The Sterling genealogy

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THE STIRLINGS OF ARDOCH 123
5 Magdaline Stirling, born July 29, 1766; died unmarried
in November, 1846.
Sir William Stirling was succeeded in the baronetcy by his
VII SIR THOMAS STIRLING, FIFTH KNIGHT-BAR-
ONET OF ARDOCH. He entered the army in 1747 and rose to
the rank of general in 1781 ; was successively colonel of the
42d and 71st regiments, and saw much service in America dur-
ing the Revolutionary War and before. He was commissioned a
captain in the 42d Royal Highland Regiment, July 24, 1757.
(N. E. Hist. Gen. Register, Vol. XLIX.) The following
sketch of General Stirling's service in America is given in the
" Annals of Newtown," Queens County, N. Y., pp. 204-205 : " The
Royal Highland Regiment, Lt. Col. Thomas Sterling com-
manding, had seen long and arduous service in America during
the French and Indian War. Early in 1776, after recruiting in
Scotland, it took ship at Cork for America, being composed of
1168 men and wearing a red uniform, faced with blue, with belted
plaid and hose. They formed part of the reserve at the Battle
of Long Island, shared in the capture of Fort Washington and
also in that of Fort Montgomery, and during the last campaign,
in 1778, accompanied the expedition of Maj. Gen. Gray down the
Sound to annoy the settlements along the Connecticut shore.
" Part of the regiment helped to form a detachment which
attacked Elizabethtown in February, 1779, of which enterprise
Col. Sterling had the command.
" Being chosen soon after to go on a predatory expedition
to Virginia, the Highlanders prepared to break up their winter
encampment at Newtown. On the morning before this took place
the principal inhabitants presented to Col. Sterling an address
thanking him for their ' very equitable, polite and friendly con-
duct during their winter stay among them.' " Sir Thomas did
not pass through his long period as an army officer unscathed.
As a captain and lieutenant in the 48th Regiment he was wounded
at the battle on the Monongahela (Braddock's Defeat), July 9,
1755, and while holding the commission of brigadier general was
shot in the thigh by a continental picket in June, 1780, in a recon-