Rear-Admiral Sir Robert Barrie, KCB, KCH (5 May 1774 – 7 June 1841) was a Royal Navy officer who served in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. He was helped early in his naval career by the patronage of his uncle, Sir Alan Gardner, who arranged for him to take part in the Vancouver Expedition. When the Pacific Coast was explored, he had served as a midshipman with Captain Vancouver in 1791. He attained the rank of Rear-Admiral in the Royal Navy.
Career
Barrie served in European waters from 1801 to 1811. He was mentioned in dispatches for his gallant conduct in a fight with a French squadron when, as First Lieutenant of Bourdelais, "though dangerously wounded, he had disdained to quit the deck". Barrie then commanded a number of ships during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. In 1804 he had been promoted Captain commanded Brilliant at 24-guns and in 1806 he went to Pomone at 38-guns. On 5 June 1807, he attacked a convoy of seventeen ships, sank three men-of-war, and captured fourteen other warships and store ships. He captured a privateer commanded by De Boissi, the Adjutant-General of France. In 1809, he captured a French warship and five transports. In 1811 he captured a Corsican fort and three French men-of-war. In 1811, he captured several important French prisoners, including Napoleon's brother Lucien Bonaparte on a French ship. He was particularly active during the War of 1812, carrying out several successful attacks on American towns and shipping in the Penobscot River region, and helping to destroy the Chesapeake Bay Flotilla. From 1813 to 1815 he served in the Dragon in American waters, and here again he made many captures. In 1813 Barrie collected runaway slaves from the Maryland and Virginia shores. After a brief period spent living in France Barrie took up the post of Acting Commissioner of the Quebec Dockyard 1817–1818. In 1784 she remarried George Clayton, a textile manufacturer, while her son was schooled at Neston, Cheshire, and later at Dedham. Between 1784 and 1788, he was carried on the books of HMS Europa as a servant to the captain (his uncle, Alan Gardner) but most likely his first shipboard service was as a junior midshipman on HMS Goliath.
Vancouver expedition
Gardner arranged for Barrie to serve as a midshipman aboard from December 1790 until 1795, during George Vancouver's voyage of diplomacy and exploration along the Pacific coast of North America. Many of his letters home survive, describing his experiences of adventure, punctuated by periods of boredom after he exhausted the books on the ships. Barrie gained an acting promotion to Lieutenant on the expedition, and commanded a survey party on the northern coast of what is now British Columbia. He was formally promoted to Lieutenant upon the return to England in October 1795. Forces under Barrie went on to blockade the Chesapeake Bay Flotilla, which was scuttled in 1814.
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That November, Thomas Whittington, his neighbor John Grinstead, and several other Virginians boarded the Dragon under a flag of truce. The commander of the 37th Regiment of the Virginia militia sent along an artillery captain, Joseph Deshields, to accompany them.<sup>5</sup> However, when Whittington demanded the return of his slaves, Commodore Barrie replied that the slaves "would not be delivered up unless they were willing to go."<sup>6</sup>
3. Claim of Thomas Whittington, Case 818. Case Files, compiled ca. 1827 - ca. 1828, documenting the period ca. 1814 - ca. 1828. *ARC Identifier 1174160 / MLR Number PI 177 190*. National Archives, College Park.
David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler. Encyclopedia of the War of 1812 (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1997) 224.
4. Claim of Thomas Whittington, Case 818. Case Files, compiled ca. 1827 - ca. 1828, documenting the period ca. 1814 - ca. 1828. *ARC Identifier 1174160 / MLR Number PI 177 190*. National Archives, College Park.
http://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc5400/sc5496/050800/050819/html/050819bio.html
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Post-war
thumb|upright|Miniature of Barrie
Barrie went onto half pay after the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. He married Julia Wharton Ingilby on 24 October 1816 and went to live in France. He returned to service in January 1819, with the post of commissioner of the dockyard at Kingston, Upper Canada. The post made him senior naval officer in the Canadas, with control over the inland waterways and the port at Quebec. His instructions were to expedite the repair of the vessels at the bases in case of any emergency. He settled at Point Frederick, Kingston and among his achievements was the construction of a three-storey stone warehouse between 1819 and 1820. The building held the equipment of the ships reduced to the reserve under the Rush–Bagot Agreement of 1817.
From December 1820, the command of Flag Officer of the Great Lakes disappeared from the Navy List. In March 1824 Barrie was listed as "Acting Resident Commissioner, Kingston, Upper Canada" and his headquarters was shown to have been transferred to Kingston.