The circumstance of Sir Edward Berry having participated in the perils and glory of three of the engagements in which the immortal Nelson was concerned, affords a sufficient motive for introducing him to the notice of our readers.

This gallant officer was born in the year 1766. His education was liberal; but fortune had not blessed his birth with independence, and he was left to search for that competence which, when honourably acquired, confers consequence and obtains respect. His father was a respectable member of the mercantile community in London; but dying before he had realized an adequate provision for his family, a young widow, and seven children, were left with but very slender means of support. But, though suddenly bereaved of a parent, and deprived of the flattering prospects of wealth, the offspring of Mr. Berry were not destitute of friends. Titus, his younger son, was bred to the profession of a Surgeon, and is now in extensive practice. Of five daughters, one died young, two are married, and two, we believe, still remain single.

Edward, the subject of the present memoir, evinced an early predilection for the naval service; and, favoured by circumstances, he was, when very young, initiated in that profession, to which his talents and his courage have done so much credit. The Rev. Mr. Titus Berry, his uncle, had been the master of an academy at Norwich, where the late Lord Mulgrave received part of his education.

The name of Faulknor, which has descended from an ancient family in Hampshire, claims a pre-eminence in the naval history of the British Isles. From the close of the seventeenth century, and as it would appear even previous to that time, it has uniformly adorned the list of our Admiralty: and it is to be hoped, that whenever this honourable Board shall be pleased to abandon the blasphemous deities and monsters of Pagan history, and the names of brutes, for some titles more in character with the patriotism and heroic valour of the British Navy, they will select other names, besides that of our ever to be lamented Hero, Admiral Lord Nelson, wherewith to denominate the wooden bulwarks of our country.

(I.) Our first attention is directed to Captain Faulknor's great grandfather, William Faulknor, Esq., who, so early as the year 1695, appears as fourth Lieutenant of the Royal William. On the 17th of March, 1707, he was advanced to the rank of Captain, with the command of the Torbay. He was afterwards removed into a frigate; and, in 1715, was appointed to the Cumberland, of 80 guns, under the flag of Admiral Sir J. Norris, commander of the Baltic fleet. In 1720 he commanded the Sandwich, of 90 guns, on the same station, and under the same Admiral.

It is not the character of the British nation to withhold from its brave defenders the fair fame to which their heroic deeds have led: and if it has been left until now to enrol among our naval worthies the noble Admiral who is the subject of the present memoir, it is to be placed to an account highly honourable to our country, and to the service in which his talents have been employed. “His life,” to use his own modest language, so like to all his other sentiments, “had been a continual service at sea, but unmarked by any of those extraordinary events or brilliant scenes which hold men up to particular attention, and distinguish them from those officers who are zealous and anxious for the public service:”–one among the number of those meritorious officers who are both able and zealous for the public service, but whose good fortune it had not yet been to be brought forward into the more conspicuous sphere of public notice, or to have had the opportunity for which they pant to display their talents in their country's service, and swell the pages of our naval annals with triumphs and achievements of their own.

The union of scholastic acquisitions with personal courage, imparts an exalted interest to public character. This union, though it has never been ostentatiously displayed, is eminently conspicuous in the subject of the present memoir.

The Hon. Henry Edwyn Stanhope, at a very early age, commenced his education in a school at East Hill, Wandsworth, which was then regarded as a seminary of the first respectability. Having imbibed the rudimental branches of learning, he was thence removed to Winchester College; where, under the tuition, and indeed particular favour, of the learned and Rev. Dr. Wharton, he attained the head of that institution. He was next placed under the private superintendance of the Rev. Monsieur de Giffendier, preparatory to his being entered at the University of Oxford.

He had passed but a short time at that national seat of instruction, when, evincing an unusual activity of mind, he was, at the suggestion of the late Earl of Besborough, equipped for the sea service. He accordingly embarked at Sheerness, in May 1768, on board the Rose, of 20 guns, commanded at that time by Captain (now Admiral) Caldwell, and sailed for the American station.

Soon after his arrival at Boston, he was removed to the Romney, then bearing the broad pendant of Commodore (now Admiral Lord) Hood, as Commander in Chief.