Royal Naval Biography/Livingston, Thomas

2153631Royal Naval Biography — Livingston, ThomasJohn Marshall


SIR THOMAS LIVINGSTON, BART.
Keeper of Linlithgow Palace.
[Post-Captain of 1800.]

This officer was made a Lieutenant in 1790; commanded the Echo sloop of war at the Cape of Good Hope in 1796; and the Expedition, a 44-gun ship, armed en flute, employed conveying part of the Russian contingent from Revel to England, in 1799. His post commission bears date Jan. 13, 1800. During the remainder of the war, we find him in the Diadem and Athenienne 64’s; the former was employed as a troop-ship, and attached to the expedition against Quiberon and Belleisle, under Sir Edward Pellew[1]; the latter accompanied Sir John Borlase Warren to the coast of Egypt, in quest of a French squadron under M. Gantheaume[2]; and returned to England Sept. 11, 1802.

Sir Thomas Livingston’s next appointment was, we believe, to the Renommee frigate, in which ship he captured the Vigilante, a Spanish brig of war, mounting 18 guns, with a complement of 109 men, near Cape de Gatt, April 4, 1806. By the fire from this vessel, and Fort Callaretes, under the protection of which she had anchored, the Renommée had 2 men wounded. The Spaniards sustained a loss of 4 men killed and wounded.

In the course of the same year, the boats of the Renommee captured a Spanish schooner of 9 guns and 38 men[3]; a tartan of 4 guns; two settees laden with grain, each mounting 3 guns, and another of 2 guns.

On the 7th Nov. 1807, a detachment sent by Sir Thomas from his own ship, and the Grasshopper sloop of war, carried two of the enemies’ vessels, lying under the protection of the Torre de Estacio, on the coast of Murcia; but unfortunately there was so little wind, and the current ran so strong, that they both got aground; and, notwithstanding every exertion was used for the purpose of getting them off, it was found impossible. Their destruction would of course have been easily effected, had not the commanding officer, Mr. Webster, an acting Lieutenant, been swayed by the nobler motive of humanity to abandon them, on finding they contained many helpless men, women, and children. Mr. Thomas Bastin, Purser of the Grasshopper, serving as a volunteer in the boats, and the coxswain of the Renommee’s pinnace, were the only persons hurt on this occasion; they were both very badly wounded.

Sir Thomas Livingston at present commands the Genoa of 74 guns: to which ship he was appointed Oct. 3, 1821. On the 12th Jan. preceding, the Sheriff Deputy and a jury of the county of Edinburgh, declared him nearest and lawful male heir in general, of James, first Earl of Calender, Lord Livingston, of Scotland. His lady is a daughter of Sir Gilbert Stirling, Bart.

Agent.– Isaac Clementson, Esq.