Edward Sterling
Edward Sterling (1773 – 1847) was a British journalist.
Life
He had been called to the Irish bar, but, having fought as a militia captain at the Battle of Vinegar Hill, afterwards volunteered with his company into the line. On the break-up of his regiment he went to Scotland and took to farming at Kames Castle. In 1804 he married Hester Coningham. One of her uncles had made a fortune through the sugar plantations of St Vincent, and his money, based on slave labour, supported the Sterlings.[1]
In 1810 the family removed to Llanblethian in the Vale of Glamorgan, and during his residence there Edward Sterling, under the signature of "Vetus," contributed a number of letters to The Times, which were reprinted in 1812, and a second series in 1814. In that year he moved to Paris, but on the escape of Napoleon from Elba in 1815 took up residence in London, obtaining a position on the staff of The Times; and during the late years of Thomas Barnes's administration he was practically editor. His fiery, emphatic and oracular mode of writing conferred those characteristics on The Times which were recognized in the nickname, the "Thunderer."
Family
His oldest son was Colonel Sir Anthony Coningham Sterling (1805-1871), who besides serving in the Crimea and as military secretary to Lord Clyde during the Indian Mutiny, was the author of The Highland Brigade in the Crimea and other books.
His younger son was John Sterling, author and man of letters.
References
- ↑ Life of Sterling. Thomas Carlyle. Chapter 11. "One of his Mother Mrs. Edward Sterling's Uncles, a Coningham from Derry, had, in the course of his industrious and adventurous life, realized large property in the West Indies,--a valuable Sugar-estate, with its equipments, in the Island of St. Vincent;--from which Mrs. Sterling and her family were now, and had been for some years before her Uncle's decease, deriving important benefits. I have heard, it was then worth some ten thousand pounds a year to the parties interested. Anthony Sterling, John, and another a cousin of theirs were ultimately to be heirs, in equal proportions. The old gentleman, always kind to his kindred, and a brave and solid man though somewhat abrupt in his ways, had lately died; leaving a settlement to this effect, not without some intricacies, and almost caprices, in the conditions attached."
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
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