the extremity of Lower Calabria, and more were behind them, while in the month of June 1810 Stuart had less than fourteen thousand men. Notwithstanding this trying state of affairs, Stuart was directed to send away four battalions of his force to Gibraltar, so soon as a smaller number of sickly soldiers returned from the expeditions to the Scheldt should arrive from England. Stuart remonstrated, and upon reiterated instructions from Lord Liverpool positively declined to send them unless it were understood that he could not hold himself responsible if his force were reduced.
Stuart's engineers in the meantime were not idle. A chain of heavy batteries connected the Faro Point with the fortress of Messina, and these were supported by fortified posts and barracks, while a flotilla of nearly one hundred boats lay clustered round the Faro, ready to attack the enemy's transport boats whenever they should cross the straits; and hardly a day passed without a skirmish more or less brisk between the opposing flotillas. On the night of 17 Sept. six battalions of Corsicans and Neapolitans crossed the straits and landed seven miles to the south of Messina, intending to gain the mountain ridge in the British rear. Stuart at once despatched troops to meet them, and secured the mountain paths. The enemy were repulsed, a whole battalion captured, and the rest driven to their boats with great loss. When the day broke the French divisions were seen embarking on the opposite shore, but, on finding that the diversion had failed, they disembarked.
In the following month Murat began quietly to withdraw his troops from Lower Calabria. Stuart, unaware of this movement, recapitulated in October in a despatch to Lord Liverpool his suspicions of the court of Palermo and the dangers of the situation to the British. He declared that under the existing circumstances he could not continue to be responsible, and resigned his command. His resignation was accepted, and he left Messina for England at the end of October. He received from the court of Palermo the order of knighthood of San Gennaro.
Stuart was appointed lieutenant-governor of Grenada in 1811. On 10 June 1813 he was appointed to the command of the western military district, with his headquarters at Plymouth. This command he resigned on 24 June 1814, owing to ill-health. On 3 Jan. 1815 he was made a military knight grand cross of the order of the Bath on its extension and revision. He died at Clifton on 2 April 1815, and was buried under the south choir aisle of Bristol Cathedral on 13 April. A small diamond-shaped marble slab let into the floor marks the spot. A portrait was painted by W. Wood, and engraved by Freeman in octavo and quarto sizes.
[War Office Records; Despatches; Annual Register, 1806–15; Gent. Mag. 1806–15; Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography; Bunbury's Narrative of Passages in the Great War with France from 1799 to 1810 (but Bunbury's estimate of Stuart is prejudiced by a strong antagonistic bias); Cannon's Historical Records of the 20th Foot, also of the 74th Foot; Evans's Cat. of Engraved Portraits, vol. ii.; Carmichael Smyth's Chronological Epitome of the Wars in the Low Countries; Jones's Sieges in Spain, &c.; Stedman's American War of Independence; Alison's Hist. of Europe; Cust's Annals of the Wars of the Eighteenth Century; Lord Teignmouth's Reminiscences, ii. 274; Grant's Adventures of an Aide-de-Camp contains a spirited account of the battle of Maida and the operations that followed.]
STUART, JOHN (1743–1821), Gaelic scholar, son of James Stuart, minister of Killin, and Elizabeth Drummond, was born at Killin in 1743. He was licensed by the presbytery of Edinburgh on 27 Feb. 1771, was presented to the living of Arrochar by Sir James Colquhoun in October 1773, and was ordained on 12 May 1774. He was translated to Weem on 26 March 1776, and to Luss on 1 July 1777. He received the degree of D.D. from Glasgow University in 1795.
Stuart was an expert Gaelic scholar. His father had already translated the New Testament into Gaelic, and at the time of his death had begun a translation of the Old Testament. This work was continued by his son, and the complete translation was published at Edinburgh in 1767, under the auspices of the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge; another edition was published in London in 1807. For his valuable services as translator he received from the lords of the treasury 1,000l. in 1820, and the thanks of the general assembly were conveyed to him from the chair on 28 May 1819. He was also a devoted student of natural history and botany. He died at Luss on 24 May 1821.
Dr. Stuart married, 24 July 1792, Susan, daughter of Rev. Dr. McIntyre, Glenorchy. She died on 7 July 1846, leaving a son, Joseph, minister of Kingarth, and a daughter.
Besides his Gaelic translation of the Scriptures, Dr. Stuart was the author of ‘The Account of the Parish of Luss’ in vol. xvii. of Sinclair's ‘Statistical Account of Scotland.’
