Richard Stovin

Richard Stovin
Died	1825
Service/branch	British Army
Rank	Lieutenant-General
Unit	17th Regiment of Foot
Relations	General Frederick Stovin (brother); General Wrothe Acland (brother-in-law); John Palmer-Acland MP (brother-in-law)

Lieutenant-General Richard Stovin (died 1825) was a British Army officer during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He originally joined the army as an ensign in 1780, and saw service in the American War of Independence, where he may have been taken prisoner after the Battle of Yorktown. After the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars, he saw service with a force sent to invade French colonies in the Caribbean, and was taken prisoner in 1794 at Guadeloupe. Released after two years in captivity, he later commanded his regiment in the Netherlands, in the Helder Expedition of 1799, and on garrison duties in the Mediterranean and in India. In the War of 1812 he was appointed to command a division in the forces in Canada, where an island in the St. Lawrence river was named after him.

Stovin was born at Whitgift, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, the son of James Stovin. His elder brother, James, later became a clergyman, a fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge and a magistrate in Yorkshire, whilst his youngest half-brother, Frederick, would follow him into the army, rising to the rank of lieutenant-general.

Stovin joined the 17th Regiment of Foot as an ensign on 16 June 1780, and served at the end of the American War of Independence. The 17th Foot was present at the Siege of Yorktown in October 1781, where it surrendered to the Americans; some 244 officers and men were taken prisoner. However, it is not clear if Stovin was among them. He was promoted to lieutenant in May 1782, but after the Treaty of Paris in 1783 he was placed on half-pay. He returned to active service by purchasing a lieutenant's commission in the 19th Regiment of Foot in January 1784, and in October 1788 was promoted to captain in the 17th.

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