SHIPLEY, Sir CHARLES (1755–1815), general, and governor of Grenada, West Indies, was the son of Richard Shipley of Stamford, Lincolnshire, and of Copt Hall, Luton, Bedfordshire, a captain of cavalry, by his wife Jane, daughter of Robert Rudyerd, of Wormley, Hertfordshire. The latter was great-grandson and representative of Sir Benjamin Rudyerd [q. v.] of West Woodhay, Berkshire. Charles Shipley was born at Copt Hall on 18 Feb. 1755. On the death of his mother's only brother, Captain Benjamin Rudyerd of the Coldstream guards (who was aide-de-camp to Lord Stair at the battle of Dettingen, and whose various accomplishments are celebrated by Smollett in the ‘Memoirs of a Lady of Quality’ as those of Mr. R——), his mother became sole heiress of the families of Maddox and Rudyerd, but, owing to the extravagance of his father, Charles Shipley inherited little besides his pedigree.
On 1 April 1771, after passing through the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, Shipley received a commission as ensign and practitioner engineer. In the following year he went to Minorca. On 4 March 1776 he was promoted to be lieutenant and sub-engineer. He returned to England in 1778, and was stationed at Gravesend as engineer on the staff under Colonel Debbieg, the commanding royal engineer of the Chatham or Thames district.
From 1780 to 1783 he served in the Leeward Islands, and in 1788 he again went to the West Indies and was stationed at Antigua. Early in 1792 he returned to England to be tried by court-martial for disobedience to regulations in that he employed his own negroes in Antigua on government fortification work. The court sat at the Horse Guards from 23 Feb. to 1 March, found Shipley guilty, and sentenced him to be suspended from rank and pay for twelve months, at the same time stating that they fully recognised that Shipley's departure from regulations did not proceed from any corrupt or interested motive.
On 15 Aug. 1793 Shipley was promoted to be captain. At the solicitation of Sir John Vaughan, commander-in-chief in the West Indies, he again applied to be sent thither, and embarked in November with his family in the government storeship Woodley. After leaving Plymouth severe storms compelled them to put into Gibraltar and Cadiz for some weeks, and when at length they arrived within a few miles of Barbados, they were captured by the French corvette Perdrix. The prisoners were confined in hulks at Guadeloupe, and suffered great hardships; but Shipley's wife was set free, and eventually managed to extort the liberation of her husband from the French republican general, Victor Hugues. Her fortitude was highly praised by the Duke of Clarence, afterwards William IV, to whom Shipley sent an account of his release.
On 6 May 1795 Shipley was promoted to be major in the army. In May 1796 he sent home reports on the defences of Martinique and of Prince Rupert's Head, Dominica. On 20 Oct. he was appointed commanding royal engineer of the Windward and Leeward Islands. In February 1797 he accompanied Sir Ralph Abercromby as commanding royal engineer of his expedition to Trinidad, when the Spaniards surrendered the island on the 17th. He also accompanied Abercromby as commanding royal engineer, and took part in the unsuccessful attack on Porto Rico in the following month. On 11 Sept. 1798 he was promoted to be lieutenant-colonel in the royal engineers.
In 1799 Shipley was sent by Lieutenant-general (afterwards Sir) Thomas Trigge in the Amphitrite to examine the coasts in the neighbourhood of the Surinam river with a view to a landing-place for a military force to attack Surinam. Trigge, in his despatch dated Paramaribo, 22 Aug. 1799, states that Shipley executed this service with great zeal and judgment. Surinam surrendered on 20 Aug., but was soon retaken. Shipley also took part, during March, in the capture of the islands of St. Bartholomew, St. Martin, St. Thomas, and of Santa Cruz. On 21 and 22 June 1803 he commanded a detachment of infantry at the capture of St. Lucia. In April 1804 an expedition was sent under Brigadier-general (afterwards Sir) Charles Green, temporarily commanding in chief in the Leeward Islands, against Dutch Guiana. Shipley accompanied it as commanding royal engineer, and, having landed with Lieutenant Arnold of the royal engineers and a small party, reconnoitred the defences of Surinam, which was again captured. Green, in his despatch to Lord Camden, dated 13 May 1804, Paramaribo, admitted obligations to Shipley, as commanding engineer, ‘far beyond my power to express.’
On 13 July 1805 Shipley was accordingly promoted colonel in the royal engineers, and on 12 June 1806 brigadier-general to the forces serving in the West Indies. In this year, under orders from the board of ordnance, he made the circuit of the coast of Jamaica, and explored the interior by crossing the island in various directions with a view to a survey. In 1807 he accompanied the expedition from Barbados against the Danish West India islands under General Bowyer and Rear-admiral Sir Alexander
