Edward Sterling

Edward Sterling (1773 – 1847) was a British journalist.

For the American philatelist, see Edward Boker Sterling.

Life

He was the son of the Rev. Anthony Sterling, and was born at Waterford. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin.[1] Called to the Irish bar, he fought as a militia captain at the Battle of Vinegar Hill, and then 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.[2]

In 1810, Sterling and his family moved 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. These 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."[2]

Family

In 1804 Sterling married Hester Coningham. Her uncle Walter Coningham (died 1830) had made a fortune through the sugar plantations of St Vincent, and his money, based on slave labour, supported the Sterlings.[3][4] The couple had seven children, of whom five died young, The remaining sons were:[1]

References
  1. Nye, Eric W. "Sterling, John". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/-26408. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. Chisholm 1911.
  3. 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."
  4. "Summary of Individual Walter Coningham ???? - 1830, Legacies of British Slave-ownership". Retrieved 6 October 2018.
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