Captain Crofton was made post, Feb. 1, 1812. His subsequent appointments were, Aug. 3, 1813, to the Dictator troop-ship; Feb. 4, 1815, to the Narcissus frigate; and July 24, 1826, to the Dryad 42, now on the Mediterranean station.
This officer’s eldest surviving brother is in holy orders, and the heir presumptive to his nephew, Edward Lord Crofton. Another brother, a captain in the Coldstream regiment of foot-guards, was killed before Bayonne, April 14, 1814.
JAMES PATTISON STEWART, Esq.
A Companion of the Most Honorable Military Order of the Bath.
[Post-Captain of 1812.]
This officer was made a lieutenant, Mar. 21, 1805; and appointed acting commander of the Port d’Espagne brig, on the Trinidad station, April 15, 1806. On the 6th June, 1807, a detachment of 25 men belonging to that vessel, in a prize schooner, disguised as a neutral, and commanded by his second lieutenant, boarded and carried the Mercedes Spanish privateer, mounting 2 carriage guns and 2 swivels, with a crew of 30 men; in this little affair, the enemy had 3 men killed, I drowned, and 3 wounded; the British none killed, and only 2 wounded.
On the 18th Aug. following, the Port d’Espagne captured la Maria, another vessel of the same description, mounting 1 long 18-pounder, and having on board 74 men. Two days afterwards, one of her prizes, manned as a tender, in conjunction with the boats of H.M. schooner Balahou, destroyed a small privateer in the Bay of St. Juan; and on the 12th Sept. in the same year, her boats, under Lieutenants Cotgrave and Hall, captured El Rosario, of 1 gun and 34 men.
Captain Stewart was afterwards successively appointed to the Dart ship-sloop, and the Snap and Epervier brigs, stationed at the Leeward islands: his commission as a commander, bears date Feb. 15, 1808. We next find him commanding the Sheldrake of 10 guns, and proceeding, in company with the Tartar frigate, to the relief of Anholt, an island
