Henry Edward Napier

Henry Edward Napier (5 March 1789 – 13 October 1853) was a British naval officer and historian.

Family background He was the fifth son of Colonel the Honourable George Napier, and his second wife, Lady Sarah Lennox, seventh daughter of the 2nd Duke of Richmond, and one of the famed Lennox sisters. His brothers included General Sir Charles James Napier, Commander-in-Chief, India and conqueror of Sindh; Lieutenant-General Sir George Thomas Napier, Governor and Commander of the Cape of Good Hope; and General Sir William Francis Patrick Napier, Lieutenant Governor of Guernsey, and author of the History of the Peninsular War.

Naval career Napier entered the Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth Dockyard on 5 May 1803, and on 20 September 1806 joined the 74-gun , as a first-class volunteer. In her under the Captains the Honourable Robert Stopford and John Quilliam, he visited the Cape of Good Hope, and as a midshipman took part in the Bombardment of Copenhagen, also assisting in the destruction of Fleckeroe Castle, on the coast of Norway. From December 1808 until September 1811 he served in the East Indies aboard the frigate under Captain Thomas Briggs; the 74-gun , flagship of Vice-Admiral William O'Bryen Drury, and the frigate , Captain Hugh Cook. He was appointed acting-lieutenant of the Diomede on 31 October 1809, receiving his commission on 4 May 1810.

Personal life On 17 November 1823 Napier married his first cousin, Caroline Bennet (died 5 September 1836), in Florence). She was the illegitimate daughter of his uncle Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond. They had five children:

Augusta Sarah (born 1826) married Frederick Williams-Freeman, grandson of Adm. William Peere Williams-Freeman. Charles George (20 July 1829 – 2 September 1882) married Susanna Juliana Ricarda Carolin, daughter of Samuel Carolin, on 13 December 1860. They had one son, and two daughters. Adelaide Harriet Sophia (1831–1832) Arthur Lennox (1833–1839) Vice-Adm. Richard Henry (11 March 1836 – 1 March 1903) married twice. Firstly, Mary Dyer in 1861. Secondly, Mary Teresa Priest in 1883. No known issue.

Napier died at 62 Cadogan Place, London, on 13 October 1853.