The friends of this distinguished officer and excellent man, have, in justice to his professional merit, determined, that a memoir of his public services should thus be given to his country: Lest it should be said of him, as Johnson once asserted of a most distinguished character, “His contemporaries, however they reverenced his genius, left his life unwritten; and nothing, therefore, can be known, beyond what casual mention and uncertain tradition have supplied.”

Mr. John Stewart, the second son of William Stewart, Esq. of Castle Stewart, in the shire of Galloway in Scotland, was born on the 21st of December, 1774. His mother was the sixth daughter of Lord Fortrose; to whose eldest son the title of Earl of Seaforth was restored, which had been forfeited in the year 1715.

Mr. Stewart was educated in Scotland until the year 1788: when, shewing an inclination for the sea service, he was sent to the Naval Academy, at New Cross, Deptford, where his attention to the scientific objects of his profession was conspicuous. During the ensuing year (1789), he embarked as a midshipman on board the Rose frigate, Captain Waller, on the 9th of May, 1789; but availed himself of an opportunity of returning to his academy, which had been removed to Eltham, while the Rose was in port.