{{Short description|Royal Navy Admiral (1780–1853)}} {{Use British English|date=August 2025}} {{other people}} {{EngvarB|date=April 2015}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2026}} {{Infobox military person |honorific_prefix = Sir |name = Charles Adam |honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|KCB|FRSE}} |birth_date={{birth date|df=yes|1780|10|06}} |death_date={{death date and age|df=yes|1853|09|19|1780|10|06}} |birth_place= |death_place=Greenwich, London |image=Admiral Sir Charles Adam.jpg |caption= Admiral Sir Charles Adam |nickname= |allegiance= Great Britain <br /> United Kingdom |service_years= 1790–1847 |rank= Admiral of the Blue |branch= Royal Navy |commands= ''Sybille''<br>''Chiffonne''<br>''Resistance''<br>''Invincible''<br>{{HMS|Impregnable|1810|2}}<br>''Royal Sovereign''<br>North America and West Indies Station<br>Greenwich Hospital |unit= |battles= French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars |awards= Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath |other_work= }} Admiral '''Sir Charles Adam''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|KCB|FRSE}} (6 October 1780 – 19 September 1853) was a Royal Navy officer and politician who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He later commanded the royal yacht, ''Royal Sovereign'', and was the Member of Parliament for Clackmannanshire and Kinross-shire.
Adam served as Commander-in-Chief, North America and West Indies Station. He also held the office of First Naval Lord three times. In that capacity he dealt ably with the economies of a peacetime budget, provided naval support for the expulsion of Muhammad Ali's forces from Syria in 1840 and ensured technological progress continued. He was also the father of William Patrick Adam, a colonial administrator and Liberal politician. Later in life, he was Governor, Greenwich Hospital.
==Naval career== [[File:Capture of La Chiffonne, Augt 19th 1801 (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|The frigate ''Sybille'' which Adam commanded]] Born at Blairadam House just north of Kelty in Fife he was the second son of William Adam (of Blair Adam) and Eleanora Adam (the daughter of Charles Elphinstone, 10th Lord Elphinstone), Adam joined the Royal Navy in 1790.<ref name="odnb">{{cite ODNB | first=J. K. | last=Laughton | author-link = John Knox Laughton | chapter=Adam, Sir Charles (1780–1853) | editor=rev. Andrew Lambert | title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography | year=2004 | doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/100 | chapter-url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/100 | access-date=6 January 2013}}</ref> He served under his maternal uncle, Admiral Lord Keith, in the Mediterranean Fleet and during the capture of the Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch.<ref name=odnb/> He was made acting lieutenant by Keith in the third-rate {{HMS|Victorious|1785|6}} on the East Indies Station in 1795.<ref name="odnb" /> Promoted to the substantive rank of lieutenant on 8 February 1798, to commander on 16 May 1798 and to captain on 12 June 1799, Adam was given command of the frigate ''Sybille''.<ref name="loney">{{cite web | url=http://www.pdavis.nl/ShowBiog.php?id=1 | title=Biography of Charles Adam R.N. | access-date=6 January 2013}}</ref> While commanding ''Sybille'', he captured the French ''Chiffonne'' under difficult circumstances at Mahé in the Seychelles.<ref name="odnb" />
Adam returned from the East Indies in 1802, and on 23 May 1803, was given command of the captured ''Chiffonne'', which operated in the North Sea under Lord Keith until 1805. He commanded the fifth-rate ''Resistance'' from 27 August 1805 until 6 April 1810, and from 1811 until 1813, operated off the coast of Spain in command of the third-rate ''Invincible''. He briefly commanded the second-rate {{HMS|Impregnable|1810|2}} from 16 May 1814 to 29 June 1814, ending his active service.<ref name="loney" />
==Administrative career== [[File:HMS Illustrious heading out of Table Bay in choppy conditions and a stiff breeze, by Thomas Whitcombe (British, 1760-1824).jpg|thumb|left|{{HMS|Illustrious|1803|6}}, Adam's flagship as commander-in-chief of the North America and West Indies Station]] After the war, Adam twice commanded the royal yacht, ''Royal Sovereign'', from 15 December 1814 until 7 February 1816 as acting captain and from 20 July 1821 to 25 May 1825 as captain.<ref name="loney" /> This appointment reflected the political influence of his father. During this period, in 1822, he married Elizabeth Brydone, by whom he had several children, including William Patrick Adam.<ref name="odnb" /> In 1824 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf|title = Former Fellows of The Royal Society of Edinburgh|access-date = 3 December 2014|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150919152306/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf|archive-date = 19 September 2015|url-status = dead}}</ref>
Adam was promoted rear admiral on 27 May 1825.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue= 18141|date= 28 May 1825|page=933}}</ref> In the 1831 General election he was elected Member of Parliament for the alternating constituency of Kinross-shire<ref>{{London Gazette|issue= 18807|date= 27 May 1831|page=1030}}</ref> which had previously been held by several members of his family. After the Reform Act 1832 (2 & 3 Will. 4. c. 45) he was elected for the combined Clackmannanshire and Kinross-shire, which he held until 1841.<ref name="loney" /> He briefly served as First Naval Lord in the Wellington caretaker ministry from 1 November 1834 to 23 December 1834.<ref name=sainty>{{cite web|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=16652|title='Lord High Admiral and Commissioners of the Admiralty 1660–1870', Office-Holders in Modern Britain: Volume 4: Admiralty Officials 1660–1870 |first=J C |last =Sainty|year=1975|pages=18–31|access-date=6 January 2013}}</ref> He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on 10 January 1835<ref>{{London Gazette|issue= 19296|date= 11 August 1835|page=1524}}</ref> and was again appointed First Naval Lord, this time in the Second Melbourne ministry, on 25 April 1835.<ref name=sainty/> He also became Lord Lieutenant and Sheriff Principal of Kinross on 1 April 1839.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue= 19721|date= 2 April 1839|page=724}}</ref>
Adam was a friend of Lord Auckland and brother-in-law to Lord Minto, both of whom served as First Lord of the Admiralty during his time in office, fostering a close working relationship. He was also on good terms with Lord Palmerston, the Foreign Secretary.<ref name="odnb" />
During his tenure, the Admiralty Board dealt ably with the economies of a peacetime budget, which his Whig loyalties prevented him from questioning. The one major naval campaign of the era was the expulsion of Muhammad Ali's forces from Syria in 1840, an able demonstration of the continued strength of the Royal Navy. During this time, technological progress continued at the Admiralty, with the decision to adapt Francis Pettit Smith's screw propeller, and the new battleship designs of Sir William Symonds in 1841.<ref name="odnb" /> During his tenure on the Board, Adam was promoted to vice admiral on 10 January 1837.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue= 19456|date= 10 January 1837|page=70}}</ref>
After leaving the Board, Adam resumed a naval command. From 17 August 1841 until 27 December 1844, he was commander-in-chief of the North America and West Indies Station, aboard {{HMS|Illustrious|1803|6}} (flag-captain John Erskine).<ref name="loney" /> On 24 July 1846, soon after the reappointment of Lord Auckland as First Lord of the Admiralty, he became First Naval Lord (in the First Russell ministry) for the third and last time.<ref name=sainty/> He retired the next year, on 20 July 1847, to become Governor of Greenwich Hospital,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue= 20753|date= 13 July 1847|page=2559}}</ref> and was promoted admiral on 8 January 1848.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=20815|date= 14 January 1848|page=122}}</ref>
thumb|The Officers Monument, Greenwich Hospital Cemetery
Adam's brother Francis was the partial owner of the "Nismes" slave plantation in British Guiana. After Francis died on 8 June 1820, a part of the mortgage on the plantation was subsequently transferred into Adam's possession on 25 April 1835. Adam, like Francis, was a judgment creditor and was selected as one of the executors of Francis' will and testament; as a result of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833, slavery was abolished in British Guiana, and Adam claimed £6,405 of compensation from the British government on 25 July 1836 under the terms of the Slave Compensation Act 1837.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/8659|title=Summary of Individual - Legacies of British Slave-ownership|work=ucl.ac.uk|access-date=16 July 2015}}</ref>
Adam died at Greenwich on 16 September 1853.<ref name="loney" /> He was buried in Greenwich Hospital Cemetery. The cemetery was largely cleared in the late 19th century to create a pocket park but his name is listed on the west face of the Officers Monument in the centre of the park.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://blogs.rmg.co.uk/memorials/m2378/|title=Memorial M2378|publisher=Maritime memorials|access-date=21 July 2015|archive-date=22 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150722045457/http://blogs.rmg.co.uk/memorials/m2378/|url-status=dead}}</ref> Adam Bay, Northern Territory, at the mouth of the Adelaide River, was named for him.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article112242207 |title=Answers to Correspondents |newspaper=The Voice of the North |issue=225 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=10 May 1929 |access-date=9 May 2023 |page=14 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * {{Hansard-contribs | sir-charles-adam | Charles Adam }} * [http://www.pdavis.nl/ShowBiog.php?id=1 William Loney RN] Career History * {{cite wikisource |first=William Richard |last=O'Byrne |chapter=Adam, Charles |title=A Naval Biographical Dictionary |year=1849 |publisher=John Murray}}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|uk}} |- {{s-vac | reason = alternating constituency | last = George Edward Graham }} {{s-title | title = Member of Parliament for Kinross-shire | years = 1831–1832 }} {{s-non | reason = constituency abolished }}
{{s-new | constituency }} {{s-ttl | title = Member of Parliament for Clackmannanshire and Kinross-shire | years = 1832–1841 }} {{s-aft | after=George Abercromby }} {{s-mil}} {{succession box | title=First Naval Lord| before=George Dundas | after=Sir George Cockburn | years=1834}} {{succession box | title=First Naval Lord | before=Sir George Cockburn | after=Sir George Cockburn | years=1835–1841}} |- {{succession box|title=Commander-in-Chief, North America and West Indies Station|before=Sir Thomas Harvey|after=Sir Francis Austen|years=1841–1844}} |- {{succession box | title=First Naval Lord | before=Sir William Parker, Bt | after=Sir James Dundas | years=1846–1847}} |- {{s-bef|before=Sir Robert Stopford}} {{s-ttl|title=Governor, Greenwich Hospital|years=1847–1853}} {{s-aft|after=Sir James Gordon}} {{s-hon}} {{succession box | before=William Adam | title=Lord Lieutenant of Kinross-shire | years=1839–1853 | after=Sir Graham Graham-Montgomery}} {{s-end}} {{First Sea Lord}} {{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adam, Charles}} Category:1780 births Category:1853 deaths Category:Military personnel from Fife Category:First Sea Lords and Chiefs of the Naval Staff Category:Lords of the Admiralty Category:Royal Navy admirals Category:Royal Navy personnel of the French Revolutionary Wars Category:Royal Navy personnel of the Napoleonic Wars Category:UK MPs 1831–1832 Category:UK MPs 1832–1835 Category:UK MPs 1835–1837 Category:UK MPs 1837–1841 Category:Lord-lieutenants of Kinross-shire Category:Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Category:Scottish sheriffs Category:Recipients of payments from the Slavery Abolition Act 1833