Henry Edward Napier (5 March 1789 – 13 October 1853) was a British naval officer and historian.

Family background

He was the fifth son of Colonel the Honourable

George Napier Colonel George Napier (11 March 1751 – 13 October 1804), styled "The Honourable", was a British Army officer, most notable for his marriage to Lady Sarah Lennox, and for his sons Charles James Napier, William Francis Patrick Napier and Geor ...

, and his second wife,

Lady Sarah Lennox Lady Sarah Lennox (14 February 1745 – August 1826) was the most notorious of the famous Lennox sisters, daughters of Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond and Sarah Cadogan. Early life After the deaths of both her parents when she was only f ...

, seventh daughter of the 2nd Duke of Richmond, and one of the famed

Lennox sisters The Lennox sisters were four eighteenth-century British aristocrats, the daughters of Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond (1701–1750) by his wife Lady Sarah Cadogan (1705–1751). The four sisters were: * Caroline Fox, 1st Baroness Holland (17 ...

. His brothers included General Sir Charles James Napier, Commander-in-Chief, India and conqueror of Sindh; Lieutenant-General Sir George Thomas Napier, Governor and Commander of the Cape of Good Hope; and General Sir William Francis Patrick Napier,

Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey The Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey is the representative of the British monarch in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a Crown dependency of the British Crown. The role of the Lieutenant Governor is to act as the ''de facto'' head of state in Guernsey ...

, and author of the ''History of the Peninsular War''.

Naval career

Napier entered the

Royal Naval Academy The Royal Naval Academy was a facility established in 1733 in Portsmouth Dockyard to train officers for the Royal Navy. The founders' intentions were to provide an alternative means to recruit officers and to provide standardised training, educa ...

Portsmouth Dockyard His Majesty's Naval Base, Portsmouth (HMNB Portsmouth) is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy (the others being HMNB Clyde and HMNB Devonport). Portsmouth Naval Base is part of the city of Portsmouth; it is l ...

on 5 May 1803, and on 20 September 1806 joined the

74-gun The "seventy-four" was a type of two- decked sailing ship of the line, which nominally carried 74 guns. It was developed by the French navy in the 1740s, replacing earlier classes of 60- and 62-gun ships, as a larger complement to the recently-de ...

, as a first-class volunteer. In her under the Captains the Honourable

Robert Stopford Robert Wright Stopford, (20 February 1901 – 13 August 1976) was a British Anglican bishop. Early life and education Stopford was born in Garston, Merseyside (then in Lancashire), and educated at Coatham School in Redcar and Liverpool Coll ...

and

John Quilliam Captain John Quilliam RN; MHK ( Marown, Isle of Man 29 September 1771 – Kirk Michael, Isle of Man 10 October 1829) was a Royal Navy officer who served as first lieutenant on HMS ''Victory'' at the Battle of Trafalgar. He was a farmer's son w ...

, he visited the Cape of Good Hope, and as a midshipman took part in the Bombardment of Copenhagen, also assisting in the destruction of Fleckeroe Castle, on the coast of Norway. From December 1808 until September 1811 he served in the

East Indies The East Indies (or simply the Indies), is a term used in historical narratives of the Age of Discovery. The Indies refers to various lands in the East or the Eastern hemisphere, particularly the islands and mainlands found in and around ...

aboard the frigate under Captain Thomas Briggs; the

, flagship of Vice-Admiral William O'Bryen Drury, and the frigate , Captain Hugh Cook. He was appointed acting-lieutenant of the ''Diomede'' on 31 October 1809, receiving his commission on 4 May 1810. In 1812–13 he served aboard the 74-gun , Captain Graham Moore, and the frigates , Captain Richard Hawkins, and , Captain Farmery Predam Epworth, on the North Sea and North American stations. On 7 June 1814, he was promoted to commander aboard the 18-gun sloop at Bermuda; and soon after appointed to the brig-sloop , employed in protecting merchant vessels in the Bay of Fundy. In August 1815 Napier went on

half-pay Half-pay (h.p.) was a term used in the British Army and Royal Navy of the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries to refer to the pay or allowance an officer received when in retirement or not in actual service. Past usage United Kingdom In the En ...

, having declined accepting a piece of plate that had been voted to him for his care in the conduct of convoys between the port of

Saint John, New Brunswick Saint John is a seaport city of the Atlantic Ocean located on the Bay of Fundy in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. Saint John is the oldest incorporated city in Canada, established by royal charter on May 18, 1785, during the reign of K ...

and

Castine, Maine Castine ( ) is a town in Hancock County in eastern Maine.; John Faragher. ''Great and Nobel Scheme''. 2005. p. 68. The population was 1,320 at the 2020 census. Castine is the home of Maine Maritime Academy, a four-year institution that graduate ...

. His last appointments were to the at Halifax from January 1821 to July 1823, and to the at Plymouth, for a brief period in 1826. He was promoted to captain on 31 December 1830.

Writing career

Napier was elected a fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

on 18 May 1820. His chief work was the ''Florentine History from the earliest Authentic Records to the Accession of Ferdinand the Third, Grandduke of Tuscany,'' in six volumes, published in 1846–47.

Personal life

On 17 November 1823 Napier married his first cousin, Caroline Bennet (died 5 September 1836), in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

). She was the illegitimate daughter of his uncle

Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond Field Marshal Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond, 3rd Duke of Lennox, 3rd Duke of Aubigny, (22 February 1735 – 29 December 1806), styled Earl of March until 1750, of Goodwood House in Sussex and of Richmond House in London, was a British ...

. They had five children: * Augusta Sarah (b. 1826) married Frederick Williams-Freeman, grandson of Adm. William Peere Williams-Freeman. * Charles George (20 July 1829 – 2 September 1882) married Susanna Juliana Ricarda Carolin, daughter of Samuel Carolin, on 13 December 1860. They had one son, and two daughters. * Adelaide Harriet Sophia (1831–1832) * Arthur Lennox (1833–1839) * Vice-Adm. Richard Henry (11 March 1836 – 1 March 1903) married twice. Firstly, Mary Dyer in 1861. Secondly, Mary Teresa Priest in 1883. No known issue. Napier died at 62 Cadogan Place, London, on 13 October 1853.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Napier, Henry Edward 1789 births 1853 deaths Royal Navy officers Royal Navy personnel of the Napoleonic Wars Henry Edward People from County Kildare Fellows of the Royal Society