Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Adam, Charles
ADAM, Sir CHARLES (1780–1853), admiral, was the son of the Right Hon. William Adam, of Blair-Adam, Kinross, and of Eleanor, daughter of the tenth Lord Elphinstone, and sister of Captain Elphinstone, afterwards Admiral Lord Keith. He was born on 6 Oct. 1780, and entered the navy at a very early age, under the direct patronage of his uncle, with whom he continued to serve till, in 1795, he was sent to the Victorious, of 74 guns, as acting-lieutenant. In June 1799 he was made captain, and appointed to the Sybille frigate, in which ship, on 19 Aug. 1801, under circumstances of great difficulty and intricate navigation, he captured the French frigate, Chiffonne, which had taken up a position in Mahé Roads, in the Seychelle Islands. He was afterwards, in May 1803, appointed to command the Chiffonne, and in her took part in the blockade of Boulogne and the north coast of France through the summer of 1805. In 1811–13 he commanded the Invincible, of 74 guns, in active operations on the coast of Spain, and after the peace was for many years captain of the royal yacht, till in May 1825 he was promoted to the rank of rear-admiral. He became vice-admiral in 1837, and admiral in 1848. In January 1835 he was made K.C.B., and sat as M.P. for Clackmannan and Kinross from 1833 to 1841. Between August 1841 and May 1845 he was commander-in-chief in the West Indies; he was one of the lords of the admiralty from April 1835 to August 1841, and again in 1846–47, when he was appointed governor of Greenwich Hospital, where he died on 16 Sept. 1853. A subscription bust, said to be a good likeness, is in the Painted Hall.
[O'Byrne's Naval Biographical Dictionary; Gent. Mag. 1853, ii. 528.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.2
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 85 | i | 34 | Adam, Sir Charles: for January read August |
| 35 | after M.P. insert for Kinross in 1831-2 and | ||
| 39 | before from insert in Nov.-Dec. 1834 |