General Sir Thomas Stirling, 5th Baronet (8 October 1733 – 8 May 1808) was a senior officer of the British Army during the

American War of Independence The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

Early life and background

Stirling was in 1733 in

Perthshire Perthshire (locally: ; gd, Siorrachd Pheairt), officially the County of Perth, is a historic county and registration county in central Scotland. Geographically it extends from Strathmore in the east, to the Pass of Drumochter in the north, ...

, Scotland, a scion of the Stirling baronets of Ardoch. He was the second son of Sir Henry Stirling, 3rd Baronet, and Anne Gordon.

Military career

In 1758 Stirling came to

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and served in the French and Indian War's Canadian campaign. After the war, Britain took control of the land between the

American colonies The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Founded in the 17th and 18th centur ...

west to the Mississippi and north of the Ohio. He departed Fort Pitt going down the Ohio to Fort de Chartres to take possession of Illinois Country for the Crown in October 1765. In 1767 Stirling went back to Great Britain, but returned to America later to serve with the British forces during the

. Promoted to the rank of General, Stirling served as Colonel of the

41st Regiment of Foot The 41st (Welch) Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment of the British Army, raised in 1719. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 69th (South Lincolnshire) Regiment of Foot to form the Welch Regiment in 1881. History Early hist ...

from 1790 until his death.

Personal life

He succeeded to the baronetcy upon the death of his elder brother, Sir William Stirling, 4th Baronet, who left no male issue. Sir Thomas was a granduncle of

Waite Stirling Waite Hockin Stirling (1829 – 19 November 1923) was a 19th-century missionary with the Patagonian Missionary Society (later known as the South American Missionary Society) and was the first Anglican Bishop of the Falkland Islands. He was bro ...

, who would become the first

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

Bishop of the Falkland Islands The Bishop of the Falkland Islands was historically a bishopric in the Church of England; as the ordinary of the Diocese of the Falkland Islands, the bishop had responsibility for chaplaincies across South America, before national metropolitical pr ...

. Sir Thomas died unmarried at Strowan in 1808.

References

1733 births 1808 deaths Baronets in the Baronetage of Nova Scotia British Army generals British Army personnel of the American Revolutionary War British military personnel of the French and Indian War Scottish generals {{British-Army-bio-stub