Napier & Son [see Napier, Robert, 1791–1876], who then built most of the vessels for the Cunard line. The vessels, however, which established Pearce's reputation were built in 1865 for the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, and their speed excited much attention. In 1869, on the death of John Elder [q. v.], Pearce, in conjunction with Messrs. Ure & Jameson, carried on the business under the style of John Elder & Co. In 1878 his partners retired, and Pearce remained alone till, on his entering parliament in 1885, the business was turned into a limited company under the name of the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, of which Pearce was chairman. During these years, by his skill, energy, and talent for organisation, the building of iron steamers was developed in an extraordinary degree. The Arizona, Alaska, the ill-fated Oregon, the Orient, Austral, Stirling Castle, and more especially the Etruria and Umbria, were among his best known ships; he built all the steamers for the North German Lloyd's and for the New Zealand Shipping Company, as well as several for the Dover and Calais line, reducing the time of crossing to less than an hour. It was his ambition to built a vessel which should cross the Atlantic within five days, and in the summer of 1888 he exhibited in Glasgow the model of one calculated to do so. The admirable organisation of his works enabled him, on occasion, to produce most remarkable results, as when, in 1884, he built eleven stern-wheel vessels for service on the Nile in twenty-eight days, delivering them at Alexandria within the contract time, for which he received the thanks of the secretary of state for war. In 1885, and again in 1886, he was returned to parliament, in the conservative interest, by the Govan division of Lanarkshire; he was also chairman of the Guion Steamship Company and of the Scottish Oriental Steamship Company. He was a deputy lieutenant and justice of the peace for Lanarkshire, and in 1887 was created a baronet. The excessive strain of his gigantic and complicated business affected his nervous system, and gave rise to or aggravated a disease of the heart of which he died in
