Earls of Middleton, Lords of Clermont and of Fettercairn

Descendants of Alexander Middleton. 391
France on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes ;
which James Gambier was the grandfather of Samuel
Gambier, Esq., one of the Commissioners of the Navy,
and of Admiral Lord Gambier.
In the long peace which succeeded, Captain
Middleton had the command of the Ardent guard-
ship at Chatham.
In 1778, on the breaking out of the French war,
he was removed from the Ardent into the Prince
George, and from thence into the Royal Oak, and was
about to be employed in active service in the Jupiter
(the first two-decked ship that had been coppered),
when Captain Suckling, the uncle of Lord Nelson,
dying, he was appointed to succeed him as Comp-
troller of the Navy. The duties of this important
situation he discharged for twelve years with credit
to himself and advantage to the nation. " As a
proof thereof, on the day when the preliminaries of
peace were signed in Paris, in January, 1783, there
were on the stocks, or in the progress of building,
no less than forty-two ships of the line — a number
unparalleled in any former period."
October 23rd, 1781, he was created a baronet, and
in 1784 was returned Member of Parliament for the
city of Rochester. In 1786 he was appointed first
Commissioner of the Board for inquiring into the
state of the woods, forests, and land revenues of the