2180990Royal Naval Biography — Elliot, GeorgeJohn Marshall


Hon. GEORGE ELLIOT.
[Post-Captain of 1803.]

This officer is the second son of Gilbert, first Earl of Minto, by Anna Maria, eldest daughter of Sir George Amyand, and sister to the present Sir George Cornewall, Bart.

He was born Aug. 1, 1784; made a Lieutenant in 1800; Commander in 1802; and Post-Captain, Jan. 2, 1804. The ships commanded by him at different periods were the Termagant, sloop of war; and Maidstone, Aurora, Modeste, and Hussar, frigates; the two former employed in the Mediterranean, the three latter on the East India station.

In Oct. 1808, Captain Elliot captured la Jena, French national corvette, of 18 guns (pierced for 24) and 150 men, after a running action of nearly an hour, in which the Modeste had her master killed and one seaman wounded. On the 15th July, 1809, his boats, under the direction of Lieutenant William Payne, cut a Dutch schooner of 8 guns and 22 men, out of a bay in the Straits of Sunda, from under the protection of two batteries and five other armed vessels.

We next find Captain Elliot assisting at the reduction of Java; and in 1813, accompanying an expedition sent against Sambas, a piratical town in Borneo, the result of which has already been stated in our memoir of Captain George Sayer, C.B. He subsequently assisted Colonel Macgregor in reinstating the Sultan of Palambang, and received the thanks of his commander-in-chief for the “judicious and excellent arrangements” made by him on that occasion[1].

Captain Elliot married in 1810, Eliza Cecilia Ness, a lady residing at Calcutta, by whom he has several children. His father was at that period Governor-General of Bengal, in which high office he was succeeded by the Marquis of Hastings, Nov. 18, 1812[2].

Agents.– Messrs. Maude.



  1. See Captain Samuel Leslie.
  2. On the 10th Jan. 1812, the unanimous thanks of both houses of Parliament were voted to Lord Minto, for the wisdom and ability with which the military resources of the British empire in India, under his Lordship’s government, had been applied in the reduction of the power of the enemy, in the eastern seas. In remuneration of his distinguished services the dignity of an Earl was conferred upon him Feb. 2, 1813. He died June 21, 1814. It was this nobleman who governed Corsica from the time of its subjugation, until evacuated by the British in 1796. See Vol. I. note * at p. 255.