Cochrane. They arrived before St. Thomas on 21 Dec., when Shipley was sent ashore to demand from the governor, von Scholten, the surrender of St. Thomas and St. John, which capitulated next day. On 23 Dec. the expedition sailed for Santa Cruz, and Shipley was again sent on shore to negotiate terms. The governor would only capitulate if some of his officers could be allowed to inspect the British ships and troops, and, having done this, could satisfy his honour that the British force was so strong that resistance would be hopeless. Shipley agreed, the inspection was made, and the island capitulated on 25 Dec. 1807.
On 22 March 1808 Shipley was knighted, and in the same year he sent home proposals for strengthening the defences of the island of St. Thomas. In January 1809 he took part in the expedition against Martinique under lieutenant-general Sir George Beckwith. He landed on 30 Jan. and commenced operations against Pigeon Island, in which he was admirably supported by Captain (afterwards Sir) George Cockburn (1772–1853) [q. v.] of H.M.S. Pompée and his bluejackets. The night after the batteries opened fire the enemy were obliged to capitulate, and Pigeon Island fell to the British on 4 Feb., to be followed by Fort Bourbon and Fort Royal, and on 23 Feb. by the whole island of Martinique. Shipley received the thanks of both houses of parliament for his conduct.
In February 1810 he commanded the second division of the army in the successful operations against Guadeloupe. Brigadier-general Harcourt, in his despatch of 7 Feb., expressed his indebtedness to Shipley during the operations, and especially in the action of 3 Feb. at Ridge Beaupaire, St. Louis, in front of Bellair.
Shipley was promoted to be major-general on 4 June 1811. On 27 Feb. 1813 he was appointed governor of the island of Grenada, in succession to Lieutenant-general Frederick Maitland.
After the return of Napoleon Bonaparte from Elba, a naval and military expedition, under Admiral Sir Philip Durham and Lieutenant-general Sir James Leith [q. v.], was sent to secure the French West India islands on behalf of the king of France, from whom they had revolted, and in June 1815 Martinique and Marie Galante were reoccupied without trouble. Guadeloupe, however, held out for Bonaparte, and did not yield without severe fighting. The attack was made by the British on 8 and 9 Aug. 1815, and Shipley commanded the first brigade. The enemy were defeated at all points. Negotiations followed, and on 10 Aug. Guadeloupe surrendered. Both naval and military commanders in their despatches expressed the highest praise of the ‘distinguished and indefatigable engineer,’ Sir Charles Shipley. Shipley received, by the command of the prince regent, a medal for Martinique with a clasp for Guadeloupe, accompanied by a letter from the Duke of York, then commander-in-chief.
In July 1815 Shipley declined promotion out of the corps of royal engineers, to which he had belonged all his service, and of which he was senior regimental colonel. He preferred to wait for his battalion. Ever careless of personal exposure, excessive fatigue at the attack on Guadeloupe brought on an illness which ended in his death at his seat of government at Grenada on 30 Nov. 1815. He was buried in the church of St. George's, Grenada, amid the regret of all classes.
Shipley married at Gravesend, in May 1780, Mary, daughter of James Teale, by his wife Mary, daughter of Dr. Ralph Blomer, prebendary of Canterbury. Lady Shipley died at Boulogne (where she was assigned a residence by Louis XVIII in consideration of her husband's services in the French West Indies) on 6 Aug. 1820, and was buried in the English burial-ground there; her remains were removed and reinterred in the cloisters of Canterbury Cathedral. Their youngest daughter, Elizabeth Cole (d. 1828), married in 1809 Henry David Erskine, twelfth earl of Buchan.
Shipley was a skilful engineer and a thorough soldier. His administration of the government of Grenada was both mild and just, and he completely dispelled those party feuds to which small colonies are prone.
A portrait was painted by Eckstein and engraved by Cook.
[War Office Records; Despatches; Royal Engineers Records; London Gazette; Memoir in Jerdan's National Portrait Gallery, vol. iv. 1833; Field of Mars, 2 vols. 4to, 1801; United Service Journal, 1835; Gent. Mag. 1780–1816, vols. l.–lxxxiv.; Conolly Papers; Patrician, iv. 368–9; Evans's Cat. of Engraved British Portraits; Debrett's Peerage.]
SHIPLEY, GEORGIANA (d. 1806), artist. [See under Hare-Naylor, Francis.]
SHIPLEY, JONATHAN (1714–1788), bishop of St. Asaph, born in 1714, was son of Jonathan Shipley (d. 1749), a native of Leeds, who resided in after life at Walbrook, and was a citizen and stationer of London. His mother, Martha (d. 1757), was a member of a family named Davies, owners of Twyford House, near Winchester. The Twyford property came to the bishop at the death, in 1765,
