John Hamilton, grand uncle of the present Earl of Haddington. At the commencement of the war with France in 1793, we find him serving as Lieutenant of the Syren, in which frigate the Duke of York proceeded to Holland for the purpose of taking the command of the British troops sent thither to co-operate with the Dutch against the republican armies; and H.R.H. was so much pleased with the zeal and activity displayed by Mr. Halkettin assisting the garrison of William stadt, at that time besieged by the French, that he soon after obtained for him the rank of Commander; and on his return from the continent, that of Post-Captain. The Prince of Orange also, as a mark of the high sense he entertained of the eminent services performed by him in the gun-boats, ordered him to be presented with a medal, with a suitable inscription, value 500 guilders[1].
Captain Halkett’s post commission bears date Aug. 13, 1794; he was soon after appointed to the Circe, of 28 guns, stationed in the North Sea; where nothing material occurred until the spring of 1797, when an alarming mutiny broke out amongst the crews of the ships under the orders of Admiral Duncan, and at the Nore[2]. Happily the Circe escaped the contagion, and Captain Halkett received the thanks of the Admiralty, and the freedom of the town of Hull, for the conduct of his ship during that alarming period.
- ↑ On the night of March 15, 1793, a party from the Syren, then lying in the Maese, embarked on board three gun-boats, under the orders of Lieutenant John Western; who taking advantage of the calm and fog that prevailed, pulled across to the French batteries, five in number, which had been erected to bombard Williamstadt. So animated and destructive a fire was kept up by the British, that their force became trebled in the eyes of the French; and the latter abandoned their works and fled. The governor of Williamstadt having had no intimation of the intended diversion in his behalf, was surprised at the firing; and received Lieutenant Western, on his landing the next morning, with heartfelt thanks. The latter, in the course of the day, was gratified at seeing the Dutch soldiers enter the town, with the cannon which he and his brave followers had compelled the French to abandon. Lieutenant Western was killed in a subsequent attack on the enemy’s entrenched camp at the Noord post on the Moordyke. His remains were attended to the church at Dordrecht by the Duke of York, who ordered a monument, with an appropriate inscription, to be erected to his memory.
- ↑ See p. 160, et seq.
