Military officer; born in
England, of French ancestry, in 1722; educated for the army at the Royal Military College at
Woolwich, and, as lieutenant, came to
America in 1756, and raising 300 recruits in
Pennsylvania and
Maryland, formed them into a corps of field-artillery.
He distinguished himself as an engineer in the siege of
Louisburg (q. v.)and was
aide-de-camp to
Wolfe when he fell at
Quebec, that general dying in
Des Barres's arms.
He was active in the retaking of
Newfoundland in 1762, and for ten years afterwards he was employed in a coast survey of
Nova Scotia.
He prepared charts of the
North American coasts in 1775 for Earl Howe, and in 1777 he published
The Atlantic Neptune, in two large folios.
He was made governor of Cape Breton, with the military command of Prince Edward's Island, in 1784, and in 1804, being then about eighty-two years of age, he was made lieutenant-governor of Prince Edward's Island.
He died in
Halifax, N. S., Oct. 24, 1824.