Gerrit Schipper 1775 - 1832 Portrait of General Sir James Henry Craig 1748 - 1812

Gerrit Schipper 1775 - 1832

Portrait of General Sir James Henry Craig 1748 - 1812

Pastel

27 x 22 cm. (10.3/4 x 8.3/4 in.)

PROVENANCE : Lyons Estate

Sir James Henry Craig, (1748–1812), army officer and governor-in-chief of British North America, was born in Gibraltar of an eminent Scottish family, the son of Hew Craig, a judge at the British fortress of Gibraltar. He entered the army as an ensign in the 30th foot in 1763. After advanced military training, Craig returned to Gibraltar where, having the previous year been promoted as lieutenant of the 47th foot, he was appointed in 1770 as aide-de-camp to Colonel Robert Boyd, the lieutenant-governor. It was in the former capacity that he crossed the Atlantic in 1774 and participated gallantly in several of the early engagements of the American War of Independence. Craig suffered a severe wound at the battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775. In the following year, after transfer to Canada, he was instrumental in turning back the American invading force at Trois-Rivières, while in 1777 he was again twice wounded, once seriously, and made important contributions to engagements at Fort Ticonderoga, Hubbardton, and Freeman's Farm at Saratoga. Craig's exploits were recognized by Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne who raised him to the rank of major in the 82nd foot. From 1778 to 1781 Craig showed himself equally adept in dealing with assignments other than set pieces by his skilful reconnoitres both in Maine and North Carolina. His reward was to be promoted to lieutenant-colonel of the 16th regiment in 1781. At the conclusion of the American war he served for a time in Ireland where in 1790 he was promoted to the rank of colonel. The outbreak of the revolutionary war with France once again set Craig upon his travels. In 1794 he first became adjutant-general, then major-general, in the duke of York's army in the Netherlands before participating during the following year in the capture of Cape Colony from the Dutch. His first gubernatorial experience was gained there while serving in Cape Town between 1795 and 1797. It is not implausible that the prevalent British condescension towards the perceived backwardness of Boer society might have led Craig to see similarities between it and the Canadian population which he was to encounter ten years later along the banks of the St Lawrence. It was at the conclusion of this term of office that he was, while briefly in England, invested with the Order of the Bath. He was now charged with another imperial duty as commander of a division of troops in Bengal where he showed firmness in dealing with disaffection in the ranks. Appointed lieutenant-general in January 1801, he returned to England a year later and took command of troops in the eastern district until March 1805. His final military assignment took him to Italy as a general where, due to Napoleon's success at the battles of Ulm and Austerlitz, he was frustrated in bringing pressure to bear upon the French flank by means of his 7000-strong army in northern Italy. Instead, early in the next year he relocated his troops to Sicily and proceeded to England where, on 29 August 1807, he was appointed captain-general and governor-in-chief of British North America, with special responsibility for administering Lower Canada. Perhaps it was the gathering war clouds in North America, where problems of trade and frontiers plagued relations with the American republic, that accounted for Craig's appointment in such an important region. There was, however, a question mark concerning his health despite the fact that he had ostensibly recovered from very serious illness. Nor had his peripatetic and energetic mode of life led to tolerance of social and cultural difference; instead it merely confirmed him in the view that Britain was the model society which provided the blueprint for universal imp